Where Should Smoke Alarms Be Installed?

Indeed, smoke alarm installation is a crucial safety measure to tick off, but it will be fruitful when the smoke alarm detectors have been installed in the right place in your home. Only then do you get the maximum warning time for escapade. If installed in the wrong place, then its effectiveness will surely decline.

Often the electricians recommend smoke alarm installations in every room for optimal safety. Rather, you should have smoke alarms installed in your hall, living room, the basement, the attic, and definitely your bedrooms. In fact, to strengthen security, one smoke alarm, at the very least, should be installed on every floor.

Smoke Alarm Installation In A Typical Single-Storey Home

Have a smoke alarm installed on the wall or the ceiling inside each bedroom and in the hallway. Outside each separate sleeping area, there should be one smoke alarm installed. If your bedroom area or the hallway extends to more than 30 feet long, then you should have a smoke alarm installed at each end. In a basement, a smoke alarm should be installed on the basement ceiling at the stairwell’s bottom.

Installing A Smoke Alarm In A Typical Multi-Storey or Split-Level Home

You will have to install a smoke alarm on each bedroom’s ceiling or wall and in the hallway outside each separate sleeping area. The smoke alarm should be installed at each end when the bedroom area of the hallway is more than 30 feet long. On the top of a first-to-second-floor stairwell, make sure to install a smoke alarm.

Where Do the Electricians Recommend To Install the Smoke Alarms?

The area where a smoker is sleeping or where the electrical appliances are being operated in sleeping areas should have a smoke alarm installed. Rising to the ceiling, the heat, smoke, and other combustion products start spreading horizontally. When the smoke alarm is mounted on the ceiling in the room’s center, it is closer to the rooms’ points.

In ordinary residential constructions, ceiling mounting is prefered. Nevertheless, in mobile homes, a thermal barrier likely to form in the ceiling should be avoided, so wall mounting is preferred on an inside partition.

Important Information On Smoke Alarm Installation and Exception

As close as possible, the smoke alarms should be placed to the center of the ceiling, or else not so close than 300mm to any corner or wall. These should never be closer than 900mm from the pointed ceiling’s apex or tip.

Each room divided by a partition wall, should have a smoke alarm installed.
Make sure to install a smoke alarm in lived-in attics in the attics housing the electrical equipment such as air conditioners, heaters, and furnaces.

Where Should Smoke Alarms Never Be Installed?

Never install the smoke alarms in the areas near appliances or where normal combustion is taking place regularly, like near furnaces and water heaters. Smoke alarms should be installed at least 3 meters or 10 feet away from areas with high humidity, like washing machines, dishwashers, and bathrooms.

Air keeps on returning or heating and cooling the supply vents. So, the smoke alarms should be installed at least 900mm or 3 feet away from these areas. The air is most likely to blow the smoke away from the detector and interrupt its alarm. Loose particles are likely to interfere with smoke alarm operations in extremely dirty, dusty, and smoke-infested areas.

At the end of the conclusion, it is worth saying that the smoke alarm in homes can be correctly installed by a professional smoke alarm installation service to keep your family protected from fires. Licensed electricians can only install and maintain the hardwired or interconnected smoke alarms.

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