now you're probably wondering why it looks like we've connected a light fitting directly to a
smoke alarm and we'll get back to that later in this video but perhaps we're thinking we might
be trying to disguise the fact that we even have smoke or fire alarms fitted because let's face it
most of the ones you see in the market today are perhaps we could describe them as a little bit
ugly wild smoke and heat detectors are a vital safety device for any home that should always be
installed and looked after there's no better way of ruining an interior than sticking an
ugly white Tupperware box on the roof now have we got some other options well we think we have
because we've got a fantastic range of heat and smoke alarms from Cavius that are award-winning
in terms of the design but we also think have got some great features in there for installers
and homeowners for this family of detectors from Cavius is available as standalone battery versions
with a 10 year battery life so you'll never need to change that or hardwired mains versions with
battery backup and again with a 10-year battery life and the great thing is you can mix and match
between the range so you can combine wired with battery-powered sensors and they'll obviously
talk to each other such that one sensor if it detects a fire or heat will trigger the rest in
the building so you know when it's time to to get out now when it comes to setting up that wireless
interlinking between them for some units that can be a challenge now not with this Cavius range it's
so simple you can even do it on the bench before you get to site the first step is to remove the
tab to activate the batteries in the detectors and then switch them all into learning mode
with this little slide switch once we're there we select one of the units as a master unit and we're
going to put that into learning mode by pressing the test button interesting thing about the test
button on these detectors is the whole front of the sensor it's not just that little circle in
the middle and we'll come back to that later on when it comes to that light fitting connection
um once we're in that mode uh the master unit is transmitting a signal that is picked up by
all of the other devices and once they start flashing it indicates that they have paired
to the master device and then can be switched back into normal mode and fitted back to the
bases and that is our wireless commissioning complete you can link 32 units together in
one installation and once you've finished that installation you'll certainly want the test to
make sure that they're all working and talking to each other and you will of course need to do
that as part of periodic inspections now that could cause a bit of headache with 32 units
literally if they're all to start sounding at full volume together now thankfully Cavius
have come up with a clever way of testing the whole installation just select one unit as the
master unit press and hold that large test button for 10 seconds and that puts it into test mode
and then you can walk around the property and hear individual units intermittently chirping
now the great thing is they don't all chirp simultaneously so it's very easy to tell that
the actual chirp is coming from the unit that you're next to so that literally doesn't deafen
everybody in the building when you're doing that test the actual wiring of the unit is
straightforward there's a base that's fixed to the ceiling first so you can keep the sensor
out of the way while all the other dusty trades are still working on site and of course there is
a dust cap should you need to protect the units post installation the bases themselves have got
nice colour-coded terminals in there the actual devices are double insulated so the protective
conductor terminal is only there for convenience uh if you're forming the installation as part of
a lighting circuit and you'll notice on the smoke alarm there is an L2 connection that is
not needed to link the devices together that's for that light fitting function that we'll come
back to there's a few different wiring options you can surface mount the wiring and bring the
wire through the side of the device using some mini trunking and we've just done little example
there pairing that up with some miniature d-line trunking again to keep that minimal aesthetic but
in most installations you're probably going to be wiring from behind the unit you'll notice there's
a slight difference in the terminal configuration between the heat detector and the smoke alarm and
that'll have people reaching for the wiring regulations when you see terminals going up
against the ceiling and if you want to do that that is wiring regulation 526.5 where the building
itself can form part of a junction box if it is tested suitably so it's uh it's not a flammable
surface so if we're fixing to a wooden ceiling you probably need to add a conduit box behind
the fitting some more great design features built into this range there's a little tab you click in
on the side of the unit so once that's in place you then need a tool to remove the sensor head
from the base so that's great for say rented properties where you want to prevent peel from
tampering with the alarms there's also something that disguises house embarrassment so imagine the
situation you've removed the previous smoke alarm that was one of those ugly devices that we started
with and obviously because the Cavius units are considerably smaller only 98 millimeters across
for the mains detector you may need to disguise up that part of the ceiling that's not decorated
or there may be some cable damage behind there so they have got a cover plate that stretches
up to 150 millimeters to help you tidy up that situation until you get the decorators back in
and if you are replacing or retrofitting existing sensors in an installation that's where we think
the combination of the men's hardwired version and the standalone battery version really come
into their own perhaps you have to add additional sensors for additional safety or perhaps you're
adding on an extension and it's tricky to get a wire to that new sensor location or as we're
seeing increasingly people are fitting solar equipment into loft spaces so that could be
inverters or batteries and you'll certainly want to add a smoke detector in that space
linked back to the main house alarm system now I've teased it long enough what about the option
to supply a light fitting from the smoke detector now the test button in the middle isn't just the
test button you can actually drill that out and thread a cable in there and inside the detector
itself is a cable grip and that L2 terminal that can be connected to a switch supply now
we think this is a great little design option particularly in houses where you want that
minimal look on the ceiling and you can have quite a drop to a pendant fitting because of
course the regulation suggests that light fitting should be 300 millimeters away from the sensor
now if you want to see how we connected this version up here we've made this little short
video to show you the process that you can watch just here and of course I will leave a link in
the description or floating around here where you can check out the full range from Cavius