Smoke alarms

11/23/2020 (Permalink)

Smoke alarms can save property and lives.

The scientific research behind smoke alarms and how they protect your home is always evolving. The mission behind each organization that participates in this important research is to protect people in their homes and to reduce life and economic loss due to fire.

There are two types of smoke alarms generally used in homes:

*Ionization

*Photoelectric

These two types of smoke alarms sense the presence of smoke differently.

The type of smoke produced by a fire depends on the type of fire, Flaming fires and smoldering fire give off different types of smoke Both alarms detect the smoke from either a smoldering fire or a flaming fire.

• Ionization smoke alarms tend to respond faster to the smoke produced by flaming fires than photoelectric smoke alarms.

• Photoelectric smoke alarms tend to respond faster to the smoke produced by smoldering fires than ionization smoke alarms.

In testing the result of these time differences have been mixed , some test result times are trivial while others are considerable.

No one can say one type is better then the other due to every fire being so different. The USFA recommends that every home and place where people sleep be equipped with either a ionization or photoelectric smoke alarms, or a dual sensor smoke alarms.

Whatever type of alarm you choose remember to conduct regular maintenance and battery testing to ensure the safety of your home.