- Building products are coming under increasing scrutiny to ensure our homes are safe, secure and comfortable. Aurora’s Director of Sales and Projects, Des Duign, discusses Fire Rated Downlights and highlights the importance of testing.
When faced with a fire, people come first. Trying to get as many people out of their home safely is the priority. But in an ideal world, it would be good if as much of the building could be saved too, especially when considering rebuilding or refurbishing costs.
Therefore, fire barriers need to be considered during a construction project to make a safe evacuation possible. These are placed in a house/ building to section it off into different ‘compartments’, so that when a fire breaks out, the fire is contained in the compartment in which it started, allowing time for safe evacuation.
Fire barriers can include walls, floors and ceilings. In terms of ceilings, the overall building height has to be considered as this determines the level of protection required. The standard ratings are 30/60/90 minutes.
The Fire Rated Downlight is a life-saving luminaire specifically designed with fire barriers in mind. From the steel can that can withstand the extremely high temperatures experienced in a fire, through to the intumescent material which expands when heated, sealing up any ventilation holes in the fitting, the construction of fire-rated luminaires prevents the fire from spreading through a fixture into the roof space across a fire barrier.
Residential properties must have a minimum period of resistance, which depends on the height of the top floor and depths of any basement below ground level. For above ground installations, minimum fire rating can range from 30 minutes to 120 minutes protection whilst below ground level applications will have either 60 or 90 minutes of protection.
The National House Building Council (NHBC), the UK’s leading warranty and insurance provider for UK house-building for new homes, recently stated that steps should be taken to ensure that fire rated downlights are now also compliant when used with engineered joists such as i-Joists, which are increasingly being used in new build homes.
Introducing Aurora’s ASeries
Aurora has introduced the new A Series, a fire rated downlight range that has been designed with the installer in mind and includes more benefits, higher performance levels and a new appearance, offering additional reliability and enhanced product features.
When selecting from the A Series and all of Aurora’s fire rated products you can be sure that all relevant fire rated tests have been carried out and that the product is compliant with current building regulations.
i-Joist Compliant
Furthermore, Aurora and the Staircraft Group are the first to have downlight ranges successfully assessed to demonstrate that the i-Joists and downlight combination will satisfy fire safety Building Regulations for 30 mins fire rating in domestic housing, an essential step in ensuring fire safety guidelines in new builds.
Easy to make Smart
Aurora’s AOne is the world’s widest range of smart lighting. Compatible with SmartThings, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant it can easily make the A Series smart! The AOne covers power, lighting and control, easy to install and extremely cost effective when compared with traditional smart lighting systems.
