15 Jun The Benefits of an optical smoke alarm
Unlike a regular smoke alarm, an Optical Smoke Alarm is designed around the Light-Scatter Principle – using beams of light every 10 seconds as a means of checking for smoke particles in the air.
As smoke particles enter the smoke alarm, light is then able to be reflected where it is usually unable – this results in light hitting a receptor, triggering the alarm.
See diagrams of this taking place through Safelincs.
The main benefit of an optical smoke alarm, in comparison to a regular one, is – due to the nature of smoke particles needing to be present for the alarm to go off, the alarm as a result is much less likely to trigger a false positive. Whenever the alarm goes off, you can be certain that a fire event is occurring.
Another benefit of an optical smoke alarm, over a regular alarm, is the manner of interconnectivity that can be brought.
Alarms acting as part of a network, enable much more information to be spread regarding the start of the fire, the time a fire started and – most importantly – the direction the fire is spreading in.
Information such as this can allow individuals to quickly escape dangerous situations and avoid being trapped during building fires and the like.