Pentland HA upgrades tenant fire safety with Aico

Pentland Housing Association has just completed a project to install Aico RadioLINK wireless interconnect smoke alarm systems into 300 of its properties.

Pentland Housing Association, based in Thurso, has just completed a project to install Aico RadioLINK wireless interconnect smoke alarm systems into 300 of its properties.

"All 300 properties already had Aico Ei150 mains powered alarms installed in them," says Pentland's Technical Manager Alan Paul.

"They were now reaching the end of their active lives and we decided that we would take the opportunity when replacing them to actively improve our fire safety coverage further".

During the original installation, each property had been fitted with one smoke alarm, upstairs.

Now the Association decided to fit two alarms in each property, one upstairs and one downstairs.

They understood the need to interconnect the alarms to offer tenants the earliest possible warning and turned once again to Aico for a solution.

"We had enjoyed an excellent relationship with Aico during the previous ten years," explains Mr Paul, "and they had informed us about their new RadioLINK technology for interconnecting smoke alarms wirelessly instead of by hard wired methods.

We realised that this could save us a lot of time, minimise disruption for our tenants - and make the installation easier for the contractor to manage.

"Pentland's decision to use the best technology and to double our coverage came from our commitment to tenant safety.

We believe that our tenants should only live in a safe, fully protected environment".

As a further demonstration of this commitment, Pentland specified Ei160 mains powered smoke alarms with ten year Lithium cell technology as part of the RadioLINK system, ensuring the best possible back up in the event of any mains failure.

The job of installing the RadioLINK systems was put out to competitive tender and won by local contractors G A Barnie Electrical of Wick, who would combine installation with a thorough electrical inspection of the property.

Before installation commenced, Aico provided a training session for the contractors and also a seminar and demonstration for Pentland staff.

"The installation began in April 2006," Mr Paul reports.

"We experienced no major problems during installation, and we are now assured that our tenants are properly protected for the next ten years with the Aico RadioLINK system.

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