We all heard stories of houses that were destroyed by small wiring cables or any other form of incident that in the end lead to a fire.
Some of them could have been picked up early and actions could have been taken on time.
A smoke detector also known as a smoke alarm is a device that early detects fire/smoke in your home and once detected it alerts the occupants to evacuate or take action.
How does it work?
Smoke detectors identify fire by sensing smoke particles in the air, which once detected trigger the alarm either connected to the smoke detectors themselves or if they are connected, by sending a signal to the entire alarm system of your household.
There are two types of smoke detectors, ionization, and photoelectric smoke detectors.
The difference between the two types of smoke detectors is that the ionization is built in form of chamber with two electrically charged plates and radioactive materials that ionize/stabilized the air moving between the plates.
Once combustion is detected and enters the chamber the instability that will be created between the charged will trigger the system.
The photoelectric smoke detector in simple words is built according to how smoke from a fire changes the intensity of light passing through the air.
Advantages of having smoke detectors.
- Early detection of fire
- 24/7 Monitoring
- Easy and affordable
- Help to avoid smoke inhalation
- Photoelectric is less prone to false alarms from cooking fumes or shower steam.
Disadvantages
Although they are important for our safety, Smoke detectors come with certain disadvantages.
- Certain smoke detectors are sensitive to dust particles and insects.
- Photoelectric require more power to operate on average they are connected to a 110-volt power source.
- Powering the alarm – the fact that they are connected to the electricity if the power goes off for example in case of a power outage the smoke detectors will also go off.