Fitted in seconds, Putty Pad gives hours of burn time protection
21 July 2009
Astroflames' Intumescent Putty Pad for sockets and switches, improves fire rated wall burn time barrier.
Recessed switch and sockets are used as the preferred option in most domestic and commercial buildings, however they are also the cause of many problems and require special consideration to meet both Building Regulations and Energy Efficiency concerns. A recessed switch or socket represents a penetration of the fire barrier of any fire rated wall and therefore an easy path for fire and smoke to spread from room to room. Building Regulations Approved Document B states that any penetrated fire rated wall should be protected to reinstate the original fire rating, therefore any such penetration should be firestopped.
The Building Regulations are also repeated in the Electrical Safety Council Best practice guide. Acoustics, as with fire, the penetration of an acoustic wall will reduce its performance and this should be reinstated as per Building Regulations Approved Document E. Airtightness as much heat is lost from a building due to leakage via wall penetrations, then the increasing airtightness of buildings is becoming of ever greater concern in reducing heat wastage and costs.
Recessed switches and sockets offer an easy path for air leakage and due to the high number of units in each building represent a high total air leakage. Many buildings are now required to meet specific air leakage requirements and are specifically tested to meet this criteria before being signed off. This is covered in Building Regulations Approved Document L.
All of the above regulatory requirements can be resolved by the fitting of the new Astro Intumescent Fire & Acoustic Socket Box Insert. This gives a full 2 hours fire protection to the latest EN standards and well as being acoustically approved for use in walls with acoustic ratings of up to 67db. In addition the inserts have been shown to reduce air leakage of a switch / socket penetration to almost the same level of an unpenetrated wall.
