Residential Fire Alarm Systems

         Heat Detectors   

The heat detectors pictured below are just a few examples of what they might look like in a residential security system.  .

Electronic Heat Detectors have LED lights while analog detectors have no led lights.  Electronic heat detectors are becoming the standard for residential home security systems. This is due to the fact that if a heat detector is part of a fire smoke circuit that the red LED (light emitting diode) lights us and stays on. This way you can identify the detector that sent the security system into a fire alarm condition.

Heat detectors are designed to detect a fuel fed fire that changes the air temperature rapidly.  A few good example of the kind of fires that heat detectors are designed to detects are: grease fires. gasoline fuel fires, propane gas explosions, industrial plant fires where the materials are highly combustible i.e oxygen containers, etc.

Heat detectors in residential applications are usually installed to detect rapidly changing air temperature conditions.  Rate of Rise , known in the industry as "ROR" , are usually installed in residential security systems and in areas like the garage , mechanical rooms, kitchen areas, and in storage rooms that store combustibles."Fixed" heat detectors are set to go into alarm condition at a specific temperature.

False alarms caused by heat detectors could be due to improper placement of the detector. The addition/or introduction of a heat source into a heat detectors protection area.  A example of this would be plumber using a gas torch to cut copper pipe in a mechanical room. The rapid heating of the air temperature can cause the fire alarm to go off. It's a good idea to always place the alarm system on test when you have plumbers working in the mechanical room in a residential property. Mechanical rooms can be very small and thus air temperature can heat up really really fast. Call your alarm company and ask that they place that system on test or that specific zone. This way a accidental trip of the fire alarm device won't result in the dispatch of the fire department.