Smoke Alarms & Kids

[securespark]

I wrote this in a thread on UK Electrics...

Kids and teenagers can sleep right through these things - research & experiments has been done in the States to prove that they sleep through ordinary alarms.

What wakes them is an alarm with a recorded message, ie parent's voice saying "WAKE UP (NAME), THERE IS A FIRE, etc"

http://bluegenie.eu/smokealarm.asp

No, I'm not trying to drum up business, but it may be well worth thinking about if you have kids/teenagers in the house.

Found the link to the States stuff:

http://www.kait8.com/global/story.asp?s=6547198

 

[tim west]

When I installed a fire alarm system some time back the requirement was for 110 db from the sounders, this was pointed out from the fire officer according to research to be sufficient to rouse a person from a deep sleep through a closed door.

 

[JohnD]

I can believe it

my security alarm keypads go "bleep bleep bleep bleep" when the phone line fails, it takes a long time to wake me. perhaps because it is a regular unchanging sound.

 

[breezer]

When I installed a fire alarm .

Thats the difference though. Fire Alarm

people often say i have a fire alarm when infact they dont, its just a smoke alarm or a smoke detector on a burglar alarm.

Fire alarms have to compy to specific regs, smoke detectors dont comply to the same regs, and a smoke detector on a burglar alarm has to comply to no regs

That aside, i have tested alarms when babies are asleep, the parents go potty at the noise, but the baby carries on sleeping.

I have found this on several occasions, so now i mention it first, and so far babies have not woken up, much to the parents surprise.

perhaps its something to do with they cant hear in this frequncy range yet, a bit like the sonders some shops have outside that only teenagers can hear

 

[tim west]

Point taken, though a baby would still have to be lifted up out of its cot during a fire so whether asleep or not it doesnt really matter

It surprises me that with the publicity given for householders to install these stand alone or inferior smoke alarms that they dont comply to the levels insisted on for a proper fire alarm system? Possibly as they are just a recommendation rather than obligatory?

 

[JohnD]

I think babies can sleep through almost anything, unless they're ready to wake up, in which case they won't.

I hears two women arguing:
Woman 1: be quiet, you'll wake the baby
Woman 2: when a baby wants to sleep, it will.