For housing associations and social landlords
Housing smoke control made easier.
Legacy AOV panel out. O Range in. Misuse stopped, evidence captured, estate visible from your desk. The problems that have followed that block around for years are gone overnight.
Procurement
Seven questions you ask. Seven straight answers from us.
You already know day one price is the wrong test. The cheapest panel gets expensive fast: site delays, call backs, poor records, Golden Thread non-compliance and contractor lock-in. Ask these seven questions before you score anything.
You ask
Are we locked into one contractor?
Our answer
NoO Range is open protocol. Any smoke control contractor registered with us can maintain it, not just Vent Trade.
You ask
Can residents misuse it?
Our answer
NoControls stay inactive in standby and only become active in a smoke event.
You ask
Can we prove setup?
Our answer
YesCommissioning configuration and date, plus the fire strategy, wiring schematic, and cause and effect, are stored online automatically for you and every maintenance engineer to access. Not left in an engineer's notebook.
You ask
Can we see what is happening on site?
Our answer
YesVent Net notifies you within seconds of any event: fault, fire or manual activation. Full log access from your desk, mobile or API, plus remote log-in and remote operation in non-fire mode when required.
You ask
Can we cut routine testing visits?
Our answer
YesDaily, weekly, monthly and 6-month tests run and log themselves automatically. Any alert comes straight to you, including power loss or the panel going offline.
You ask
Can it feed our asset systems?
Our answer
YesO Range API Connect pushes events, tests and asset data straight into your systems.
You ask
Can we standardise?
Our answer
YesOne product family covers the common smoke control use cases across your estate.
The blunt housing problem
Most landlords are not just buying a panel.
They are buying fewer complaints, less misuse, cleaner records, safer escape routes, and less argument when something goes wrong.
Resident safety
Smoke control sits in the common escape route. When it is needed, confusion costs time.
Misuse risk
Open controls lead to roof vents left open, water ingress and avoidable damage.
Audit pressure
The question is no longer just what was installed. It is what can be proved later.
Maintenance burden
Mixed legacy panels create slow diagnosis, call backs and contractor dependency.
Reputation
One bad block can become a resident, regulator and media problem.
Estate consistency
Repeated blocks need repeated standards, not one-off electrical improvisation.
Available for purpose, not misuse
Only active when it needs to be active.
In communal housing, open controls invite avoidable problems: roof vents left open, water ingress, wind damage, nuisance operation, and residents or contractors using life safety equipment as building controls.
Resident Protection System
The O Range firefighter switch is not available for casual open and close control during normal standby operation. It becomes available when the system is activated. Nobody on site can use the system as a convenience control or damage it through casual operation: not residents, not cleaners, not other trades.
Stops casual operation
Residents and contractors cannot open vents for cigarettes, weather or curiosity.
Protects the building
Reduces the chance of avoidable wind and rain damage.
Protects the landlord
Less avoidable maintenance and clearer operational intent.
Vent Net remote monitoring
Be notified within seconds of a fault or a fire event, not at the next site visit.
Legacy panels are anonymous boxes. Something happens on site and you find out at the next inspection, or when a resident complains. Vent Net puts the estate on your screen, with a full system activity log that is Golden Thread compliant.
Included with every O Range system
- Remote access to the system
- Maintenance dates at a glance
- The digital thread for the asset
Vent Net full monitoring Nominal annual cost
- Notification within seconds of an event
- Access to all activity on site, live
- Every log and every test, viewable off-site
- Remote firefighter switch activation from the Vent Net interface, with automatic switch-off
- Monthly testing mode: run the monthly function test remotely, logged automatically
- 6-month test run remotely and recorded as compliance evidence
Compliance and audit evidence
Golden Thread compliance, built in.
The Building Safety Act made this personal. The accountable person for each block has to prove the smoke control system was installed, commissioned and maintained correctly, sometimes years after the work was done. That takes evidence you can find on demand, not a certificate in a filing cabinet. Smoke control should produce that evidence as it runs.
Product identity
Panel data connects to product records, setup details and handover documents.
Commissioning clarity
Settings and cause and effect should not live only in one engineer's memory.
Maintenance confidence
Status indication and structured documentation make checks more robust.
Change control
A better system creates a better record when configuration changes later.
The living evidence trail
Vent Net's digital thread captures product, configuration, commissioning, maintenance and change control as it happens. Not a folder someone has to remember to maintain.
O Range API Connect
Your systems, updated automatically.
O Range API Connect feeds event data, test results and asset records straight into your own systems: asset management, CAFM, building safety cases. No re-keying, no chasing contractors for paperwork, no gap between what happened on site and what your records say.
Event data pushed to your asset management platform
Test results and maintenance records, machine-readable
Asset registers that stay current without manual updates
The O Range smoke control system
One platform. One to sixty zones.
Most housing association stock is low and mid-rise: single stairwell blocks with a natural AOV at the stair head. O Range covers that simple, repeated case cleanly, and scales to smoke shafts, dampers and networked estates where the stock demands it.
Single stairwell AOV
Simple stairwell control for common residential blocks.
Smoke shaft and dampers
Control logic for dampers, vents and shaft based arrangements.
Networked estates
A scalable approach where connected panels support a wider site strategy.
For your contractor
Your installer orders it. We support them.
Housing associations rarely buy panels directly, and they should not have to. Your M&E or maintenance contractor can specify, order and commission O Range through Vent Trade, with product, wiring, commissioning and handover support from a smoke ventilation specialist. Point them at us.
The trade first choice since 1988
British stock. Technical support. Always on.
Need a housing specification pack?
Talk to the smoke ventilation team.
Product schedule, cause and effect notes, resident protection wording, commissioning evidence checklist and a maintenance handover pack, reusable across similar blocks.