Best Places To Install Smoke Detectors In Your Home

Posted by fires6687 on January 4th, 2018

Full blown smoke and fire alarm systems alert the fire department and raise an alarm in the building. Smaller smoke detectors installed in homes give out an audible alarm or a visible cue like a blinking light to let the people in the house know that there might be a fire in the house. Smoke detectors are extremely useful gadgets and have a huge role in protecting your home from fires. Properly positioned smoke detectors can very much save you and your family’s lives in the unfortunate circumstance of a fire.

Types of Smoke detectors

Depending on the working mechanism, smoke detectors come in three types.

Ionization Smoke Detector

This type of smoke detector makes use of a radioactive material to emit a small bit of radiation between two electrodes causing current to pass between them. Any smoke between the electrodes interrupts the current and raises the alarm. This type of smoke detector is helpful in case of fast-spreading fires.

Photoelectric Smoke Detector

This type of smoke detector operates with the help of a photoelectric sensor and a light beam. Any smoke entering the light beam will scatter the light and direct it towards the sensor, which in turn sounds the alarm. A photoelectric smoke detector is best suitable for slow, smouldering fires.

Combination Smoke Alarms

Combination detectors make use of both the above technologies to detect fires.

Where should a smoke detector be installed in your home?

An accurately placed smoke detector can go a long way in alerting you in time and in turn saving a lot of lives. There are a few strategic places to place a smoke detector that can help in detecting fires even before they start.

Positioning

The best position to install a smoke detector is a few inches below the ceiling on a wall, ideally twelve inches below. There is a misconception that the ceiling is the best place for a smoke detector because smoke rises to the top. Of course, the latter is true, smoke does rise to the top, but in homes especially, gases from burning couch or mattress foam are lighter than smoke and go to the top, pushing the actual smoke about twelve inches below. In these circumstances, there is a chance the alarm won’t go off. The ceiling may be an acceptable option, but the area below the ceiling is much better for a smoke alarm.

In the kitchen

A smoke detector in the kitchen is must because a fire is most likely to occur in the kitchen. However, this also means that a false smoke alarm may be raised because the kitchen is also a place where cooking smoke is common. To tackle this, one can place the smoke alarm away from the stove area or use a good chimney to pull out the cooking smoke.

In hallways

Hallways are the best places to put in smoke detectors since a fire will be detected much before it reaches the actual rooms, giving the residents ample time to vacate the premises.

Smoke detectors should be mandatory in homes because they can be triggered much before the actual fire occurs. So get your home protected today.