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Aug. 1st, 2008 11:52 amThere are two types of smoke alarms, ionising and photoelectric. The ionising type, which was fitted in my house, is good at detecting the heat and smoke of a house fire, but easily confused by steam and other sources of heat, so it's not recommended for use in areas such as kitchens and bathrooms. They stuck mine in the hallway right above the bathroom door.
We've become accustomed to closing the bathroom door all the way before turning on the heater light (and it's winter, so we usually want to use the heater light) and cringing a bit when coming out of the bathroom again in case some steam gets into the alarm. But now the silly thing has taken to screaming when it senses an incandescent bulb being switched on in the hallway, so we've taken its battery away.
With all the government-sponsored warnings about the absolute necessity of smoke alarms in the home I feel almost like a criminal. Will someone come and take away my license to live in a house now? I may have to go and sleep in a ditch, where at the moment there is very little risk of fire. It's put a new slant on all those sad newspaper stories about the family who were burnt to death where someone from the fire department says it never would have happened if the house had had working smoke alarms. Maybe they sabotaged their alarm, or just didn't bother replacing the battery, because they were sick of hearing it go off.
A photoelectric smoke alarm has been vaguely on the shopping list for a while now. I wish one had been fitted from the start. It would be nice if the alarms that the fire station gives away were the more effective type, but I suppose they're a little more expensive.
We've become accustomed to closing the bathroom door all the way before turning on the heater light (and it's winter, so we usually want to use the heater light) and cringing a bit when coming out of the bathroom again in case some steam gets into the alarm. But now the silly thing has taken to screaming when it senses an incandescent bulb being switched on in the hallway, so we've taken its battery away.
With all the government-sponsored warnings about the absolute necessity of smoke alarms in the home I feel almost like a criminal. Will someone come and take away my license to live in a house now? I may have to go and sleep in a ditch, where at the moment there is very little risk of fire. It's put a new slant on all those sad newspaper stories about the family who were burnt to death where someone from the fire department says it never would have happened if the house had had working smoke alarms. Maybe they sabotaged their alarm, or just didn't bother replacing the battery, because they were sick of hearing it go off.
A photoelectric smoke alarm has been vaguely on the shopping list for a while now. I wish one had been fitted from the start. It would be nice if the alarms that the fire station gives away were the more effective type, but I suppose they're a little more expensive.
