Residential fire alarm wiring

ive got one wired into the mains and after a few days of having it the alarm started going off and would not stop and there was no way to turn it off so we had to leave the house for a day waiting for the repair person to come and get a new one

Hells_Bells74 said :

re: replacing batteries restoring peace – I smashed them because I couldn’t see where on earth it had a replacable battery, we even thought we had cut the wires on the only thing that passed as a battery in there.. nope, it was in many pieces and still going with all wires and such cut. Some of them are just pure evil.

Just give them a bath. that quietens them

>Oh it didn’t just beep all the time (yes that too) it went off a few times a day/night and refused for quite some time to be quiet. I had babies/toddlers over that time, I was exhausted and it was the last thing I needed. Just before their demise, they wouldn’t shut off after many many long hours.

re: replacing batteries restoring peace – I smashed them because I couldn’t see where on earth it had a replacable battery, we even thought we had cut the wires on the only thing that passed as a battery in there.. nope, it was in many pieces and still going with all wires and such cut. Some of them are just pure evil.

Alarms became compulsory in new homes around 15 years ago.
We built a house in 1994, and that was just before the deadline (iirc).
When the batteries run down, the alarm either chirps or goes off. It’s a low battery warning I believe. Replacing battery restores peace and equilibrium.

When the govt had two round hard-wired smoke alarms installed in my home, I near went insane and after being tormented for years with it, it was smashed and still going off on way to tip wrapped up in old doonas. Evil and possessed were they!

When the govt had two rectangle/square hard-wired smoke alarms installed in my home, I slept like a baby and haven’t heard from then since, except an odd smokey cooking occasion or test. LOVE THEM!

Apparently it wasn’t just me who had problems with the round ones, my friend at Housing told me there were many many people billed for replacing them (yes they charged me too at some point, think they dropped them when they had soooo many cause I don’t recall having to pay it).

I believe that only houses in Tuggeranong have this problem. The further north you go, the less problems you have. In the Inner North, we’re so tough we don’t need smoke alarms, we just huff and puff and blow the fire out. Unless of course you’re lighting a fire in a nice cozy house in Germany, then you’d have problems, because the Polezei would soon issue an inflammatory arrest warrant.

Mine is hardwired and have a backup battery, if battery goes off, replace it, problem solved.

I think you will find hardwired smoke alarms have been law for all NEW homes for a number of years in the ACT. Not retrospective for rentals or other homes.

Going back to the OP as others have said the battery is for back-up only on mains wired alarms. Having said that I beleive there are some models on the market that opening the battery compartment more or less turns the alarm off, so maybe that is why your unit did what it is alleged to have done.

O.K
@ Ceej – batteries die.This was a low battery warning. As Captainwhorebags said the battery is just a backup.
@ Captainwhorebags – smoke detectors can be linked so that if 1 goes off…they all go off.
If it is linked by an earth wire, some-one has been naughty.

For the past 5 – 10 years, Australia wide, it has been a requirement for a hard wired smoke detector within 1.5m of bedroom ( sleeping areas )doors.
NSW have made it compulsory for all dwellings, new or old.
ACT….not yet ( to my knowledge ).
Hardwired is 240v with battery back-up. Also wired into an alarm system, with the smoke detector having it’s own battery, can also be acceptable.