Aurora Lighting & Staircraft have successfully completed compliance checks on their Fire Rated Downlights with i-Joists.
Aurora Lighting, a leading private lighting organisation, and partner Staircraft Group, a supplier of i-Joists, have demonstrated that the two companies i-Joists and downlight combination will satisfy fire safety Building Regulations for 30 mins fire rating in domestic housing – following a successful assessment.
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 compliant with i-Joists being used in new build homes.
To offer clarification of an approved installation, appropriate assessment or testing is required for a specified i-Joist based floor construction and ceiling together with a specified recessed downlight.
Jeff Richardson, Aurora Group’s Sales Director for UK Trade, said: “Following the NHBC’s recent statement, we immediately partnered with Staircraft Group to ensure that our products were compliant when used with i-Joist’s, so now, when designing and building new-build housing, developers can be sure they are compliant with the amended Building Regulations Approved Document B, if they use i-Joists supplied by Staircraft Group together with Aurora’s fire rated downlights.”
Luke Whale, Staircraft’s Technical Director, said: “We are delighted that the superior fire resistance of our i-Joists has enabled us to team up with Aurora Lighting and successfully commission the necessary assessments to confirm their fire rated downlights can be incorporated in our approved 30 minute ceiling construction using 12.5mm plasterboard.”
Aurora points out that it is essential to understand the complexity of testing which fire rated downlights are exposed to in order to comply with the regulations regarding minimum periods of resistance. The company emphasises that having undertaken a single test for a single time duration does NOT mean that the product is suitable for all 30 / 60 / 90 minute duration applications. It notes, for the product to be fully compliant in all 30 / 60 / 90 minute installations, three separate tests of 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes are to be carried out with luminaires installed into the appropriate ceiling/floor construction type for which the relevant test certification is to be provided.
Aurora’s range includes a variety of integrated and GU10 fire rated downlights including the popular mPro which has a convertible design making it suitable for use in shallow ceiling voids.
