Smoke Detector : All About Another Home Safety Device

by Dipak

Smoke Detector : All About Another Home Safety Device

Every person internally worried about safety of his belongings. He thinks every second about safety, how to take precautions, how to get protected by him-self etc. To man, one of major safety concern is fire. His important documents and other things will get vanished if it catches fire. In case, if small fire breaks out, a small quantity of smoke emerges out first. Our nasal sensors inside our nose will detect the smoke and sends signals to our brain.

What Smoke Detector is?

What is this? This looks like teacher teaching kids of may be around 8 year old. Is it not? But, why I have told this is to make you understand the concept of smoke sensors. Smoke sensors work similar to our nose.
A smoke sensor, which is also called as smoke alarms, is a device which detects presence of smoke and alarm to alert surrounding people about possibility of fire. The smoke detector plays an important role in home security by at least safe guarding remaining things in fire affected home or room, by alerting people against outbreak of fire.

Where should I install smoke detector?

Usually, these house hold smoke detectors get themselves mounted on disk-shaped plastic enclosures of about 150 mm in diameter and 25 mm in thickness. It is better to get them installed on the ceilings or near a wall near the ceilings. The shape of smoke detectors will vary from one to another manufacturer. Smoke detectors are always kept away from kitchen, where there is always possible smoke. If smoke detectors are kept near kitchen or any room from where there are always chances of smoke, then there will be always possibility of getting false alarms.
It is better, if one installs these alarms near the bedrooms, or in between the bed room and the main hall. Installing inside the bed room is the most ideal one, as it will alert the sleeping occupants, in case of any fire and smoke.

Source of power?

Smoke detectors are usually powered by one or more batteries. However, there are smoke detectors which are powered by external source. The external source is house hold A/C power or it can also be solar source. Most smoke detectors usually use both house hold wiring as well as batteries as the power source, as batteries can be used as backup power in case of A/C power goes off. When the batteries are low, the smoke detector will signal low battery condition. It is better to replace the batteries once in a year to ensure continuous proper protection. In some countries, camps are organized to create awareness to change the batteries of these detectors.

Working Modes?

Usually, smoke detectors work by using two models, i.e. optical detection or by physical process to detect the presence of smoke in the installed area. It may be integrated to fire alarm or to a security system. This enables one to share the power resources and other technical things which are built in to the system. Some smoke detectors allows themselves to get interconnected to other types of detectors or same smoke detectors and could cause all detectors in the area, to alarm if there is smoke being detected.

Carbon Monoxide and smoke detectors

Smoke detector fails to detect carbon monoxide unless it has got separate carbon monoxide detection unit within it. Most of these units are available separately and they are manufactured separately.

Do you have hearing disability?

Some detectors provide flashing lights for the people with hearing disabilities. However, they are less effective compared to other normal smoke detectors.
At least, by now, you have understood what a smoke detector is and its working mechanism. Is it not? Then, why wait? Go ahead and get it installed to be protected from possible fire disasters.