Fire Hazard: Help/Advice Please

karlitob

Hi all,

Having some difficulties with mould on my ceiling of my bathroom. I have external insulation and blown insulation up to the eaves which I think is causing the mould.

Anyway, on inspection of the attic I found that the insulation is covering the 4 downlighters. The insulation is very warm. I've pulled some of the stuff back but I'm very worried it could catch on fire and burn the house down.

Can you advise if it is the right type of bulb for a bathroom?
How, or if, the unit should be protected from insulation?
Do you think it might catch fire?
What should I do?

Thank you.

DublinDilbert

Definitely keep the insulation away from the down-lighters and at the very least get metal covers (they are like a metal plant pot) for over them. But it would be better to go for sealed units.

You should be using sealed down-lighters for a bathroom, they aren't mad money if you buy them in the wholesalers or meteor-electrical. If you use LED bulbs it would reduce the heat even further.

If you have mould problems ventilation is probably your issue, do you have a vent/fan in the room?

karlitob

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Definitely keep the insulation away from the down-lighters and at the very least get metal covers (they are like a metal plant pot) for over them. But it would be better to go for sealed units.

You should be using sealed down-lighters for a bathroom, they aren't mad money if you buy them in the wholesalers or meteor-electrical. If you use LED bulbs it would reduce the heat even further.

If you have mould problems ventilation is probably your issue, do you have a vent/fan in the room?

Thanks for that. I can only access two from above as the one is in the corner and the other is under the tank. I mean these guys should've known this, should they? Could you direct me to a link that has sealed downlighters please so I can see what they look like. Do I need a metal cover for the sealed downlighters (and a link for that would be great too please).
Thanks for your help.

meercat

Your best bet is to replace fitting with something like this

https://www.lightrabbit.ie/ac240v-bathroom-gu10-fire-rated-downlight-ip65-white.html

Use an led bulb which doesn't heat up.

DublinDilbert

karlitob wrote: »

Thanks for that. I can only access two from above as the one is in the corner and the other is under the tank. I mean these guys should've known this, should they? Could you direct me to a link that has sealed downlighters please so I can see what they look like. Do I need a metal cover for the sealed downlighters (and a link for that would be great too please).
Thanks for your help.

If your looking for a quick fix just get some good quality LED bulbs and fit them to existing fittings, this will get rid of 90% of the heat. I'd probably still put something over the back of the down-lighter, but that's just me. Have you any big old coffee cans or round tins of boxes of sweets? Just punch a few holes in these and they will work fine.


This isn't the metal type, but a material hood:-
http://www.meteorelectrical.com/lighting_lighting-accessories_fire-hood-for-downlights.html

http://www.meteorelectrical.com/clearance_lighting_gu10-mains-downlighters_fire-rated-gu10-downlight-white.html

galljga1

LEDs definitely the way to go to reduce heat.

For covering the units, would terracotta pots be better than metal? Non flammable and less likely to get as hot as metal.

DublinDilbert

galljga1 wrote: »

LEDs definitely the way to go to reduce heat.

For covering the units, would terracotta pots be better than metal? Non flammable and less likely to get as hot as metal.

anything would be better than the insulation that's there at the moment

Calahonda52

karlitob wrote: »

Hi all,

Having some difficulties with mould on my ceiling of my bathroom. I have external insulation and blown insulation up to the eaves which I think is causing the mould.
Thank you.

Why do u say this?
The ceiling looks covered so I don't follow.

How is the bathroom vented?
I see a white flexie in one of the pictures which is less than useless.

The other issue is that your eaves are stuffed with insulation so I suspect any soft vents you had are blocked.
You have non-breathable roof felt so you need to ventilate the attic space

karlitob

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Why do u say this?
The ceiling looks covered so I don't follow.

How is the bathroom vented?
I see a white flexie in one of the pictures which is less than useless.

The other issue is that your eaves are stuffed with insulation so I suspect any soft vents you had are blocked.
You have non-breathable roof felt so you need to ventilate the attic space

There is blown insulation right into the eaves, the external insulation is right underneath and the insulators didn't put in ventilation boards between the joists of vents into the eaves. I reckon its sweating there and mould as a result.

Do you recommend ventilating the attic itself as well?

There is no permanent vent to the outside only an extractor fan (thats not working well) from the bathroom, into the attic and out to the soffit. I looked into yesterday and saw loads of dust so nothing is leaving it. Its very far in for me to get at and fix. Is this type of vent really bad? What would you recommend?

Thanks for your help.

Calahonda52

The roof space needs to be vented, you can get roof tiles so maybe 2 on each side of the A roof, depending in the size of the house [ somebody here may crunch the exact math for you if u give the length by breath of the house]

They should be lower down rather than high up.

What I do when there is a gable end on each end of house in cases like this is to put a screened vent right at the apex of the A at each end, this creates good ventilation all along the underside of ridge, which is tough to do with the roof tile vents.

Re fan, can you vent outside from bathroom, or else get a proper fan, 125mm diameter on a timer and vent it to a roof vent with as short as possible a piece of pretty rigid flex that u wrap in insulation to reduce condensation running back into bathroom.

That white flexi is crap.