We collaborated with Coastal Home Inspection to address your pressing inquiries regarding smoke alarms. Our collaboration with Coastal Home Inspection was instrumental in providing detailed and comprehensive answers to your important questions about smoke alarms. Coastal Home Inspection is renowned for their expertise in home safety and security, making them the perfect partner for addressing your concerns. Through this collaboration, we aimed to empower you with the knowledge and understanding necessary to make informed decisions about smoke alarms and enhance the safety of your home.
Q: WHY DO SMOKE ALARMS ALWAYS CHIRP AT NIGHT?
A: Smoke alarm units are meant to warn us when the battery gets low. They do this by "chirping". In terms of electricity, lower temperatures so electrical reactions.
If you've got a battery nearing the end of its life, it might manage to power your smoke alarm just fine during the daylight hours...
But when the cooler evening hits, the drop in tempurature slows the battery's chemical reaction, reducing its power output. That's when the chirping begins, letting you know the battery is too weak to keep going. And of course, thats why it always seems to wake us up in the dead of the night with an annoying "CHIRP".
Q: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SMOKE DETECTOR AND ALARM?
A: Technically a smoke dector, senses smoke and sends a signal to a central alarm system. Whereas a smoke alarm includes an audible and/or visibale alarm. However both terms are used interchangeably when used in terms of devices in our homes.
Q: WHAT ARE SAFE/EFFECTIVE INSTALLATION STANDARDS FOR DEVICES?
It shall NOT be installed within 3 feet from a door opening of a bathroom with a bathtub or shower.
It shall NOT be installed within 3 feet from the supply air registers of a forced air heater cooling system (HVAC).
It shall NOT installed within 3 feet from the tip of a blade of a ceiling-suspended ceiling fan.
It shall be installed a minimum 20 feet from distance from a cooking appliance.
For coffered ceilings, detectors shall be installed on the highest point of the ceiling or on the sloped portion of the ceiling within 12 inches vertically down of the highest point.
Q: WHERE ARE SMOKE ALARMS SUPPOSED TO BE PLACED IN A HOME?
A: Smoke alarms shall be placed in EACH of the sleeping areas of the home.
Outside of EACH sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedroom(s), and on
EACH LEVEL including basements and inhabitable attics.
If bedrooms have different hallways to get to them, alarms must be placed in each hallway.
Q: WHAT ARE CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTORS?
A: The law SB-183 requires that a carbon monoxide device be installed in ALL dwelling units intended for human occupancy.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is produced from heaters, fireplaces, furnaces, and many different types of appliances and cooking devices.
Carbon monoxide devices should be installed outside of EACH sleeping area of the home including the basement. One device should be installed per habitable level with a fuel burning appliance.
The manufactures installation of the device should be followed.
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