icepie
Postman
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2017
- Messages
- 936
Sorry if this is common knowledge and I'm just late to the party. I've done some digging and found out why my vape sets off my smoke alarm. There are basically two types of detectors: Optical and Ionization. Without going into the sciencey bit, suffice to say an optical detector will be activated by vapour and an ionization detector probably won't. A lot of household alarms are now hybrids using both methods, but alarms without the optical component are available.
HOWEVER...
"In tests, ionization alarms will typically respond about 30 to 90 seconds faster to “fast-flame” fires than photoelectric smoke alarms. However, in smoldering [sic] fires ionization alarms respond an average of 15 to 50 minutes slower than photoelectric alarms. Several studies indicate that they will outright fail to activate up to 20-25% of the time. The vast majority of residential fire fatalities are due to smoke inhalation, not from the actual flames and almost two-thirds of fire fatalities occur at night while we sleep." Source: http://www.propertyevaluation.net/Photoelectric vs Ionization Smoke Alarms - Deadly Differences.html
I'm going to install one of each and switch off the optical alarm when I'm indoors and awake.
HOWEVER...
"In tests, ionization alarms will typically respond about 30 to 90 seconds faster to “fast-flame” fires than photoelectric smoke alarms. However, in smoldering [sic] fires ionization alarms respond an average of 15 to 50 minutes slower than photoelectric alarms. Several studies indicate that they will outright fail to activate up to 20-25% of the time. The vast majority of residential fire fatalities are due to smoke inhalation, not from the actual flames and almost two-thirds of fire fatalities occur at night while we sleep." Source: http://www.propertyevaluation.net/Photoelectric vs Ionization Smoke Alarms - Deadly Differences.html
I'm going to install one of each and switch off the optical alarm when I'm indoors and awake.