Re: Are there smoke alarms rated for unfinished attic?

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

bagarow@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a 3 story house in Raleigh, NC. THe 3rd floor is unfinished
> attic space with a regular staircase walkup i.e parts of that attic
> can be finished to give us an extra room with bath and closet.
>
> Currently there is an outlet installed to add a smoke alarm. The
> outlet seems to connected to other smoke alarms in the finished space
> of the house. I was thinking of adding additional smoke alarm there to
> get an alarm if a lightning strike caused fire in the attic.
>
> I did call the smoke alarm manufacturer - Firex - but they said they
> did not have any smoke alarms rated for attic space use.
>
> Are there smoke alarms rated for the attic? I would like any smoke or
> fire in the attic to trigger the other smoke alarms in the house.
>
> Are there alternate solutions ?
>
> Thanks
> Bob
>


I would suggest going with fixed temperature heat detectors.  You can
interconnect them to a standard Firex 428 smoke alarm quite easily since
the orange wire is 120VAC.  If you have multiple smoke alarms they must
all be of the same type (Firex 428's for instance) and capable of
switching 120VAC (not the low voltage DC interconnect that many common
smoke alarms employ).

The best solution is to go with a burglar panel that's UL (or ULC)
listed for fire & burg, and use supervised heat and smoke alarms.  That
may not be in your budget at this time, but it's definitely worthwhile
exploring if your family means as much to you as mine means to me.