NoraBatty wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 5:02 pm
Up here in Scotland the fire brigade offer free home fire safety visits and will draw you up a fire escape plan and discuss safety concerns you may encounter and want to put right.
This is mist beneficial for disabled people who may struggle to evacuate, the service will then know where to look first for you and the layout of the house.
To my knowledge it is just guidance and a plan, though they will most likely remind you strongly of the fire alarm laws if not compliant yet.
As such i imagien battery storage wouod feature on their plans and would be happy to share that info/ get a visit with the local station so they can attend a fire fully informed with info held in their databases. Does the DNO not hold such information for these exact reasons though?
Currently all i have is a yellow warning sticker on the outside of the battery shed in the back garden, stating Lifepo4 batteries on site but am fully on board with all installs having to be at least declared to the fire station.
Same down here in Cornwall NoraB, and its definately something i will get around to organising with them for peace of mind.
My town has circa 20k inhabitants and a small fire station with 1 permament appliance and an aerial platform (deaths in a hotel fire a few years ago they couldnt get to prompted that unfortunately), other appliances are located in other smaller towns 15+ miles away, so its very normal for our local station to call for assistance from elsewhere for even small events, and those appliances take time to get here because of the poor roads, distances and summer tourist traffic in season.
I suppose given a big stack of visible PV on the roof they would play it safe, quite wether they pull the hoses out and chuck water about i have no idea, but id doubt it, and our local station is too small to have any sort of specielised other equipment like foam sprayers etc. Fire hydrant right outside my place and through work i know there is more than sufficent water there (and if needs be i will just rezone the water network myself anyway
), just wether they would use it or let Resybabys house burn down while its just 'monitored' through lack of equipment.
Its the hidden batteries in the garage and the huge stack of visible firewood i have here (approx 20m3 as my main heating source is wood) that i see as the elephants in the room - as well as the neccesity of their advice. Even if i get a ticking off for having too much firewood here, my house would burn for a month if just it ignited. I have wondered about a prominant label on the house advising of my batteries - but then thought better of it incase they are targetted by a lowlife thief with big biceps.
Smoke/CO alarms im well over specced on, so no worries there. Since having the log burner i have 'bullied' my wife into the safety first idea of me buying her a co detector, and she buying me a smoke detector every christmas since. She though i was mad initially, but sees the sense in having them as well as many backups, we have approx 10 of each around the house in pairs in the relevent locations, so its become an ingrained habit now and all bases covered on that front.
Appreciate some not keen on log burners for many reasons, heres my excuse for installing one below. EPC says heating costs in 2009 would be £2600pa, too scary to contemplate those now at current rates!
No gas in my street (and i was a Corgi engineer with my own installation business, typical) so electric heating only when we bought the place, hence the log burner very quickly, heaps of insulation and the subsequent PV. Id hope for a better rating now
Anybody asked their local brigades for advice at all?
