It’s the beginning of the end for battery powered smoke alarms in rented accommodation in Scotland. New legislation demands that any smoke alarm installed by a landlord – and this includes replacement alarms – must be mains powered.

And the Scottish initiative could be adopted by British Standards and legislation in the near future.

Neil Perdell, Technical Services Manager, Aico Ltd, the UK distributor of the Ei mains powered residential smoke and heat alarms, says the move is backed up by the Fire Statistics United Kingdom which shows a glaring, ongoing problem with the protection offered by battery powered smoke alarms compared with mains powered units.

He said: “This is not necessarily because of the build or design quality of battery powered units; many are very good, although some are distinctly lacking too. The problem has been in the maintenance of these units, and the removal of batteries by tenants, even so called 10 year batteries, rendering their smoke alarm useless.

“It may be that the battery has been removed to silence a persistent false alarm. Equally, it may be that the battery has been removed for use in some other household device. Either way, the battery alarm is completely disabled. Unless he is able to constantly check the device, the landlord cannot know.

“We can see the nervousness about battery alarms reflected in the Notes on the Statutory Guidance, where landlords are advised to get tenants to change their batteries once a year and to change batteries themselves before a tenant moves in if they have a lease lasting less than a year. The Notes go on to say that ‘It is also recommended that landlords should advise tenants not to tamper with alarms and leases should contain a clause about not tampering with batteries’.

“In Fire Statistics, United Kingdom, 2005, issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the scale of the problem is laid bare. To quote Section 2.34, ‘In those dwelling fires where a smoke alarm was present, 24 percent of alarms in 2005 failed to operate.

However, this overall figure masks a wide difference in performance between battery-powered alarms and mains-powered alarms – 38 percent of all battery-powered smoke alarms failed in 2005 compared to just 13 percent of mains-powered alarms.’

The report goes on to point out that the main reason for smoke alarm failure in these cases was missing or flat batteries. Batteries were the cause of failure, in fact, in 44 percent of all cases, this was because the battery was actually missing (by comparison, the main reason mains powered alarms didn’t sound was that fire products didn’t reach them).

“It must be clear from these statistics – which seem to repeat with every year – that something needs to be done. Manufacturers have tried design changes, but nothing seems to have stopped tenants from removing batteries. Is there a way to stop tenants from removing or disabling batteries? Can tenants be relied upon to replace them when they go flat? Can a landlord develop a way of adequately checking all properties to ensure that tenants haven’t disabled their alarms, 24/7, 365 days a year? The answer to all three questions seems to be a resounding no.

“The Scottish move away from battery-powered units towards mains powered protection seems to be the only way to tackle the problem. Tenants are far less likely to attempt to fiddle with mains-powered units and – if they do – there are usually no useful batteries inside, especially when Lithium Cell technology is used. The statistics bear this out.”

Perdell added that landlords contemplating a new installation should seriously consider installing mains-powered protection instead if they were planning to use battery units. Not only would this be planning for the future but it also ensures greatly increased safety for the tenant and better protection for the property itself, since the earlier an alarm is heard, the less damage tends to occur.

Perdell concluded: Even if alarms are due for replacement, it makes very good sense to use the opportunity now to once and for all upgrade to a mains-powered system.

Mains powered systems have seen many changes over the past few years: units have been designed which are far quicker and easier to fit; new alarm types can be interconnected by radio signal instead of hard wiring, greatly speeding up installation time, cutting installation costs and reducing disruption to the property and to tenants; other new features, such as Remote Control, now enable tenants to hush or test an alarm from a wall box, preventing them from having to physically reach or interfere with an alarm; mains powered smoke alarms can now be integrated into one system with Carbon Monoxide alarms, preventing the need for two systems.

There are also a host of extra safety features available to ensure any special needs are met – a vital consideration given the onerous task of Risk Assessment”