Can a power outage cause smoke detectors to go off?
Wei asked:
My smoke detectors (they’re wired into the house and I think it also has a backup battery) went off around 4am last night, at first it was a beep every minute or so. My dad went to check it out and when he tried to turn on the lights they didn’t work. A few minutes later the lights were back on and the smoke detector starting blaring but stop after a few minutes. I called the fire department but they really didn’t have an answer for me. So is the short power outage the reason the smoke detector went off?
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My smoke detectors (they’re wired into the house and I think it also has a backup battery) went off around 4am last night, at first it was a beep every minute or so. My dad went to check it out and when he tried to turn on the lights they didn’t work. A few minutes later the lights were back on and the smoke detector starting blaring but stop after a few minutes. I called the fire department but they really didn’t have an answer for me. So is the short power outage the reason the smoke detector went off?
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
More than likely. The battery being old and inadequate was what made it beep every minute or so. When the lights came on, it more than likely tripped a relay in the smoke detector.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Oh yea that used to happen all the time in my college dorm. I lived in Florida so lighting used to shut the power off all the time and force the fire alarms to go off, which sucked cuz we had to exit the building in the middle of a lightning storm.
April 29th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
If their wired to the house, then if your source of electricity fails, the detectors will as well. If I were you I would switch them to full battery operated detectors which would be the safest be. When the batteries need to be changed, the detector will let out an annoying beep around every five minutes to make sure you do so.