By: Richard Romando
Fire alarms are instruments to
detect fire and alarm people by producing a loud sound and sending signals. They are perhaps the
most important things you can have in your home. Statistics point out that fire is the major cause
of destruction in homes and official places. Insurance can give back the money that you lost, but
records and other things are gone forever. There are a number of stories about industries that
couldn’t stay in business because of the records they lost due to a fire. It doesn’t matter whom
you are, where you are, fire alarms are a must for a home or a business.
Fire alarms detect or fire in a
place much quicker and produce a loud noise to warn everyone within that area. They also send
signals through remote sensing equipment to fire fighters. They usually work on two principles:
heat detection and smoke detection.
Smoke detectors are perhaps the
best fire alarm systems. They have the highest efficiency rate. They detect the smallest of dust
and smoke particles produced by a fire, and they immediately respond by making noise and sending
signals. There are two types --ionization detectors and photoelectric detectors. Ionization
detectors produce a beam of ionizing radiation that detects even very small particles of smoke.
Photoelectric detectors produce a beam of light, which when gets disrupted by smoke sends signals
and makes sound.
Heat detectors sense the heat in
the atmosphere in which they are kept and respond accordingly. They can prevent large-scale fires,
but they are not meant for small smoldering fires. The reason lies in the way that they work. They
keep track of the temperature, and when it rises above a preset level, they react and these
detectors cannot detect so small fires immediately. They detect heat surrounding them immediately,
regardless of the rise in temperature.
Fire alarms can be purchased for
$20 up depending on the type, features included and other factors.
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