smoke detector

[<troubled]

Recently moved into a 2 year old townhouse and the smoke detectors are hardwired all on one circuit. If one goes off, do they all go off?

[terry]

Probably: That now seems to be standard here if there is more than one inhabited floor. And some 30 years ago was the rule in all townhouses owned and operated by our Public Housing Commission. Mandatory AC operation instead of the usual 9 volt battery operation was used because children might steal the batteries to operate the then popular transistor radios! In a friends extensively and recently renovated (to code) house the new smoke alarms on each of 3 floors are linked. They appear to be AC operated with apparently a battery backup?

[greg6755]

You can test it by pressing the "TEST" button on one.

If they are linked they will all go off.

[RBM]

That depend upon your local codes. Pull one unit down and see if all three wires connected to it are attached to wires in the outlet box, if so, they are interconnected

[Big_Jake]

Funny, that&#39;s not how my hard wired ones work. You can test them individually, but setting one off, with smoke will cause them all to go off. Of course, when one fails and sets them all off, it always happens around 4 AM... :-)

JK

[trader4]

Most likely they are interconnected. All the ones where they were on multiple levels and wired on one cricuit that I&#39;ve seen in the last

20+ years have been. I would think this would be required by code in any new townhouse type dwelling. The obvious idea is that if the one in the basement goes off, you want the one in the 3rd floor bedroom to go off to make sure you wake up.

[Just Joshin]

Smoke detectors should be tested frequently(read instructions), this pondering should give you more reason to test them. ;)

tom @