Since the update of the Technical Building Code (Basic Document SI), installing stand-alone smoke detectors is mandatory in newly built homes, and is increasingly requested in full renovations too.
How many smoke detectors a home needs
The practical reference is at least one smoke detector per floor, and always one near the bedroom areas, as most fatal fires happen at night. In homes of more than one floor or with bedrooms far apart, one detector per corridor giving access to bedrooms is recommended.
CO detector: when it's essential
The carbon monoxide detector doesn't replace the smoke one: it detects a different gas, colourless and odourless, produced by incomplete combustion. It's mandatory or highly recommended in homes with a gas or oil boiler, fireplace, brazier or any combustion appliance without a direct outdoor flue, and must be placed near those appliances, never beside windows or draughts.
Power: battery or wired
Most domestic detectors run on a long-life lithium battery (up to 10 years) and need no wiring, which makes them easy to add to an already finished installation. In new-build projects it is increasingly common to interconnect them by radio frequency so that if one detects smoke, all sound at once.
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