Smoke alarm advice
The easiest way to protect your home and family from fire is with working smoke alarms. Here are some things to consider when buying and fitting a smoke alarm:
- fit at least one smoke alarm on every level of your home
- they are available from DIY stores, electrical shops and most high street supermarkets
- ten-year sealed battery smoke alarms are the best option - they are slightly more expensive, but you save on the cost of replacing batteries
- look out for the British Standard Kitemark and Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) symbols, which shows the alarm is approved and safe
- test your smoke alarms at least monthly - test them by pressing the button until the alarm sounds, if it doesn’t sound, you need to replace the battery
- vacuum your smoke alarms every six months to remove dust
- if any of your smoke alarms have a one-year battery, make sure it is changed every year - only take the battery out when you need to replace it
- if a smoke alarm starts to beep on a regular basis, you need to replace the battery immediately - if it is a ten-year alarm, you will need to replace the whole alarm every ten years
- never disconnect or take the batteries out of your alarm if it goes off by mistake
- a lot of people forget to test the batteries, so longer life batteries are better
- mains-powered alarms are powered by your home power supply and have a back-up battery in case of a power cut - they need to be installed by a qualified electrician and, like battery alarms, they do require testing
- you can even have linked alarms installed, so that when one alarm detects a fire they all go off together - this is useful if you live in a large house or over several levels
Find out more about smoke alarms on the safelincs website.
Carbon monoxide detector advice
You can find advice on how to install and test carbon monoxide detectors on the Which website.