Scenario: You move into a new house. You notice that the smoke alarms look kind of old. You’re not sure if they’ll actually work in a fire. One of them actually chirps for no reason every so often. You decide to replace them, but you keep putting it off.
Then one night before you go to bed, your wife decides to throw her favorite pair of pants in the dryer so they’ll be ready for her in the morning. But during the night, that bird’s nest in your dryer vent, which you’ve been meaning to clean up, causes a lint clog. It catches fire while your sleeping, the alarms fail to go off, and you die a slow, horrible burning death.
In order to avoid this type of thing, I got to work and replaced my old smoke alarms.
A Quick Interlude: How Alarms Work
There are two types of smoke detectors: photoelectric and ionization.
Photoelectric detectors are set off when smoke particles pass in front of a light beam. They are better for detecting large smoke particles created by smoldering fires, e.g. your living room couch after you drop that lighter you’ve been playing with.
Ionization alarms are set off when alpha particles in the smoke pass through and disrupt an electrical current. These are better for detecting flaming fires, e.g. the deep fryer explodes in your kitchen.
A third type of alarm detects carbon monoxide levels. These are not technically smoke alarms, but they are still recommended in a home, since you could just be standing in the basement next to that old gas furnace, minding your own business, and suddenly fall over dead.
You can learn more about smoke alarms at the Wikipedia page.
What I Bought
After doing some homework, I chose the Kidde KN-COSM-IB. It is one of the higher rated smoke alarms on Consumer Reports. Some of the features:
- Combination CO/ionization detector
- AC powered (no need to keep replacing a battery)
- Battery backup (you don’t want to burn alive even when the power goes out)
- Interconnectable (a wire connects each alarm, allowing one to set off the others, which means you won’t choke and die when you don’t hear the alarm going off downstairs)
- Voice warnings (sexy)
Installation
Installing the alarms was surprisingly easy. I made sure to turn off the circuit to the alarms, which I double checked with a multimeter (that’s right, I own a multimeter). Then it was a matter of matching up the red, black, and white wires.
After I turned the circuit back on, the system initialized with a self test and a sweet angelic voice called out, “Fire! Fire!”
You’re supposed to install an alarm in each bedroom, but my house is small enough. Besides, installing any more would involve real wiring, something I’m not qualified to do and too damn lazy to learn.
You’re also supposed to install both photoelectric and ionization detectors, but the combination units are expensive, and I don’t value my family’s safety that much*.
My next project is to change the thermostat, something even more potentially dangerous.
I’m confused. So these wire into the main circuits in your house? How much wiring did you have to do? Pictures plz.
Also, if you need someone to help you test, let me know.
Also, I saw “*JKLOLLuvyahoney” and thought we had been hacked. It took me a second to realize it was not gibberish.
Yes, they are wired into the house’s main circuit. That’s what “AC powered” means.
The wiring was already in place for the old alarms, so I just had to remove the old alarms and put the new ones in. There are three wires: black (hot), white (neutral), and red (interconnect). You match the wires on the alarm to those in the ceiling.
Pictures pending.
“AC powered” means they are being powered with alternating current. I thought maybe they just plugged into wall sockets or something. The only non-battery powered alarms I have seen were the ones in our old apartment.
That interconnect feature seems kind of cool. My fire alarm infrastructure collapsed when we ran out of 9v batteries.
Interesting post, I look forward to pictures (or you showing me) and your future adventures in home improvement.
Sorry, I thought “AC powered” (which, yes, means alternating current) implied wired straight into the circuit. It would be pretty silly having to plug a smoke alarm that’s mounted in the ceiling to a plug in the wall.