Now that summer is nearly over, it’s time to consider some regular maintenance and preparation for the new season. One of the more important things to maintain consistently is your smoke detector. These devices are vital for the safety of yourself and your family. Since most of them are battery operated, they need fresh batteries to work properly. When the calendar indicates that a new season is approaching, take the time to put new batteries in your smoke detector. A smoke detector with a dead battery is useless, and a useless smoke detector can lead to serious, even deadly consequences.

Smoke detectors are designed to detect the presence of smoke and related combustion by-products in your home’s indoor air. There are two major types of smoke detectors:

  • Ion-type smoke detector: Reacts when there is an active, flame-producing fire generating smoke.
  • Photoelectric detector: Senses and reacts to emissions from a smoldering fire that has not yet erupted into flames.

Both types are reliable, though photoelectric smoke detectors may provide an alert sooner than ion types. The loud, shrill alarm they produce is intended to wake even heavy sleepers and alert residents throughout the home of potential danger.

Having a working smoke detector is extremely important during the entire year, but even more so during the heating season. If you have a furnace or stove that burns natural gas, oil, coal or wood, the system will be regularly igniting and burning flammable substances to produce the heat that warms your house. You may decide to supplement your furnace with additional room heaters that can present a fire danger. When you are using appliances, HVAC equipment or other devices that increase the possibility of fires in your home, it’s necessary to keep your smoke detectors working reliably.

Consider installing more than one smoke detector in your home, and supplementing them with carbon monoxide detectors for even better safety.

Comfort Systems serves HVAC customers in the Wichita area with quality heating, air conditioning and plumbing services. Contact us today for more information on smoke detectors and the importance of keeping these critical safety alarms in good working order.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wichita, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about smoke detectors and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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