About Joseph Retzer, C.E.T. Expertise I am knowledgable in the fields of Access Control, CCTV, Fire Alarms, Fire Suppression, and Security Systems. Dealing with the design, installation, and service of each of these systems. I am a NICET Certified Technician in the fields of Fire Protection Engineering Technology/Fire Alarm Systems, and Special Hazards. I have been certified by The National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association as A Certified Alarm Technician. I have been in the security field since 1979 and owned my own security alarm company from 1983 till 1990. In 1994 I became involved in Special Hazards (fire suppression systems such as Halon and CO2, etc.). At present I work for one of the largest fire protection companies in Western New York.
Experience NICET Certified Technician in the fields of:
Fire Protection Engineering Technology/Fire Alarm Systems, and
Special Hazards also Low Voltage Audio Systems.
The National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association:
Certified Alarm Technician.
Question I am hoping you can shed some light on a very annoying subject. My husband and I bought our home a year ago. The house is about six years old. We have smoke detectors through out the house that appear to be wired into the electrical system. Actually, the previous owners appear to have had a fear of not hearing the detectors because there is one in every bedroom, the hall, the hall bathroom, the dining room, the downstairs hallway and the den. Some of these are just a matter of a few feet apart. Anyway, the problem is that my husband and I are being woke up in the middle of the night by the detectors going off for about 10 seconds. After inspection of the house, we find no smoke or fire and go back to bed. It happens again. Normally a couple of times in a row and then it will stop. We can`t figure out why. Of course, if one goes off... they all go off. Why would this happen? We have no instructions or warranty information. I assume the previous owners took all that with them. Can you help us at all? Thank you in advance!
Answer Hello Trina,
I'm sorry for the delay in answering your question.
According to the new NFPA-72 (fire codes) the layout that the previous owners used is just about right, I commend them in thier (or the electricians) wisdom.
As for your false alarm problem, the first thing that you will want to do is identifiy the detector that is causing the false alarm. You should be able to do this if the smoke detectors have this feature... On most smoke detectors the one that caused the alarm will have a red light that will come on steady or blink rapidly when it is in alarm. If your detectors do not have this feature don't worry, the following will help all of your detectors.
Next, you will need to clean the one that went into alarm. Cleaning all of them can only help you in the long run.
Most detectors will have a little notch in the side of them where you can put a small (pocket) screw driver to open the case or you may have to push up on the detector and turn. This step should be done with the power turned off for safety. If not (with your ear plugs in) use a can of compressed air and blow the dirt and dust out of the detector. Keep in mind, the dirt may trip the detectors into alarm.
If you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself, you may want to call a fire alarm company or an electrician that installs fire alarms, to do the cleaning for you. If you use a fire alarm company, they should also test each one and let you know the status of each detector (dirty, wrong placement, etc).
More often than not, dirty detectors are the cause of these intermittant false alarms.
If you would like, I will see if I can get you the installation sheet for your smoke detectors if you can E-Mail me the make and model. This should be on the bottom of the detector.
I hope this helps. If you need additional information, please feel free to contact me again.
