Fire alarm service at a period house in Kensington, W8

Fire alarm service at a period house in Kensington, W8, on 7 October 2026: a C-TEC conventional panel with four zones from the basement up, and twelve detector tests, all passed.

What each accreditation covers, and how to verify it

The job at a glance

A service visit to a house over five floors, from the basement to the third floor, with a conventional fire alarm. The panel was tested and opened, and every detector on the visit was tested where it is fitted.

When: 7 October 2026
Where: Kensington, W8
Building: Period house, basement to third floor
System: C-TEC CFP conventional panel, four zones in use
Work: Service visit: panel, batteries and detectors
Result: 12 detector tests, 12 passed
Testing time: 39 minutes on the tester’s log

Fire alarm service in Kensington, W8: a ceiling detector tested from the floor under a period ceiling rose — One of the detectors, tested under its ceiling rose.

Questions about fire safety work?

You get an engineer on the phone, not a call centre. Free survey, written quote, no obligation.

020 3393 1661 or book a free survey

The system: one zone per floor

The house has a C-TEC CFP conventional panel with four of its eight zones in use, each labelled on the front: basement, ground, first, and the second and third floors together.

On a conventional panel a fire shows as a zone light, not as one device, so a label for every zone is what tells anyone standing at the panel which floor to go to.

The C-TEC CFP conventional panel at the Kensington house, zones labelled basement, ground, first and second to third floor — The zones, labelled by floor.

The panel first

The visit started at the panel. Its own indications were tested first, and the fire light and the zone lights came on as they should.

Then the panel was opened: the main board with its labelled zone and sounder terminations, and the standby batteries that keep the system running if the mains supply fails.

Inside the C-TEC panel: the main board, its zone and sounder terminals labelled — The main board and its terminations.

The C-TEC panel opened on the service visit: standby batteries on the left, the main board on the right — Standby batteries, left.

Filmed on the visit: the panel, then a detector.

Detectors under period ceilings

The awkward part of this house is the ceilings. Several detectors sit in the middle of ornate plaster ceiling roses or right beside cut-glass light fittings, in tall rooms.

Each one was tested where it is fitted, from the floor, with a tester on a pole that puts test smoke into the head and records whether it answers. Nothing was taken down.

A second detector set in an ornate plaster ceiling rose, tested in place — In a ceiling rose.

A smoke tester over a ceiling detector beside a cut-glass light, its screen showing the smoke test — The smoke test running.

An optical smoke detector fitted beside a cut-glass ceiling light in a period room — Beside a cut-glass light.

Testing the C-TEC panel at the Kensington house: the fire light and a zone light on — The panel showing a zone in fire.

The result

Twelve detector tests and twelve passes, recorded on the tester at the time, with 39 minutes of testing on its log. Every result went into the record of the visit.

Period houses and conversions across London often have a conventional panel like this one. We service C-TEC and Fike systems, and the same visit covers the panel, the batteries and the detectors. What a service visit includes.

From the tester's record

Detector tests: 12
Passed: 12
Zones in use: 4 of 8
Panel: C-TEC CFP, conventional

Free survey · No obligation

Need your fire alarm serviced?

A free survey, the price in writing, and the panel, batteries and detectors checked on every visit.

Fike and C-TEC certified engineers
Written quote before any work starts
Called back within 7 to 24 hours

Book a service visit Prefer to talk?020 3393 1661