Smoke Detectors

A home is a place where families live can comfortably and safely. It is a must for homeowners then to provide the necessary security devices in their homes to keep them safe at all times. Apart from the locks and bolts and alarm systems necessary in a home, there’s another important device that should not be forgotten – the smoke detector. Investing in a quality smoke detector is worth your money because it can save many lives.

Whether a home has a fireplace or not, a smoke detector should always be present. The device will help the occupants of a home in times of fire. With a smoke detector, the fire station in your local area will be alarmed about any fire incident in your home.

A smoke detector is a disk-shaped device with a test button that can easily be installed by homeowners. In buildings, this is normally installed on the ceiling although wall-mounted types are also available today. As its name suggests, the device detects the presence of smoke and then issues a signal to a fire alarm system. It operates with the use of either electricity (120-volt house current) or batteries (9-volt and lithium). The stand alone smoke detectors are those powered by batteries while those AC-powered ones are normally wired in the house. In a home with several detectors, their wirings are interconnected for effective communication within the house.

Types of smoke detector

Basically, there are two types of smoke detectors – the optical or a photoelectric type and the ionization unit. Every smoke detector is made up of two parts which are the sensor that detects the smoke and a loud electric horn to warn people in the house.

The optical smoke detector makes use of a light sensor. This type features a bulb or LED, a lens and a photodiode. Optical detectors are fast in detecting the presence of smoke especially from smoldering fires. However, previous tests have found them to be less efficient in detecting smoke from flaming fires compared to the ionization types of detector. Their ability to detect smoke is about 30 seconds later than the ionization unit which means they cannot sense smoke resulting from cooking in the kitchen.

The ionization smoke detector is actually more efficient and more affordable. Its edge over the optical type is its built-in security feature. In other words, when the battery for this kind of smoke detector is already low, the ion current goes down and the device makes an alarm sound informing the homeowner that the battery needs to be changed. Sometimes, though, they are less preferred owing to their high sensitivity to even the smallest amount of smoke as well for environmental reasons.

Other than the two basic types, there is a new type known as the air sampling. Sometimes referred to as the VESDA system, this type of smoke detector uses laser to detect microscopic particles of smoke. It is also considered a high sensitivity smoke detector (HSSD) because of its ability to detect even the tiniest smoke particles not visible to the eyes.