BS 5588-1:1990
NOTE If your bungalow is very large and the corridor or hallway is more than, say, 22 paces (15 metres) long, one smoke alarm may not be enough and you should consult your local fire brigade.
If your home is on more than one level the best place for a single smoke alarm is in the hallway above the bottom of the staircase. This is because smoke is likely to be detectable in the hallway before it reaches the upstairs landing and bedrooms. But if you can’t hear the alarm properly in the bedrooms (try the test described earlier) you’ll need to link another smoke alarm on the landing. It is a good idea to do this anyway because smoke from a fire in a bedroom upstairs is unlikely to be detected by a smoke alarm downstairs. If you’re putting in several smoke alarms and you’ve put one (or two) between the sleeping area(s) and living accommodation as described above, you should put the other smoke alarms in the individual rooms where fire is most likely to occur. The living room is the most likely place for a fire to start at night, then the kitchen (although it’s not recommended to put smoke alarms in kitchens — put one outside the cooking area instead) and lastly the dining room. You should also consider putting smoke alarms in any bedrooms where fires might be likely to start, for instance, where there is an electrical appliance such as an electric blanket or an electric heater, or where the occupant is a smoker. You could also consider putting smoke alarms in any rooms where the occupant may not be able to respond very well to a fire starting in the room, such as an elderly or sick person or a very young child.
© BSI 8 December 2004
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