Properly installed and maintained smoke and heat alarms are considered to be one of the best and least expensive means to provide an early warning of a potentially deadly fire and could reduce by almost half the risk of dying from a fire in your home.
Choosing Your Smoke Alarm
Choosing Your Smoke AlarmWhich alarm sensor goes where?
According to the NFPA, smoke alarms should be placed in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of your home. In addition to this, our team of experts recommend having both photoelectric and ionisation alarms for maximum protection against flaming or smouldering domestic fires.
When it comes to buying new heat sensors and smoke alarms for your home it’s imperative that you are able to select the right model for you. A smoke alarm which is suitable for one room may not be as reliable in another part of your house. Allow us to use our years of experience in electrical services in Colchester to guide you through the safety process.
Multi-Sensor
Combined smoke alarms use a mixture of multiple sensor types (heat detection, optical smoke detection and carbon monoxide detection) which work to create rapid acting and fail-proof multi-sensor smoke detectors. These types of smoke and heat detectors help reduce false alarms while at the same time giving the earliest warning of a fire.
Optical Sensors
An optical smoke alarm (also called photo-electric smoke alarm) works using the light scatter principle. The alarm contains a pulsed infrared LED which pulses a beam of light into the sensor chamber every 10 seconds to check for smoke particles.
Heat Sensors
Heat detectors are intended to minimize property damage by reacting to the change in temperature caused by a fire. Smoke detectors are intended to protect people and property by generating an alarm earlier in the development of a fire.
Ionisation Sensors
An ionisation smoke detector enables you to be alerted to quickly put out the fire so their is minimal damage to the property. Another advantage is that these types of alarms are hyper sensitive. Ionisation smoke alarms respond first to fast flaming fires
Linked or interconnecting alarms
When a range or network of products is installed, the resulting “meshed network” of heat, smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors continuously communicate via wireless signals. This results in a faster and wider-spread reaction as soon as any problem is detected.
Which smoke alarms should I choose and where should they be fitted?
As a general rule of thumb, If your home is on one level, you should fit the alarm in the hallway between the living and sleeping areas. If you have only one smoke alarm and your home is divided into two floors, place them where you can hear them best when you are asleep.
At Lea Arnold Electrical Services we have installed comprehensive and trusted smoke and heat detection systems in Colchester and the surrounding areas, resulting in several homes, businesses and rented properties having complete peace of mind when it comes to fire safety.
At your request we will visit your home and carry out a thorough inspection of your current system, or if you are purchasing a new property, advise you as to exactly what services will suit your home or business. Our years of experience as electrical engineers in Colchester means that you can rest assured you are in safe hands, each and every time.
