Household Smoke Alarms

The Fire Administration is aware that there is a debate concerning whether a Smoke Alarm Kangaroo Point is the most appropriate for protecting individuals in their homes. It is working to resolve the issue. According to our objective to reduce the number of lives lost and the amount of money lost due to fire, we provide the following recommendations for residential smoke alarms.

The body of scientific information concerning fire, smoke, and smoke detection has grown over a long period and is now rather substantial. Numerous research projects have been financed entirely or partially by the Fire Administration including a recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Center for Fire Research. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), National Fire Protection Association, Underwriters Laboratories, Home Fire Safety Council (HFSC), Residential Fire Safety Institute (RFSI), Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, and distinguished academics with expertise in smoke alarm and sensor technology are some of the other organisations that have contributed to this knowledge. As a result of the investigation, the following conclusions have been reached:

Photoelectric and ionisation smoke alarms are the two types that are most commonly used in homes nowadays. The presence of smoke is detected differently by each of these smoke alarms.

The nature of the fire itself determines the sort of smoke created by a fire. Flaming fires produce a different form of smoke as opposed to smouldering fires.

A smouldering fire will trigger one smoke alarm, while a burning fire will trigger the other smoke alarm. For many years, it has been established and well recognised that ionisation smoke alarms respond more quickly to the smoke produced by blazing fires than photoelectric smoke alarms, and this has been true for many years.

Photoelectric smoke alarms are more responsive to the smoke created by smouldering fires than ionisation smoke alarms, which means they can detect a fire more quickly.

When ionisation and photoelectric smoke alarms were tested in full-scale fires, it was discovered that the difference in time to notice between the two types of alarms was negligible. The difference in response time between other full-scale fire tests was significant in other cases.

Based on this information, the Fire Administration makes the following recommendations to the general public as well as state and local legislative bodies that may be struggling with the issue of which type of smoke alarm to employ in residence:

No single fire alarm is superior to another, and we cannot generalise it because every fire is different.

Given the fact that both ionisation and photoelectric smoke alarms are more effective at detecting distinctly different but potentially fatal fires, and given the fact that no one can predict what type of fire will start in a home, the USFA recommends that every home and place where people sleep be equipped with either

a)      both ionization and photoelectric smoke alarms, or

b)      Dual sensor smoke alarms (which contain both ionisation and photoelectric smoke sensors).

Depending on the location of a fire, the site of a smoke alarm within a home may be more significant than the type of smoke alarm that is there. The United States Fire Administration suggests that customers follow the manufacturer's recommendations to place smoke alarms in their homes.

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Created on Dec 6th 2021 14:19. Viewed 212 times.

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