Ceiling Speaker Fire & Acoustic Hoods
What are Ceiling Speaker Fire & Acoustic Hoods?
Fire & Acoustic Speaker Hoods are hollow fabric enclosures that are fitted through the ceiling speaker cut-out prior to installing the speakers. They fully surround the back of the speaker in the ceiling, and are therefore not visible once installed. The fabric construction is deformable so it can be installed around timbers, pipes, cables, and other obstacles. The hood is secured in place with either small pins into the plasterboard, or by the speaker dog-leg grips themselves. Installation is incredibly easy and they provide many benefits in addition to their main job of fire protection.
Fire Protection
UK Building Regulations require that the installation of equipment and electrical accessories does not compromise the fire resistance of the materials used in the construction of the building. In the case of ceiling speakers, the plasterboard ceiling is the fire barrier to the floor above, and therefore all ceiling speakers fitted below habitable spaces, corridors, stairwells, or areas of escape, must be fitted with fire hoods for passive fire protection.
Fire hoods contain an intumescent material that expands dramatically when heated. In the event of a fire, this material expands to fill the ceiling speaker hole, sealing it and restoring the fire protection barrier of the ceiling. Unlike downlights which are typically fire rated by design, ceiling speakers have no such fire rating and will not block fire for the required time to facilitate escape. Fitting a fire hood is essential for passive fire safety in all domestic and commercial applications.
Fire hoods are required to slow down the spread of fire. They are not to protect the building from the speakers themselves. There is no fire risk associated with passive ceiling speakers.
Acoustic Benefits
Secondary to fire protection, ceiling speaker hoods also provide a couple of acoustic benefits. These benefits can be helpful in situations where fire hoods are not strictly required by Building Regulations, and they are often fitted for their acoustic properties alone.
Noise Reduction - Fire & Acoustic hoods incorporate one or more layers of acoustic material in addition to the intumescent fire protection fabric. This acoustic layer helps absorb the sounds waves which are emitted from the back of the ceiling speaker, thereby reducing unwanted sound from travelling to adjacent rooms. A must when installing ceiling speakers below a bedroom for example. The level of noise reduction depends on the specification of the hoods. Noise reduction will never be total, but fire and acoustic hoods are far better than no hood at all.
Audio Performance - Most ceiling speakers are open-backed, meaning they have no cabinet behind the drive unit like a traditional Hi-Fi speaker. The ceiling void or installation cavity becomes the 'cabinet'. However if the space behind the speaker is very open (like a roof space), or very enclosed (perhaps full of insulation), then the speaker will not perform at its best. All speakers have a performance sweet spot which is determined by the volume of air they push back against. Too much air volume, or too little, typically has the effect of reducing bass performance and dynamics. Hi-Fi speaker cabinets are meticulously engineered for this reason, and play a big part in the quality of the sound. Fitting a fire hood creates a semi-sealed volume of air around the speaker, just like a cabinet, and can give them a significant performance boost. Hoods (or back boxes) are highly recommended to get the best from your new speakers.
Other Benefits
Another benefit of fire hoods is that they protect the back of the speaker from insulation, debris, dust, and damage. Since the drive unit on most ceiling speakers is exposed at the back, anything that falls onto the back of the speaker cone can adversely affect performance.
What Hoods do I Need?
You will find compatible fire/acoustic hoods for every speaker and speaker package we sell on the product page. However here are our top recommendations based on speaker driver size and requirements. The majority of speaker hoods we sell are fire & acoustic models, and these are favoured over non-acoustic models for most installations.
3" - 4" Driver Speakers (max cut-out approx. 120mm diameter)
Hoody 0.5 Fire & Acoustic Hood
4" - 6" Driver Speakers (max cut-out approx. 190mm diameter)
Hoody 1 Fire & Acoustic Hood
6" - 7" Driver Speakers (max cut-out approx. 240mm diameter)
Hoody 2 Fire & Acoustic Hood
Lithe Audio 270 Fire & Acoustic Hood
BluCube UFH01 Fire & Acoustic Hood
7" - 9" Driver Speakers (max cut-out approx. 300mm diameter)
Firetopper Pro II Fire & Acoustic Hood
Maximum Noise Reduction for 6" - 9" Driver Speakers (max cut-out approx. 250mm diameter)
Lithe Audio 290 Triple Layer Fire & Acoustic Hood