5 Factors To Consider When Installing Fire Alarms In Your Home
3/14/2022 (Permalink)
When you move into a new home in Clearfield, UT, there is so much to think about. How will each room be set up? What paint colors will you choose? One thing many new home owners forget to do is install a fire alarm. While you might not be thinking about your safety plan in the first few weeks of homeownership, it's an important step to take to keep your family safe.
Here are five factors to consider when installing fire alarms in your home.
5 Key Factors to Consider as regards Fire Alarms
1. Why Should I Install Fire Alarms?
Some people think that they don't need alarms in their homes. Maybe because the home is small, they think they'll notice any emergency. Some think that because they are light sleepers, they would smell smoke and have time to evacuate. Home fires can occur when you're not home, and even the most safety conscious person can have an accident.
Fire alarms save lives and prevent smoke damage to your belongings. If a fire does occur, an emergency restoration service can help repair your home.
2. How Many Floors Does My Home Have?
At an absolute minimum, you need to have one smoke detector on each floor of your home. If you have a basement, a main floor, and an upstairs, you need at least three alarms. The more square feet you have, the more alarms you need. In a small home, like an apartment, it may be sufficient to have one alarm near the bedrooms and one in the kitchen.
In a larger home, you want to be sure that an alarm can be heard not matter where a person is, so it would be important to put multiple alarms on each floor to keep everyone safe.
3. Where Should I Install a Fire Alarm?
The National Fire Protection Association recommends a fire alarm in each sleeping room and one outside the room. If you have two bedrooms upstairs, two on the main floor, and one in the basement, you should have at least eight alarms in your home.
4. What Type of Alarm Should I Install?
There are many brands of fire alarms to choose from. An alarm should detect smoke and carbon monoxide, but many can alert you to other problems too, like increased temperature. Alarms can be battery-operated or wired into the home.
Ideally, all alarms should be connected to one another so that when one sounds, all alarms sound. That ensures that everyone will know that there is an emergency.
5. How Often Do I Need to Check My Alarms?
Test your smoke alarms once a month. You're more likely to notice a low battery indicator or a problem in wiring when you check them often. Change the batteries when you change your clocks. When you move into a new home, replace the smoke detectors unless the seller told you when they did it. Otherwise, replace the alarms every ten years.
Moving to a new home is exciting and stressful. Take one stress off your plate and install smoke detectors all around your home to prevent fire damage and to keep your family safe.