If you own a home, then fire safety should be one of your top concerns. Every year in the United States, home fires cause more than $7 billion dollars in damage and result in the deaths or injuries of thousands of people. Most of these deaths occur in homes where there are no smoke detectors.
To preserve life and minimize damage during a fire, installing the right smoke detectors is one of the most important steps you can take. Before you buy smoke detectors, however, you want to make sure that you know the various facts about these devices that will help you select the best detectors for your specific needs. Click here for the Top 10 Best Smoke Detectors.
Smoke Detectors and Their Sensors
Smoke detectors recognize the presence of smoke in a room and then sound an alarm to alert the people in the home that there is a fire. They do so because they feature sensors that trigger the alarm when smoke is detected. There are three basic kinds of sensors found in the smoke detectors on the market today.
Photoelectric sensors
These models use light and a light-sensitive sensor in order to detect smoke. In smoke detectors with photoelectric sensors, a beam of light is constantly projected in such a way that it normally misses the photoelectric sensor. When smoke is created in a room and enters the smoke detector, it causes the beam of light to scatter and to hit the sensor, triggering the alarm. These types of smoke detectors are the quickest to respond to slow-burn, smoldering fires that have not yet burst into flames, which means that they can pick up on fires that are present in a space but that have not yet produced much heat and light.
Ionization sensors
Ionization smoke detectors employ trace amounts of a radioactive element known as Americium-241 to create a small electric current in the smoke detector. When smoke enters the detector, it interrupts this current, and that triggers the alarm. These kinds of smoke detectors are the quickest to signal the presence of a fast-burning fire.
Dual-sensor smoke detectors
These include both a photoelectric sensor and ionization sensor, though sometimes one of these sensors is more sensitive than the other to the presence of smoke.
Given that different kinds of fires may break out in your home, most experts recommend that you install smoke detectors with both types of smoke sensors throughout your residence or that you choose to install dual-sensor smoke alarms. When you have both types of sensors in your residence, then a number of different fires can be detected quickly, improving overall fire safety.
Battery-Operated vs. Hardwired Smoke Detectors
In addition to featuring different types of sensors, smoke detectors also can be powered by different power sources. Essentially, homeowners can choose between battery-operated and hardwired smoke detectors, and each type offers its own advantages and disadvantages.
Battery-operated smoke detectors are powered by a battery, and they are the easiest smoke detectors to install yourself. You can purchase them at any hardware store, and they can be mounted to the surface of your choice within minutes. As far as disadvantages, homeowners must be particularly vigilant to regularly replace the batteries in battery-operated smoke detectors. After all, the smoke detectors will not work once the batteries lose power. Remembering to change the batteries can be a bit of a challenge, but many newer battery-operated smoke detectors make this easier by emitting a chirping sound whenever the batteries need to be replaced.
Note also that some battery-powered smoke detectors come with batteries that cannot be replaced. These types of smoke detectors can last up to ten years before the battery ceases to function. If the low-battery alarm sounds in one of these types of detectors, it must be replaced immediately. You will have to purchase a new detector, remove the old one, and install the new one in its place.
Hardwired smoke detectors are wired directly into the home’s power system and are powered by the same electricity that powers the rest of the home. The obvious advantage of hardwired detectors is that they do not rely on batteries that must be replaced in order for the smoke sensors to continue working; rather, they continue to function as long as power to the house is working. Hardwired smoke detectors, however, are not entirely battery free, for they often feature a back-up battery that keeps the detectors operational if the power goes out. These batteries may need periodic replacement as well, but they do not usually need to be replaced as often as the batteries in battery-powered detectors.
Interconnected Smoke Detectors
Besides choosing the type of power source and sensors you want for your smoke detectors, you will also have the option of choosing interconnected detectors or detectors that are not interconnected. Interconnected smoke detectors are linked together via a cable or wireless technology such that when one of them goes off, all of them go off. This means that if a fire starts in one room, you will hear about it right away even if you are in a different room because the detector in the room with the fire will signal all of the other detectors in the home to alarm. This is a great safety feature, for it allows you to put out the fire or get out of the home long before the fire spreads to wherever you and your family happen to be.
Traditionally, only hardwired smoke detectors could be interconnected, but the advent and development of wireless technology means that today you can find battery-powered smoke detectors that can be interconnected. If you do not choose interconnected smoke detectors, the detectors you install will alarm only if there is smoke in the room where the detector is installed. A kitchen fire, for example, will signal only the kitchen detector to alarm and not the detectors elsewhere in the home.
Due to their added safety, interconnected smoke detectors are often recommended by fire safety experts, but homeowners should know that hardwired interconnected smoke detectors should be replaced about every ten years. Interconnected smoke detectors can also be more expensive than non-interconnected detectors, but it is better to choose non-interconnected detectors over no detectors at all if your budget will not allow for the interconnected option.
Combination Smoke Detector and Carbon Monoxide Alarms
The smoke produced by a fire is readily recognizable to our five senses, but traditional smoke is not the only fire-related danger that people can face in the home. Carbon monoxide is also a problem. Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas produced by incomplete fuel combustion. Most people are probably aware that carbon monoxide is a byproduct of gas-powered automobiles, but many home appliances can produce carbon monoxide as well. Non-electric water heaters, furnaces, clothes dryers, and other appliances give off carbon monoxide when they are not working properly, and this gas can build up in a home and put lives at risk.
Since carbon monoxide is odorless, the best way to recognize its presence before harm occurs is through the use of a carbon monoxide alarm. Carbon monoxide alarms can be purchased independently of smoke detectors, but there are smoke detectors on the market today that also include carbon monoxide detectors as well. Thus, a combination smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector will be doubly effective at keeping you and your loved ones safe in your home.
The Minnesota Department of Health reports that more than 400 people die every year from carbon monoxide poisoning in the home. Thus, carbon monoxide is nothing to be cavalier about. It is particularly important to make sure you have good carbon monoxide detectors in your home if you live in a colder climate and must frequently run a non-electric-powered furnace or heater. Purchasing smoke detectors that include carbon monoxide detectors is a good way to make sure you and your family are kept safe from fires and the gases they may emit.
Where to Place Smoke Detectors
In order to get the best protection from your smoke detectors, you must not only purchase the best type of detectors for your home, but you must also place them in the right locations so that you will be signaled in the event of a fire. Most fire safety professionals recommend the following guidelines:
• Since most deaths by fires in the home occur at night, you should place a smoke detector in every bedroom.
• In a multi-level home, you should have at least one smoke detector on every floor that does not have a bedroom.
• Place a smoke detector in your kitchen, but keep it at least 10 feet away from your stove and oven so that it is not frequently triggered by normal cooking.
• Do not place smoke detectors too close to windows or other places where a draft might enter a room and keep smoke away from the detector.
• Install smoke alarms on ceilings or high on the walls. If you install a smoke alarm on a wall, make sure that they are located not more than one foot away from the ceiling. In rooms with a pitched ceiling, keep the alarm within three feet of the apex of the ceiling but not within the four inches closest to the peak.
• Do not paint or otherwise decorate your smoke alarms.
After you place your smoke detectors, you may find that one or more of them goes off regularly even when no fire is present. When a detector is frequently sounding a false alarm, you will want to move it to another location in the room. It is going off frequently because a draft or something else in its present location is interfering with its proper operation.
Testing and Maintaining Your Smoke Detectors
You want to make sure that your smoke detectors will sound when there is an actual fire in your home, and the only way to ensure that will happen is to regularly test and maintain your detectors. Fortunately, testing and maintaining your detectors is not difficult.
First, you want to make sure that your smoke detectors remain free of dust and other particles that can interfere with their ability to detect smoke and fires. To do this, you simply need to periodically clean your smoke detectors. Use the upholstery wand of a vacuum cleaner to vacuum the intake openings on your detectors. This should be done at least twice a year in order to keep things in good working order.
Second, test your smoke detectors on a monthly basis by pressing the “test” button on each detector. If the detector sounds an alarm when you press the button, then it is working fine. If not, you will need to replace the battery in the detector or perhaps even the detector itself.
Third, establish a schedule for regular battery replacement, if applicable. You should change batteries on an annual basis, so pick a day that will be easy for you to remember. A holiday, the day you set your clocks for Daylight Savings Time, a birthday—it does not matter what day you choose, just make sure it is the same day or roughly the same day every year.
Some Final Thoughts
Finally, it is wise to make sure that many people in the home know where the detectors are located and how to maintain and test them. When others take responsibility for maintaining and testing the detectors as well, the odds are much greater that these necessary steps will not be missed and that your home will not end up with inoperable detectors that cannot warn you of the presence of a fire.
Additional Resources
https://homesafetydot.com/article-sitemap-1-61cc84/
https://homesafetydot.com/article-sitemap-2-de7bff/
https://homesafetydot.com/article-sitemap-3-eb4e4a/
https://homesafetydot.com/article-sitemap-4-e75eb4/