Vents above doors to domestic electric cupboards

[witsd]

Hey folks, I need a sense check here as I've found myself completely at odds with a couple of colleagues.

To start:

* We have many tenants who are high risk in terms of mobility.
* We have houses which have an internal storage cupboard housing the electrical consumer unit, usually accessed from the hallway (read: escape route).
* Some of these cupboards have air vents fitted into the walls above the door.

Now, I've been pushing for having these vents blocked on a case-by-case basis, for the more vulnerable tenants, but some colleagues are pushing back, on two seperate grounds:

1. The ventilation may be required to prevent the consumer unit overheating.
2. It's better that smoke escapes into the hallway more quickly, so as to trigger the interlinked smoke detector sited in the hallway earlier.

Given that electrical consumer units shouldn't be generating heat unless they are faulty and most homes don't have vents anyway, I don't think #1 is logical, and #2 seems like complete madness - surely with a closed door and no vent, you might prevent the fire from ever growing enough to reach the escape route at all!?

[Alexis]

I will be very interested in replies for this one Witsd.

I have actually had a very similar incident within my home a couple of years ago. Electrics caught fire, housed beside gas boiler.

1 Location in hallway within a cupboard within another cupboard.
2 First door from hallway - no ventilation.
3 Second door within first door walk-in cupboard leading to electric/gas cupboard - ventilation on top of door.
4 No ventilation within the actual cupboard housing the electrics/gas.
5 Heat/fire alarm within cupboard housing electrics/gas.

The main electric lead from outside to inside house caught fire unbeknown to me who was at home.
The lights within my living-room were flickering and cooker tripped, which alerted me to something being wrong.
Went to the cupboard door and as I did so, the alarm began to scream. Definitely super warning for me.

Of course I should have run out the back door and contacted the fire people, but when it is your own home, instinct says, protect it and all its lifelong contents.

Luckily, an Architect friend knocked my door as I was contemplating whether to phone the fire station (2 mins from my home), open the first door into the cupboard, or run out the back door. He removed me via the back door.

We phoned the gas and electric people who were out within 5 minutes. They entered the double cupboards where they found the electricity boards and main lead on fire. They contained the flames and dealt with the incoming electricity wire out-with the premises very quickly and safely.

In my case, with the vent being on the inner service cupboard door.....

(1) There was no escape of smoke from the vent.
(2) The smoke detector within the cupboard alerted me to the fire providing ample time to vacate the premises.

So.... The vent on the door is irrelevant as far as I can deduce. A smoke detector within the service cupboard, provided it is maintained, would be suffice.

I know nothing about fire, so this is only an experience of something similar to contemplate over.

I shall watch this post with interest.

[witsd]

Yeah, we've had three fires started in or around consumer units in cupboards over the last year, so while not a common cause, they certainly do happen.

So far the only one that escaped from the cupboard had a large bottle of turps stored directly under the electrics, so hardly surprising.

I guess I really need both an electrician's perspective and that of a fireman

[Messy]

I think the first thing is to establish what role the vent is playing

The gas and electricity regs change so often, I really don't know without researching more. Could there be another reason for the vent? Prevention of mould etc????

I will be interested if anyone knows why the vents are there

But I would not expect a vent in a cupboard housing solely the consumer unit because as you say, they run cool.

As for allowing smoke out to reach the detector- nope, it's not a strategy I have heard of or understand. Quite the opposite as making up the cupboard to be fire resisting and completely contained isn't unusual

Where an occupier has mobility issues, a contained cupboard is not a bad idea


And tut tut Alexis!! You called the utilities rather than 999? Thank goodness you were OK. Frightening though - and worrying if it happened at night

One thing to bear in mind is domestic smoke detectors are far more sensitive than their commercial cousins. They will discover smoke much more rapidly . I am still shocked that people either don't have them or don't look after them

[clio222]

Perhaps cover up the vent and if there is a requirement for ventilation into the cupboard install an intumescent air transfer grill, this would allow ventilation whilst maintaining fire/smoke in the cupboard ??. Just a thought

[witsd]

I will be interested if anyone knows why the vents are there

The only conclusion I can come to is that there was a period of housebuilding when they were commonly added. We also sometimes find sets of houses that have them between hallways and living rooms or even hallways and bedrooms. Seems a bit redundant to me, what with there being an entire openable door directly beneath, and would massively undermine the old 'if you are trapped in a burning house, go into a room and seal the door' advice.

Perhaps cover up the vent and if there is a requirement for ventilation into the cupboard install an intumescent air transfer grill, this would allow ventilation whilst maintaining fire/smoke in the cupboard ??. Just a thought

Just not cost effective, sadly. Installing a grill would run to hundreds of pounds per installation, while just blocking one up is maybe £50 including materials and labour.