Years ago the choice was easy:
Either Ionisation or Optical and either battery powered or interlinked. Now there seems to be so much choice and I need some advice. I'm currently in the middle of a re-wire, so all floorboards are up and access is easy (for now!)
I would prefer an interlink option, but noticed that many battery models now have 7+ battery lifes. Is it therefore worth putting in mains powered devices?
Any suggestions on what will keep my family same?
Buy them identical clothes and rename them all 'Frank'
HTH
Its like asking how long is a piece of string. The benefits of mains interlinked are:
- less likely to lose power
- alarm signal is relayed throughout the house
You can always fit the wiring but not hook it up, and no mains detectors. Just routing some 1mm and nothing else is pretty cheap.
If it includes a teenager, give up on the sanity thing now.
I'd stick some cat5es down while you can. As well as reliable networking, they'll have various uses over the decades ahead. And again the cable's cheap.
NT
Domestic mains ones seemed to come about due to many many battery ones found not working due to the battery being "borrowed" for something else, or due to not being replaced when dead, and/or never being tested.
So it really boils down to how disciplined you are. You might look around your house at your existing battery powered items, and see how many are not working due to dead/missing batteries. I keep a stock of all the battery types I use, so there's never any reason to "borrow" one from something else, nor to leave dead batteries in anything, so I would be happy with battery powered smoke alarms. (Actually, all mine are powered from the burglar alarm - effectively mains powered with central battery backup.)
One tip I have heard someone suggest is to pick the same day every year, such as your birthday, which is the day you replace all the smoke detector batteries.
Hi
You can even have radio-interlinked smoke alarms with 10 year battery life (eg Ei605TYCRF and so on). These alarms are sealed and usually are accepted as a replacement for a mains powered system
Harry
But it'd usually be a *lot* cheaper if the floorboards are up to use mains interlinked - eg ? The more so if there's a risk one will be around in 10 years when they fall due for replacement.
Yes. I installed smoke alarms and the cable was more expensive than the alarms which were dirt cheap. 4 core cables is not heap....
On an aside, I've had a Kidde mains interlinked under test for a while. Seems to have battery (rechargeable) problems already as in it dies as soon as the mains fails.
Not impressed. Think I'll switch to Aico for the system...
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