Different types of Smoke Alarms?

Key components to any home fire safety program are properly placed and functioning Smoke Alarms. Smoke Alarms need to be properly situated in your home and tested frequently to ensure effectiveness. See our post on Smoke Alarms to learn more about tips from the Home Safety Council on how to be safe with smoke alarms.

But how many of us knew that there are different types of smoke alarms? Below is content provided by the National Fire Protection Association Smoke Alarm Fact Sheet regarding the different types of smoke alarms.
"The two most commonly recognized smoke detection technologies are ionization smoke detection and photoelectric smoke detection. Ionization smoke detection is generally more responsive to flaming fires and photoelectric smoke detection is generally more responsive to fires that begin with a long period of smoldering (called “smoldering fires”). For each type of smoke alarm, the advantage it provides may be critical to life safety in some fire situations.

Home fatal fires, day or night, include a large number of smoldering fires and a large number of flaming fires. You cannot predict the type of fire you may have in your home or when it will occur. Any smoke alarm technology, to be acceptable, must perform acceptably for both types of fires in order to provide early warning of fire at all times of the day or night and whether you are asleep or awake.

The best evidence has always indicated that either type of smoke alarm will provide sufficient time for escape for most people for most fires of either smoldering or flaming type. However, research is ongoing, and standards are living documents. If at any time, research points to a different conclusion, then that will lead to proposals for changes in the NFPA standard or the closely related Underwriters Laboratories standard for testing and approving smoke alarms. Both organizations currently have task groups looking at smoke alarm performance in the current home environment.

For best protection, it is recommended both (ionization and photoelectric) technologies be in homes. In addition to individual ionization and photoelectric alarms, combination alarms
that include both technologies in a single device are available."

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