| Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre - Australia
Review prompts change to smoke alarm advice
A research review commissioned by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has identified some important differences in the performance of different types of smoke alarms. A review conducted by Victoria University for the Bushfire CRC and the CRC’s fire agency partners clearly indicates that the photoelectric type of domestic smoke alarm is more effective than the more common ionisation type of alarm at detecting smouldering fires in houses.
|
122 |
|
| Consumer Build
Smoke alarms, sprinkler systems and fire resistant materials are some of the options for protecting your home and family in the event of a fire. |
154 |
|
| National Institute of Standards and Technology -USA
NIST home smoke alarm tests: The purpose of the project is to determine if different types of fire alarms can respond to threatening residential fire settings in order to permit egress of typical
groups of occupants. The ability of the alarm devices to avoid nuisance alarms will also be evaluated. In the NIST experiments the photoelectric detectors sensed smoldering fires on average 30 minutes earlier than the ionization detectors. The same study demonstrated that ionization detectors responded, on average, 50 seconds earlier than photoelectric detectors during flaming fire experiments.
|
107 |
|
| New South Wales Fire Brigades policy on smoke alarms?
The NSWFB recommends the installation of photoelectric type smoke alarms in all residential buildings.Some questions have been raised in recent years
regarding the effectiveness of ionisation alarms. This is because tests
show that photoelectric alarms can be more effective in detecting
smouldering fires while ionisation alarms are slightly more effective
in detecting flaming fires.
|
134 |
|
| NZ Fire Service
Studies indicate that photoelectric alarms pick up smouldering smoke faster than traditional ionisation alarms because they can “see” smoke, rather than detecting burned particles. Also, because of the way photoelectric alarms detect fire, they are less likely to be set off by cooking fumes or steam.
|
166 |
|
| Queensland Fire and Rescue Service
If you already have smoke alarms installed, QFRS recommends that you supplement the existing alarms with photoelectric types, especially between sleeping areas and exits from your home (e.g. hallways); and at the end of the service life of existing smoke alarms, replace them with photoelectric types.
|
125 |
|
| Victorian Country Fire Authority
The research indicates that although both ionisation and photo-electric smoke alarms provide occupants time to escape, it concludes that photo-electric alarms should be promoted as the technology of choice. Whilst ionisation alarms have helped save the lives of hundreds of people in Australia and New Zealand, CFA urges all householders to supplement their existing ionisation smoke alarms with photo-electric alarms.
|
112 |
|
| Wikipedia
Optical smoke detectors are quick in detecting slow burning, smoky fires. They are less sensitive to false alarming from cooking and bathroom steam than ionization smoke alarms.
|
308 |