Electrical contractors use AICO Radiolink

Electrical contractor Galbraith Electrical Services of Glasgow has used Aico's innovative RadioLINK wireless interconnect mains powered smoke alarm systems to meet exacting standards.

Electrical contractor Galbraith Electrical Services of Glasgow has recently used Aico's innovative RadioLINK wireless interconnect mains powered smoke alarm systems to solve interconnection problems in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) to ensure they meet the city's exacting standards.

Following a fire tragedy in Glasgow, the Council has acted swiftly to put in place some of the most stringent fire safety regulations concerning HMOs to be found anywhere in the UK.

Landlords are now required to apply for expensive and extensive certification, which involves a full electrical safety installation check before a licence can be granted.

Galbraith Electrical Services specialises in providing services for Landlords of HMOs, including safety inspections and tests on fire detection systems, where their expertise sets them in particularly good stead.

Recently, the company was called upon to check an HMO in Sandyford Place.

Used as student accommodation, the property consisted of a basement flat and a ground floor flat with several students living in each.

They discovered that the previous contractor had incorrectly wired the smoke alarm interconnects using the bare earth wire as the interconnect.

This was not acceptable to authorities - but removing it would have meant stripping out the ceilings of the properties and hugely costly remedial work.

Robert Galbraith, Managing Director of Galbraith Electrical Services, says, "Replacing the hard wired interconnection above the ceilings was really out of the question - but the alarms had to be interconnected.

Luckily, I'd read about Aico's new wireless interconnect technology in wholesalers and I thought that this might prove the ideal solution, particular as wireless interconnection is now getting more acceptance as people become more familiar with the technology.

"The landlady, Mrs Gibson, was happy to go along with this suggestion as she was keen to comply in every respect with the necessary standards.

We then consulted two fire officers who thought that RadioLINK sounded fine in principle, but were personally unfamiliar with the technology; they wanted to see it in operation.

We fixed up a RadioLINK system in one of the two flats so they could see it in operation and I believe they were very impressed.

In fact, I've since had a number of referrals from the fire brigade for landlords they thought might benefit from Aico's RadioLINK technology".

The two separate RadioLINK systems were installed by Galbraith Electrical Services into the Sandyford Place property to meet LD2 Grade D standards.

The basement flat had Ei160 Series RadioLINK optical alarms installed in each of the bedrooms plus a couple of cupboards and a further heat alarm was added in the kitchen.

The entire system was interconnected with RadioLINK and the existing wiring used to power the Aico Ei alarms, with the bare earth wire returned to its proper function.

A wireless RadioLINK remote control switch was also added for convenience of testing.

In the ground floor flat, Ei160 Series RadioLINK optical smoke alarms were installed in all four bedrooms, with a further two in an extra-long passageway and a heat alarm in the kitchen.

All were interconnected wirelessly using RadioLINK.

"RadioLINK has proved to be the ideal solution in applications where rewiring is difficult and expensive," says Robert Galbraith.

"I've always thought that Aico had good products, but with RadioLINK they're really out in front.

Apart from its convenience, I like the fact that you can add other alarms or extra features to it, such as call points, should the need arise or regulations change.

I also find the 10 year plus Lithium cell back-up on the 160 series a useful selling point for customers.

There's no need to change batteries, so it's virtually maintenance free apart from an annual inspection.

Mr Galbraith believes that other areas of Scotland will soon be following Glasgow's example in imposing far more stringent requirements on landlords for even better fire safety.

"It's already happening," he comments.

"I'm getting calls from landlords in Stirling with properties in Glasgow who want to ensure they meet the city's standards and those lessons will spread.

We now have extensive experience in providing RadioLINK based coverage for HMO Landlords and expect to be called upon to use our expertise in many future installations.

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