Has anyone had a problem with installing smoke detectors in spaces that have extremes of temperatures?
I have had hard wired smoke detectors on all 4 floors of our house, from attic to basement for over 7 years. Over the years I have had numerous instances of the alarms going off at odd times. Most often during the night in very cold weather, but occasionally in the summer on clear, sunny days. Except for that, there is no other detectable pattern.
The last time, we had false alarms every other night for a week during temps in the 20’s, and I disconnected the house curcuit to the detectors, leaving them only on battery power, except for the attic unit, from which I removed the battery so that it is entirely unpowered. There have been no new false alarms. This is hardly proof that that detector is the problem.
I bought a replacement and see from the specs that the “optimum” operating range is +40 deg F to +100 deg F, way above winter temps here in central PA, making me more suspicious that the attic detector may be problematic.
As a foster parent, I am required to have smoke detectors on all floors, and using a wood stove, I like having the additional protection in the attic.
My questions:
Has anyone else had similar experience?
Can I reilably install a “regular” smoke detector in an unheated attic? And if not,
Are there other units that are better suited for this space that would work with the other existing units?
Thanks for any help.
Replies
Question for you, that may or may not assist someone else with more knowledge on the situation:
Do you have a carbon monoxide detector tied into the system?
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
No CO detector, just smoke detectors.
First of all there are two types of smoke detectors, ionization and photocell. They detect different types of fire. One fast fires, the other smoldering fires.
There are some dual types.
Most common are ionization. Both types are prone to problems with dust and cogwebs and attic would have those.
Also air movements in attics would probably prevent them from going off until you have a big fire.
But there are heat and rate of rise heat detectors. I don't know if any are designed to be tied into a interlinked powered smoke system.
I would check with the manfuactors tec support. And you probably want a line that is more commercial and not a series that is sold in the home horror stores.
Firex is one line. I have installed a couple to replace broken ones from Firex (in general you need to use the same series or at least ones that are list as being compatable). I like them becasue you can replace the batteries from the outside. That is how the old ones got broken.
But I have no idea if they have heat sensors or not.
Most heat sensor that I have seen are designed to wire into an alarm system.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I'll have to look into Firex. The existing ones are FirstAlert, Model 86RAC. They provide smoke sensitivity numbers, but otherwise don't say what type they are. The First Alert website search function comes up with no match on that model # (grumble). I may call and see what they have to say type, compatibility and placement.
thanks, wsf.
Yes, replace the unit. We had detectors go bad. One failed every night that we turned the heat down in hte winter below 60 degrees. The other went off every time we took a shower, steam in the hallway set it off. Replaced both and no problems.
A knowledgeable person can disconnect the common wire on the attic detector while still leaving it powered. If you can hear into the attic then you'll be able to tell if it goes off without the others.
A little fancier would be to split the system in two, and see which half alarms. Requires tracing out the circuit.
Condensation in a detector is the most likely reason for a false alarm, in the absence of a "real" trigger like tobacco or cooking smoke. But also some may include a thermal alarm, likely set for 110 or so.
And don't discount the possibility of chimney smoke being drawn in through the eaves.
Good suggestion. I re-installed the attic unit without the common wire. Manual testing only turned on the attic unit, not the rest of the house.
3 hours later the attic alarm was going off. No smoke in the attic, outside temp 23 deg F.
I'll have to look into detectors certified to work in low temps, higher temps and high humidity. Perhaps Firex has some.
wsf