March 15, 2018 Everyone is aware in these modern times how necessary it is to have a smoke detector installed in your house. It is actually law in Australia, and smoke detectors are required to be fitted to all new homes. And there should be more than 1 smoke detector fitted per living area and bedroom areas. Before we get into the topic of this post, if you are in the Geelong area or surrounding suburbs, and need professional advice from qualified electricians, please check out our friends at Electrician Geelong. It is imperative for your safety and the safety of your family to have a smoke detector fitted to your home. A smoke detector will alert you early in the event of a fire in your home and significantly reduce risk of being harmed in a house fire. It is also important to regularly check that your smoke detector is working properly. Have you ever taken time to wonder how these things work? Unless you’re an electrician or someone from the industry, you probably have no idea how they work. If you’re curious now, read on. You have most likely had your smoke detector (also known as a smoke alarm) go off when you have accidentally burn something while cooking. In some cases, it would seem like these little electronic life savers are very sensitive. Don’t stress about this – it will help to give you early warning if there is a fire in home and hopefully allow you to evacuate safely. Scientists put in a lot effort and developed this technology has been available way back since late in the 19th century. It’s safe to assume that these devices have helped to save millions of lives since they were invented. Now they are extremely affordable and even the most basic model can help to save a life. The way a smoke detector works is really quite simple. The general theory goes like this; there are 2 radioactive metal plates which are positioned opposing each other. These plates are charged and send charged energy to each other. In normal operating conditions, the charged energy will flow freely and will ionise the air that passes through basically forming a completed circuit. When there is smoke particles in the air, the connection between the 2 plates is weakened or broken consequently breaking the circuit and thus sounding the alarm. A smoke detector needs to be installed/attached to the ceiling of your home for obvious reasons but to explain this is simply because smoke rises and will accumulate right under ceiling first. It’s always advisable to get the best units you can afford and use the services of an electrician to install them. Some smoke detectors actually require an electrician to install them as they get wired directly to your mains power supply. This has been a very simplistic explanation of how a smoke detector works and keep in mind there are other ways a smoke detector works that we haven’t discussed. But hopefully we have given you something to ponder and little bit more of an insight into those wonderful life saving little devices.