Locations Suitable For Installing Heat Detectors

Hey, DIYers. I'm George from Alarm Grid. Today I'm going to be going over where to install heat detectors. So heat detectors are usually going to be installed in places where smoke detectors are going to be causing false alarms. Some areas like this, for instance, are the kitchen. The kitchen is one of the biggest, biggest, biggest areas where you may want to install a heat detector instead of a smoke detector. Because while you cook, sometimes a lot of the smoke comes up from the pan, and then it sets off your smokes. Now if you're constantly setting off your smokes, and you're constantly getting false alarms, the fire department's going to be dispatched out to your house, eventually. If you don't get to cancel the alarm one day. And then if they get dispatched, and it's a false alarm, the fines for having a fire department come out are pretty heavy. So it's always best in areas like the kitchen, like a garage, any areas that are high in gases, fumes, chemicals-- Anything like that. It's always best to use heat detectors instead of the smokes. Now, the heat detectors-- There's two different ones. You have fixed temperature heat detectors and you also have rate of rise. The fixed temperature heat detectors-- Basically, if the temperature reaches a certain degree, then the sensor gets triggered, and it sends a fire alarm down to the panel. That's a fixed temperature. A rate of rise is if the temperature [? goes ?] up x amount of degrees in an x amount of time, then you get a fire alarm at the panel. And, again, the signal gets sent over to the central station. Now, if you guys are being monitored by a central station-- So if you guys do have a central station monitoring you, then you're more than likely going to get a call from the central station. They're going to ask you if everything's OK. If nobody answers they're going to dispatch the fire department. So make sure you guys are answering these calls from the central station and letting them know whether it's a false alarm or if it's a real alarm, if you guys set them off. Now there is fixed temperature and the rate of rise. And then there's also some combination smoke, heat-- And then there's also a smoke, heat, and CO detectors. So if you guys are doing these combination smoke detectors as well, you want to make sure that, for instance, if it's a smoke heat, and if you're using it in the kitchen, you just program it to do a heat. Or if using smoke, heat, and CO, you program it to do heat and CO, and not smoke. Especially not in the kitchen area. If you're doing this in a garage, I would probably also use a heat detector. Just because if you're starting your car in the garage, it could release fumes or even smoke from the exhaust pipe. And it just causes the smoke detector to go off. If you guys have any designated smoking areas in the house, you also want to make sure, in those areas, you're also using a heat detector. So that the smoke from the tobacco, or whatever herbs you're smoking, does not cause a false alarm to go off. So use a heat detector for that, as well. Now, when you're installing the heat detector, you want to make sure that you're installing it at a pretty good level. Remember, heat rises, so if you guys are installing it ankle level, knee level, it's probably not the best idea. You want to have the heat detector probably about 7 to 8 feet up, or even on the ceiling, even. Remember, since heat rises-- That's where you want it to detect. Now you also don't want to install a heat detector somewhere, for instance, across an air duct, any heating device that might possibly cause false heat to the actual sensor. So you don't want to have it across an air duct because if you have the heater on, and it starts heating the sensor up, you might get a false alarm. Now, when you're looking for a heat detector, like I said, they come in many different variations. Smoke and heat, heat rate of rise, heat fixed temperature, smoke, heat, and CO. You want to make sure that you guys, whether it's wired or wireless, you guys are using the correct one for your panel. So if it's a Honeywell System, you want to make sure using a Honeywell heat detector. If it's a 2GIG system, use a 2GIG heat detector, et cetera. If it's a wired system you want to make sure using a wired heat detector, unless you have a wireless receiver built in on the panel. Now, there is one thing that you guys have to keep in mind when you're installing smoke [? slash ?] heat detectors. Not every single smoke heat detector or a smoke, heat, and CO detector is going to allow you to program the smoke and heat individually. For instance, the SiXSMOKE, which is the smoke detector for the Lyric, is probably the only one that allows you to separate smoke and heat independently, to program them at separate zones. Or the SiXCOMBO because that's also a SiX Series device. But any other device like the 5808W3 or any other smoke and heat detector, is normally going to do both. And there's no way that you can separate or shut off the function for one, or shaft to function for the heat. So if you're programming it for smoke, it's also going to do heat detection, as well. So it's just something to keep in mind when buying a sensor for whatever. Whether it's the kitchen, garage, designated smoking area-- Something to keep in mind that if you're going to be getting a smoke slash heat detector-- If it's not going to be a SiX Series detector, and you don't know for sure if it's something that you can get programmed individually, it's usually best to just go with a heat detector for those locations, and not do the smoking heat. Because if you do smoke heat, more than likely it won't let you program the two different features out individually. If you program one it automatically does the other. All right. So, again, just to kind of just recap everything. If you think it's an area in your house where you might get a false alarm because there is smoke, there's fumes, chemicals, something that might be going up to a smoke detector-- These may be areas where you went to install the heat detector instead. And, again, most of the common areas are the kitchen, garage areas, or any designated smoking areas. All right. If you guys have any questions, at all, about what heat detector works with your system or even how to get it programmed in, you can email us at support@alarmgrid.com. If you found the video helpful, make sure you hit Like underneath. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and enable notifications, so whenever we upload new content, you guys get notified. I'm George. I'll see you guys next time.