WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/20 ... 880578.htm

Mains-powered smoke alarms to become compulsory

Mains-powered smoke alarms are to become mandatory in all Western Australian homes.

The State Government plans to introduce legislation later this year to ensure existing houses are fitted with the devices when they are sold.

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One thing I don't understand with mains-powered smoke alarms... they rely on mains power! Considering a large number of house fires are caused by roof cavity electrical faults, isn't there a good chance that the alarm will lose powerwon't sound anyway?

We have mains powered smoke alarms in our office with a battery back up. Hope that answers the qustion then again not all mains powered smoke alarms might have battery backup.

Donga wrote:We have mains powered smoke alarms in our office with a battery back up. Hope that answers the qustion then again not all mains powered smoke alarms might have battery backup.

Thats the point of it. The mains powered smoke alarms are designed so that the battery is always charged. The major problem with smoke alarms is that they are not often checked if the battery is flat...therefor its just a piece of plastic on your roof

Batteries still don't last forever unused though, eventually they run out of juice even not being used, even if they are re-chargeable.

yorky wrote:Batteries still don't last forever unused though, eventually they run out of juice even not being used, even if they are re-chargeable.

True, but they last alot longer. Therefore its a better and safer option

We had 2 mains powered smoke alarms installed in our new house. I believe that the existing law is that all newly constructed homes must have mains powered smoke alarms installed, and that this new law expands that to all homes built OR sold.

This is similar to cars having to have immobilisers fitted at sale.

Mind you, when we took possesion of our house from the builder they said it would take 24-48hrs for the back-up battery in the alarms to charge up. One of ours was still beeping after a week, so i called them to fix it. Turns out the guy that installed it put the battery in the wrong way , so they are by no means fool proof.