Having working smoke detectors throughout your house is the best way to reduce the risk of injury or death should a fire ever occur. That said, not all smoke detectors are equal. While basic battery units are easy to install and fairly cheap, installing interconnected units is always the safest option.
How Interconnected Smoke Detectors Improve Home Safety
Most battery-powered smoke detectors are standalone units that you just hang on the wall. With interconnected smoke detectors, you have a wire that runs between each of the units in the house so that they are all essentially on a single grid. If any of the units detect the presence of smoke and starts going off, that unit will send a signal through the grid that starts a chain reaction and sets off all of the other detectors in the house within just a few seconds.
The primary issue with having standalone detectors is that you may not always hear if one starts going off on the other side of your house. This is especially common if you have a fire that starts at night in a different part of the house from where your bedrooms are. In case of a major fire, the smoke will eventually travel throughout the house and set most or all of the detectors off. However, by the time the smoke travels far enough to set off the detectors in or near your bedrooms, the fire can end up spreading to the point that you end up trapped. The majority of deaths that occur as a result of a house fire happen due to smoke inhalation. With interconnected smoke detectors, you will be immediately alerted if a fire starts anywhere in your house so that you can hopefully get everyone outside before the smoke and flames start spreading very far.
Why Having Hard-Wired Smoke Detectors Is a Smart Choice
There are some battery-powered “smart” smoke detectors that connect to a home’s Wi-Fi network so that all of the units in the house are still interconnected and will go off if any of them detect the presence of smoke. Some of these units can also be set up so that they will contact the local fire department in case of a fire. The issue is that these units obviously rely on an internet connection. If your internet goes out because a fire damages your router or for any other reason, you’ll lose the interconnectivity. That means a fire in one part of the house will still only set off the nearby detectors, and it may take up to a few minutes before the other units start going off.
Having smart smoke detectors is still a good option since they will let you know if a fire starts while you’re gone as long as your Wi-Fi still works. Nonetheless, the far better option is to have an electrician install hard-wired smoke detectors that are directly connected to your home’s electrical system. Although hard-wired smoke detectors primarily get power from the building’s electrical system, they always have batteries as well. You have an extra failsafe should a fire ever occur while your power is out, such as in a situation where lightning strikes your house and starts a fire while also overloading and frying your electrical system.
If a fire were to occur while your power was out, there is always a slight chance that the batteries in one of the units could be dead and prevent that detector from going off. Nonetheless, if one smoke detector with good batteries were to go off, the batteries would allow it to still signal all of the other units to go off unless the fire spreads to the point where it damages the wiring between the detectors. As long as you make sure to test and check the batteries in all of your smoke detectors monthly, the chance of a fire occurring when your power is out and every detector has dead batteries is basically non-existent.
How to Know Where to Install Smoke Detectors
A professional electrical contractor with smoke alarm services will be able to help you find the best spots to place one. However, there are some general rules and recommendations as to which rooms and parts of a home you should have a smoke detector in. In most places, the rules are based on the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes. Existing homes with all of the bedrooms in one part of the building and only one floor are generally only required to have a single smoke detector. New homes or homes undergoing major renovations are required to meet the most recent fire code requirements and must have at least two interconnected, hard-wired smoke detectors no matter the size, layout or how many floors they have. Nonetheless, updating an existing house to meet the most recent requirements is definitely recommended since it will greatly improve your safety and help prevent injury or death should a fire occur.
The first rule is that you should have one smoke detector installed inside each bedroom as well as an additional unit in the hall outside every bedroom area. If all of your bedrooms are located next to or across from each other, you just need one detector in the hallway in addition to one in each bedroom. The exception is if the hallway is more than 40 feet long and you have bedrooms at each end. In this case, you want to install one detector at each end of the hallway.
If you have more than one story and don’t have bedrooms on each floor, you still need to make sure you have at least one detector on each floor. You should also make sure to have a smoke detector at the top of each stairwell since stairwells essentially act like a chimney that channels smoke and fire upward.
Smoke always rises and settles near ceilings first, which is why you should usually install your smoke detectors directly on the ceiling and not on the wall. The exception is if a room has a peaked or shed ceiling with a slope. In this case, the detector should be installed no less than 4 inches and no more than 36 inches below the peak or high side of the ceiling. Ideally, you should also have the detector located as close to the middle of the room as possible except for rooms with a shed ceiling. If you have a shed ceiling with only one slope, the detector should be located within 3 feet of the high side of the ceiling and can be placed either on the ceiling or the wall.
Since 2006, the team at Absolute Electric has earned a strong reputation for providing expert electrical services including smoke detector installation. We serve customers in the Sterling, VA, and Fort Myers, FL, areas and are always here to help with all of your electrical inspection, repair and installation needs. If you’re looking to upgrade to interconnected smoke detectors and improve your home safety, give us a call, and we’ll handle everything from start to finish.