For those that don’t realize, you can easily tell in seconds if smoke alarms are hard wired or not using thermal imaging. (They have a small heat signature)
On today’s inspection, I could tell none of the alarms were hard wired, because there was no heat signature, even though they should have been, based on age of build.
This can mean 3 things:
Either there is no wiring
They are disconnected
The wiring has no power.
I don’t normally test smoke alarms, but these weren’t blinking, and they had no heat signature.
So this caused me to remove one. And sure enough, the wiring is there, but the alarms were replaced with newer ones, with the wrong connection type.
Maryland law specifically prohibits replacing hardwired smoke alarms with battery only alarms. Despite the newer alarms having ten year batteries, which some have argued makes them OK, battery only alarms are “single station” which means they lack interconnection.
Interconnection of alarms may be the most important feature in an actual fire allowing additional time for occupants to vacate the structure. All hardwired alarms should also be battery backed for protection during a power failure.
As David pointed out, a ten year old alarm should be replaced. This also goes in the report.
Not all battery powered alarms are single station and lack interconnection.
Nest Protects can be purchased as either hardwire or battery powered, regardless of which style of Nest Protect detector you get, they are all interconnectable, I also like the fact that they will notify me of an issue that may arise while I’m away from my house and let’s me know which room the issue is in.
I have both wired and battery (Nest Protect) detectors in my house, I have the standard ionization detectors that are wired, and I added the battery powered Nest protects 8 years ago because they cover the spectrum of ionization, photoelectric, and carbon monoxide detectors.
You really enjoy that don’t you Kevin. How petulant. There are and always will be exceptions to everything. I see very few Nest products and there are also simply RF connected smoke alarms (didn’t mention them). Neither are typical because of cost so they are the exceptions not the rule. Regardless, neither are used in new construction, and Maryland law requires smoke alarms that are Hardwired be replaced with the same!
Smoke alarms that are interconnection dependant on a wifi home network will not be interconnected during a power failure or be capable of remote notification although they may still detect and alarm locally for smoke or CO.
I am well aware of these and they are most useful as a retrofit for homes that never had smoke alarms and where a third wire is difficult to run. The cost is not justified for replacement alarms in hardwired construction which has been required for quite a few code cycles and would not be appropriate for the OP’s situation. They may still need to be hardwired for rental properties in some jurisdictions I inspect regardless of the age of the home.
In fact the number and variety of power and interconnection options can be very confusing and typically varies with the requirements of the specific location. Landlords, property managers and realtors regularly get this information wrong.
Well, I had never made that connection. I test one smoke alarm in a house. If I expect them to be interconnected, I listen for others to go off. I test most of the CO alarms.
For most smoke alarms, a steady green light means it is powered. The blinking red light once every 30 to 60 seconds indicates that it is battery-powered or backup battery status is good.
I used the Kidde wireless on a 2010 addition and seem to remember the tech was fairly new at that time. Overall a great product. I did a combination of wireless in the original 1979 part of the house and wired in the addition. The whole system worked great for ten years and I replaced them all when we sold in 2020. They are a bit pricey @ 2-3X what other units cost but lots cheaper than pulling wires through a finished house.
The code at the time(in NJ at least) was that at least one of them had to be hardwired, the rest could be battery and wireless. Worked great. They were end of life when we sold in 21, but the inspector never called it out, so he was a doof. I would have at least alerted the customer.
Current standards in Florida require smoke alarms to be hard wired to “commercial” power and have battery backup. Since 2014 Florida has required 10 year none replaceable battery type smoke alarms to be installed if an alarm is replaced or installed in new construction.
