
Spanky Gazpacho DW asked: I’ve installed the latest gadgets in my “smart house”… computer programmed power points, lighting and audio systems.. with integrated smoke, thermal alarms and security alarms.
Well last night… around midnight an alarm sounded… The way I have it programmed, all 130 light fittings come on and flash on then off at 1 second intervals … 2 x 120db sounders make a din inside, a flashing light and alarm bell sounds outside. I mean, it is real noisy.. enough to wake the dead, and my neighbours… so I leap out of bed naked, grab my cricket bat on the way through the house looking for smoke or intruders… get to the alarm panel and key in the code. Silence. darkness. No smoke and no intruder.
Back to bed. 20 minutes later, this process repeats. I climb back to bed. 5 seconds later… same again… I turn on the lights.. check the alarm memory…. it’s the smoke detectors.
And then I see it… a little spider and it’s spider web shimmering near a smoke detector. I squash him.
Thermal detectors detect heat… smoke detectors react to the movement of smoke like particulates in the air refracting off whatever light is available.
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