Monitoring and Smoke Detectors

[Mike]

I am finishing off the smoke/heat/co2 protection portion of my Elk install. There were some discussions here awhile back on whether it made sense to put a smoke detector in the kitchen.

One thought was, put it in and deal with false alarms, possibly even putting a keypad nearby or in the kitchen.

I thought this was reasonable (in itself sounds like a bad thing), but realized I was going to tie this to a central station. Is there a delay before notifying the central station, or if I went this route should I plan on calling them in the case of a false alarm?

The monitoring aspect (unless there is a clean alternative, as I don't want the fire dept dispatched because my alarm sent off the signal because my biscuits were burning...) makes me rethink this.

Any opinions or experiences?

One alternative is to just put a co2 and heat detector in.

 

[rfdesq]

From personal experience I would put a heat detector in the kitchen. I have had the fire department show up at my house even before the monitoring company called me or I was able to call them to abort the alarm. You can program a delay in dialing the central station, and yes you should always call the central station and report a false alarm.

 

[Mike]

Thanks, I think that makes sense. Clearly a delay could be added, but should it? If it is not a false alarm do I want that delay?

 

[Mike]

One question on the heat detectors: While I found a reference that they can be ceiling or wall mounted, are there any issues with mounting them on a wall?

From looking at them it seems they use a wax like substance that I presume melts and releases the center of the detector and closes a circuit. I have an installation point where it is easy to mount on the wall, I just don't want to take the 'easy' way out if it can affect reliability.

I would assume that if this was a consideration wall mounting would not be listed and would be stated so, but figured I would check.

 

[Digger]

My opinion


You want to mount the heat detector where it will be able to react as quickly as possible to a fire. Obviously heat rises etc so a ceiling mount is usually preferred.

Heat detectors are designed for property protection and do not detect most fires as quickly as a smoke detector. They are not intended for life safety but they are better than no protection.

I mounted a wireless Caddix Heat detector on my kitchen ceiling in the center of the room which happens to be about 4 feet from the stove.

You can check NFPA 72 requirements for locations of heat detectors as well.

 

[Mike]

Thanks, I hadn't thought about wireless sensors, that would make it easier in that room.

And good point on NFPA 72.

 

[rfdesq]

You want to mount the heat detector where it will be able to react as quickly as possible to a fire. Obviously heat rises etc so a ceiling mount is usually preferred.

Digger is correct. I've always mounted my heat detectors surface mount on the ceiling. In the kitchen I mount them near the cook island or stove top which would be the likely source of combustion. Depending on the size of a garage I mount them for an engine fire and gas tank fire. I am about to install several Edwards heat and rate of rise detectors and I checked the instructions for you. Nothing definitive in the pamphlet.

 

[Mike]

Thanks for checking. I had neglected to consider wireless sensors for this (even though I am using a few elsewhere) which removes the wall vs ceiling consideration.