1. Often a new home will come with 120 Volt Smoke alarms with 9V battery backup and normally these are installed in the bedrooms and just outside each bedroom. These smoke alarms do not report to a central station and do not dispatch the fire department when activated.
2. New smoke alarms that have a battery life of 10 years can be purchased and these smoke alarms are made just to wake you up. These do not report to a central station. These smoke alarms normally do not interconnect and allow other smoke alarms to sound simultaneously.
3. Security system wireless or hardwired smoke detectors that tie to your alarm panel often are installed in addition to the ones listed above since they report to a central station and the fire department can be dispatched. When you have system detectors they can wake you up and they also report to the central station even when your not home so the fire department can be dispatched in the event of a fire.
4. For new construction it is recommended to install system smoke detectors in the bedrooms and outside the bedrooms to meet fire code so you can avoid having 2 or 3 different types of smoke alarms or detectors. With system detectors you only change out the large battery or batteries at the panel location not at each smoke detector for hardwired detectors.
5. Quite often your insurance company will request that system detectors be installed and if your home has fire sprinklers, insurance will also want the flow switch monitored. Quite often we can do this with a wireless system.
6. When dealing with existing homes often we will install a DMP wireless option with UL listed wireless smoke detectors. This allows us to give you the protection without the high cost of drilling or installing wiremold in an existing home. DMP high power wireless receivers are also listed for commercial fire alarm and you can install wireless pull stations, smoke detectors and other devices after a building is built.
7. Main panel batteries for system smoke detectors are normally changed every 3 to 5 years and with the wireless system smoke detectors often they will last 5-10 years depending on the batteries and model number. For the 120V smokes with 9V backup it is recommended to change the batteries every 6 months.
8. In our high altitude here in Utah it is best to use photoelectric detectors rather than ION since they work better in this environment.
Call Larry Love with Peak alarm (801) 428 1384 Larry@peakalarm.com
Larry has over 20 years in the Fire Alarm industry, he has served on a State Fire Marshal committee, is NICET II Fire Alarm certified and is a Master Fire Alarm Tech with the State Fire Marshal's office. Larry welcomes suggestions and corrections. This article is meant as a short informative article and not all inclusive when concerning smoke alarms and smoke detectors.
