I am thinking about having solar panels and I am going to have the inverter and battery in the loft. Does a fire alarm there have to be hard wired or can I use one with a 10 year battery.

 

Not being pedantic, but for your insurance company you should say smoke alarm, not Fire alarm.

As for which one to have, what have you already got installed?

I would suggest that as it will be in the loft, lofts are generally insulated, so you may not hear it if it activates, like wise if you are downstairs, and it activates you will probably not hear it, so I wound suggest your loft smoke alarm be interlinked with what you have, or at least, interlinked to another one on the landing.

I haven't got smoke alarm in the loft, the equipment hasn't been installed yet.I was thinking of interlinking,but I have been told by a solar frim it has to be hard wired, but I can find no confirmation of that.

 

 

Let your solar installers do what they are good at.

If you are in Scotland then you MUST have interlinked smoke alarms, this can either be hard wired OR radio interlink. Standalone battery smoke alarms are not acceptable.

If you are a private individual in the UK and it is for your own residence you can do as you see fit, but all new builds and alterations must have smoke alarms.

But as I first said, lofts are usually insulated, so a non interlinked smoke alarm should sound if required, but no guarantee you will hear it lower down, which is why I asked what you have already with the idea of interlinking to those, but if you have none or battery standalone smoke alarms now would be a good time to have some interlinked (Radio OR hard wired, both are acceptable) installed or if radio you can DIY