They are Ionized smoke alarms, inside them are ions that move back and forth between two metal plates. If the ion stream gets disrupted by smoke particles, they are supposed to go off. They don't always. We learned that sometimes the ion stream isn't disrupted by larger smoke particles, such as the kind from say a smoldering couch, but don't worry, the smoke particles put off by your toaster is likely to set it off, if it is working!
Enter our new wall bling. We had heat detectors and optical smoke alarms installed yesterday.
The optical smoke alarm works by doing "visual" scan every eight seconds. The second it sees smoke the alarm is set off, unlike the ion alarms which only get set off if the particles are the correct size to interrupt the ion stream.
Therefore if you have a fire, within eight seconds of smoke appearing these alarms sound. That gives you and your family a lot of time to get out of the house. The heat sensors are placed in areas that are typically hot to start with, such as attics, shops, kitchens, utility rooms.
By the way, yesterday before our new bling was installed, we put some paper into a canning jar, lit it, put the lid on and made some decent smoke. After awhile we took the lid off and Lindsay and I commented on how bad it smelled, but the old Ion smoke alarm never went off. The smoke filled jar, was placed less than five feet away from it.
The new system is pricey. We violated our principles of not buying anything on "credit" (we are making payments to the company, not to a credit card company however). Tim is feeling a bit of stress over that. However, we feel like it is a wise thing to do. And we should get a reduction in our homeowners insurance by having these put in. We will of course, pay it off asap.
Meanwhile, we are prepared for the possibility of a fire, and knowing that we will know about it long before there is toxic smoke and flames. With five kids in the house, we have talked about how to get out of the house, where to meet, etc...they know how to use the fire extinguishers.
We pray that this wall bling will never need to be used.
9 comments:
By the way, Emily started calling it "Wall Bling" and well it just stuck!
Kudos to you, Mrs.Rabe, for alerting us to the common failing of regular smoke detectors. We have escape plans, too.
Your new wall bling is attractive *and* useful! Such a deal! Such an important bit of news for the rest of us. I'm going to show Rocky your post this evening.
All that is good but.....that wall color is beautiful!
Did you like the green wall color or the yellow?
Wow, that was good information. Thanks for sharing that. Fire is so deadly, yet it seems to be one of the things we prepare for the least. We used to have wired in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, but in this house they are not. We better go check on their efficiency. Thank you for pointing that out. How scary.
Have you seen the Dateline shows where the kids never (or very slowly) wake up to the sound of smoke alarms? They are such deep sleepers that they can sleep for 20 minutes with one going off. They showed three kids sleeping right through them, barely stirring but continuing to sleep while the alarm is blaring.
That is so frightening!
Happy day, dear! Thanks again for the great advice.
xoxxo
Thanks for checking out my new blog and inviting me to yours. I know I'll be back to visit again. May I add you to my blogroll?
The smoke detector info is news to me-thanks for sharing that.
Karen,
Thank you for visiting! You may add me to your blog roll, that is a kind compliment.
The green wall color is dreamy. Do you happen to know the name offhand?
The color is Willowbrook by Valspar at Lowe's! It is a lovely color and is in my hallway.
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