Smoke alarm preference

James Con

I am installing hardwired smokes in my existing house plus the addition I added. I been reading up on the different types of smokes, Ionization and Photoelectric. Both have pro's and con's. So what do you guys think is a better smoke. Keep in mind I would like to know what you guys would put in your own homes, not in a customers home ( contractor grade). Thanks

James Con

I hope no one here ever has a fire in there house. lol

fw2007

What type of smoke alarm you install depends on your town's preference. In my home, when we had an addition put on, we had to get whole-house system, and first the contractor put in ionization type. Then the FD came to inspect and said we had the wrong ones. This particular town requires photo type.
IMO, the best option is to use model that has both types built into one unit. They make these in stand-alone type, but not sure about hard-wired.

FW

James Con

Good idea, I'll check with the local FD to see what they recomend. I did'nt know they had them to do both. I'll see what I could find. Thanks

CowboyAndy

James, don't forget to check your local codes about c02 detectors as well. My town requires one on every floor (including basement)... although it makes me wonder because doesnt c02 sink? so what would be the point of one on the second floor? oh well, thats what they want.

The upstairs hallway, living room and basement ones are combo smoke/c02.

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Silk

Hey Cowboy, I think you've been listening to Al Gore too much. CO2 (carbon dioxide) is not a harmful gas, if it was you would have to quit breathing. CO (carbon monoxide) is what kills you when you run a gardon hose from your tailpipe into you car and sit thier for a while.
Just Kidding, I figure it what a typo on your part, as to the density of CO2 (typo, I mean CO), I think it is neutral to slightly lighter than the gas composition that makes up our air. So it would just sort of just mix in with the air or tend to rise.

CowboyAndy

Well, I am going to disagree with you there. At standard temperature and pressure, the density of carbon dioxide is around 1.98 kg/m³, about 1.5 times that of air.

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Silk

Oops, that was my typo. Nobody cares about CO2 (carbon dioxide), it's carbon monoxide (CO) that is about neutral. Get off the CO2 kick! Al Gore has you all screwed up!

Silk

Do you understand that you don't have a carbon dioxide detector in your house?

CowboyAndy

Man, you got me all confuzeled! Anyway, I didn't mean c02 (that was only a few hours of sleep talking)

I honestly meant CO detector.


But, that being said, CO is still about 3% lighter than air. But it will all come down to other factors (nitrogen saturation of the air mostly) and the composition of the fuel that is being burned in a house that cound potentially create CO INSIDE the house.

Airflow in the house also has alot to do with it too.

btw, I just wanted to point out that I should have mentioned that In MY house I didn't see a point to having one on the 2nd floor. Here is why.

The only co producing thing is the furnace. That is in the basement. We have forced air heating, but none to the second floor. However, there is a large cold air return at the bottom of the stairs to go to the second floor, which draws air FROM the second floor.

I can't imagine how the co would rise all that distance (3 floors) with enough saturation to he harmful.

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Silk

So now that we got to the point that CO is neutral to slightly lighter that air and not heavier as per your previous post you are still going to argue about having a detector on your top floor?
If you have a problem with your furnace emitting CO then it will be mixed in with all the air being circulated around your house. The point of having detectors on every floor is so you can hear them when they go off. How good is it to have a monoxide detector going off in the basement when you're sleeping on the top floor?

CowboyAndy

Like I mentioned, I MEANT to point out that in my house.

I have a fully interconnected system, and if either the CO or smoke go off, they ALL go off. We know this for a fact because a while back we had an issue with our furnace (i dont know ANYTHING about them, so excuse my ignorance) where there was something that was burnt off (end cone or something) and was producing an abundance of soot and set off our CO detector. ALL the detectors in the house went off, and when the FD came, they said there were very small traces in the house, not enough to set anything off. But the basement had very high levels.

So, in MY case, I don't see the need to spend money for something that I don't need. But, as I stated earlier, code requires it so it is there.

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Silk

So you don't have any heat registers in your top floor, poor circulation throughout your house, scared of carbon dioxide, want to jumper 2 pole breakers to see what happens, ect...................................

maybe it should be "RedneckAndy"

fw2007

Well, they DO use CO2 detectors in the space station! High levels of CO2 are really bad in that kind of situation.

FW

CowboyAndy

No, there are no heat registers on 2nd floor.

Poor circulation of air, yes.


No, I do not want to jumper 2 pole breakers. I want to know what would happen if someone did! There is a difference.

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