Aico 160e Series mains powered smoke alarms are fitted in 6,532 Greenfields Community Housing homes across East Anglia. A long standing Aico customer, Essex-based Greenfields has Aico Ei166e Optical Alarms installed in escape route circulation spaces, in hallways and upstairs on the landing, hard-wired together. Some 500 new build properties that have been taken on in the last four years also have Aico Ei164e Heat Alarms fitted in the kitchen, hard-wired interlinked with the smoke alarms in the property.
Recently, a fire broke out outside one of its properties whilst the residents were asleep in bed. The fire had spread to the house and was burning through the PVC window frames into the living room. The smoke alarm in the hallway detected and identified the smoke, going into alarm mode. As the hallway and landing alarms are inter-connected, the upstairs alarm also activated. The residents were swiftly awoken and the fire was put out, preventing any further damage to the property and, preventing any harm to the residents.
Resident Julie Bradd firmly believes the smoke alarms saved their lives that night. She said: “I never took much notice of the smoke alarms; I know they say to check them regularly but how many of us really do that? Since the fire, I check ours weekly. They are so important – I can’t stress how much damage could have been caused but, most importantly, what could have happened to my family. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I think my friends and family are fed up with me because I’m regularly asking if they still check their alarms. Set up a re-occurring note on your phone or put a reminder in a diary please – don’t take them for granted. Thank you, Greenfields, for keeping our home safe.”
Mrs Bradd added: “Greenfields were really good. They had the electrics checked and windows boarded up within two hours by their out-of-hours service and made everything easier for us. We could have been dead without the smoke alarms.”
Since the spring of 2019, the housing association has been upgrading the alarm coverage to the more demanding LD2 category. This forms part of Greenfields’ £73m spend on properties over the next six years.
The Ei160e Series mains powered alarms come with ten year rechargeable tamper-proof Lithium cell back-up and deliver protection for BS 5839-6 (the British Standard for domestic smoke alarm installation) Grade D1 applications. The Ei166e Optical Alarm features a compact optical smoke sensor which is designed to offer response to slow, smouldering fires (such as of sofas, TVs). The sensor also features a sealed mesh screen to provide resistance to insect and dust contamination.
Although hardwired interlinked at Greenfields Community Housing properties, the Ei160e Series is available with the Ei100MRF module to interlink alarms using Aico’s RadioLINK+ wireless technology which interconnects alarms using Radio Frequency (RF) signals. The module is plugged directly into the alarm head.
Greenfields regularly attends Aico Expert Installer training, a free modular CPD accredited scheme.
