Occasionally, you will walk into a store and a bell will go off as you cross the threshold. If you look, you will often notice that aphoto beam detectoris being used. Near the door on one side of the store is alight(either a white light and a lens or a low-powerlaser), and on ...
Open up a real optical detector and you'll find something like this:Photo: An optical smoke detector with the cover removed. The large black cylinder is the chamber where the smoke is detected. There's a long-life lithium battery, a piezoelectric alarm (which makes the shrill noise), and...
2. Your smoke detector alarm is faulty and repeatedly goes off. In addition to smoke, dirt, dust, steam, humidity, insects, strong chemical fumes and a low battery — your smoke detector may be malfunctioning because it has reached the end of its lifespan. Consult your owner’s manual or...
Battery-powered smoke detectors are stand-alone units. But if you have AC-powered smoke detectors in your home and your home has been built in the last 10 years in the U.S., chances are they are wired together to intercommunicate. This sort of wiring guarantees that if one alarm in the...
Smoke alarms are often located outside bedroom doors. That means the alert sound needs to be loud enough to go through doors and wake up sleeping people in case of a fire at night. Alarms should also have a low-battery notification function that makes a repetitive beep when the battery pow...
A siren, often able to create a variety of sounds so that you can pick a distinct sound for your car A radio receiver to allow wireless control from a car key fob An auxiliary battery so that the alarm can operate even if the main battery gets disconnected A computer control unit that ...
These devices, often called "connected" or "smart" devices, can sometimes talk to other related devices, a process called machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and act on the information they get from one another. Humans can interact with the gadgets to set them up, give them instructions...
Rebecca is the lead safety reporter and in-house expert for SafeWise.com. She has been a journalist and blogger for over 25 years, with a focus on home and community safety for the past decade. Rebecca spends dozens of hours every month poring over crime and safety reports and spotting tr...
†Google and Google Nest Secure are trademarks of Google LLC. Share Article Written by Rebecca Edwards Rebecca is the lead safety reporter and in-house expert for SafeWise.com. She has been a journalist and blogger for over 25 years, with a focus on home and community safety for the past...
How To Reset a FireX Smoke Alarm: Resetting yourbattery-operated or hardwiredunit often stops false alarms. Start by removing all sources of power. For a hard-wired unit, turn off the power to the alarm circuit by switching off the appropriate breaker in your home's service panel (breaker...