Heat detector and Smoke Detectors used in Fire and Alarm System
Do you know how many businesses or households are affected by fires?
Each year, more than 355,200 places are turned to ashes due to fires. Heat and smoke detectors are your solution to avoid any loss or damage. Installing a fire detector in your home or business could help in keeping everyone safe, including equipment and tools. Let’s get to know the difference between the heat and smoke detectors and be safe and sound.
What is a heat detector?
A heat detector is a device that senses any sudden change in temperature or unusual heat increase. It is a reliable device, necessary for both business and homeowners. The device responds quickly to thermal energy caused by fire, controlling the flames before spreading. It is connected to an alarm, which goes off to alert the people in the building. It is advised to install a heat detector on the ceiling center at a height of 50cm below the ceiling.
How does a heat detector work?
One circuit can take up to 20 heat detectors, linked with each other to cover a range of 100 meters. Each heat detector can cover an area of 5-squared-meters. The best thing about this connection is the fast fire warning even if you’re not near the fire itself as it alerts the nearest heat detector.
Heat detector types:
When it comes to heart detectors, there are two types commonly used by consumers. Each one of them works with a different mechanism, resulting in the same outcome. A warning when a fire breaks out!
1-Rate-of-rise or (ROR) Heat Detectors.
ROR heat detectors identify the sudden change of temperatures in their assigned areas. The detector works on feeling the rapid change in the air of the room, measuring its high temperature and pressure. The main constituents of the detector are the two heat thermistors that sensor the difference in the room temperature. The advantage of having two sensors is that one works on the heat transferred by radiation, while the other measures the normal room temperature. The ROR detector responds to the changes in those thermistors, giving notice to the alarm connected to it.
2-Fixed Temperature Heat Detectors
Fixed temperature detectors are either composed of metallic switches or heat-detecting cables, both respond to thermal heat in their way. The bimetallic switch activates the fixed detector when the heat rises to a limit where it causes the expansion to the metallic switch. The detector encompasses two types of these bimetallic switches, each responding to a certain thermal level. When the metallic switch feels the high temperature, the metal starts to bend till it hits the alarm switch, indicating a fire. For the heat-detecting cables, they’re two wires separated with an insulator. Feeling the high heat, the insulator melts down, allowing the two wires to touch. The current then flows on those wires, initiating the fire alarm.
Importance of having a heat detector alarm
In any place, the installment of a heat detector alarm helps in keeping everyone and everything in the area safe. The whole purpose of having a heat detector would go in vain if there was no alarm connected to it.
Heat detector alarms are very important as they:
· Save lives: Of course, at hearing the alarm sound off, people will start evacuating the blazing area. This helps in saving more lives and reducing any casualties or deaths.
· Prevent damage:The alarm could help in stopping the damage from taking place as early as possible.
· Reduce property loss:The alarm will help in putting out the fire as quickly as possible, giving you’re the chance to save your property.
Owning a heat alarm is a must! You could prevent the whole fire from happening just by knowing that there’s a change in temperatures.
When are heat detectors required?
Heat detectors are required in any area where there’s a need to save lives and objects. They are specially used in places with dense smoke like kitchens and factories. These areas aren’t applicable for the installment of a smoke detector. That’s when heat detectors are more advantageous. Heat detectors also protect places that are subject to high energy fires. When it comes to a fire, high energy ones produce less smoke but more fire. Heat detectors can sensor the high temperature, giving residents a heads up to save the place and themselves.
What temperature triggers the activation of a heat detector?
By working on detecting the changes in temperature, heat fire detectors sense very high heat rates. The pre-set heat detectors mostly sensor the heat increase at around 135 degrees.
What is a smoke detector?
A smoke detector is a device that senses dense smoke where they are installed. The detector warns the residents of the presence of an unusual rate of smoke in the area. This helps in reducing the risks of expanding the fire and harming people. The dependable detector is connected to an alarm that goes off to warn everyone.
How does a smoke detector work?
The shaped like a disc smoke detector is usually installed in the ceiling. The precise shape and size of it could vary from one type to the other. Household smoke detectors usually have an alarm interlinked to them. This alarm could be either visual or auditory according to the type of the detector.
Smoke detector types:
Choosing from the various types of smoke detectors depends on the place where they’ll be installed. The two types of smoke detectors respond differently to the occurrence of
smoke:
Ionization Smoke Detector
This type of smoke detector responds more to flaming fires. The device uses ionized particles to ionize the air, detecting the difference when smoke is present. The smoke detector has two champers, one which allows the air outside to enter and another sealed room. Some radioactive particles then are released in both champers. They work on ionizing the air. Once the air feels different due to smoke and the current between both champers isn’t stable, the device detects the presence of smoke. It gives an alert, warning residents of the possibility of a fire. Unfortunately, the detector isn’t manufactured anywhere for the time being.
Photoelectric Smoke Detectors
This photoelectric type is extremely convenient as it responds to smoke 15 to 20 minutes faster than other devices. Photoelectric Smoke Detectors are very useful as they can sense smoldering fires. Those types of fires are hardly detected by devices as they are the stage when the fire is barely burning. The Photoelectric Smoke device detects the smoke by the use of LED light. Inside the detector, there’s a chamber that encompasses a sensing light. The LED light beams across the chamber reaching a sensor on the other end of it. When smoke enters, the light beams are scattered, making the device notice the smoke.
Dual Sensor Smoke Detector
The dual sensor is basically the ionization and photoelectric detectors in one. The device is designed to both help in detecting flaming and smoldering fires. That way, it protects and keeps residents more safe and sound.
What are the limitations of smoke detectors?
Though smoke detectors, on one hand, are very useful and helpful in detecting fire, they come with some limitations. They could give out false alarms due to various reasons. Fine particles of dust and insects could affect the sensors of a fire alarm. Accordingly, they need regular maintenance to make sure that there’s no room for error. Of course, keeping a smoke detector well put together could be somewhat costly.
When it comes to the light smoke detector, small amounts of smoke could not be detected by the device. To obscure the light beams, dense smokes need to be existent in the chamber. So, the non-occurrence of them means there’s a chance of missing out on a fire. All in all, smoke detectors have various weaknesses and strong points.