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Could it be the humidity???

Fred Campbell
Fred Campbell Member Posts: 80
in THE MAIN WALL
I set off a security system connected smoke alarm one day cutting thru drywall with a sawzall. The homeowner returned just as the firemen were tromping up her steps, axes in hand. Or the time I met the detectives coming up the back steps, guns drawn, when I set off the alarm entering with a key.

Good to know about the humidity though. How can you sleep at 90%?

Comments

  • Bill Nye_2
    Bill Nye_2 Member Posts: 538
    Smoke Alarms!

    My smoke alarms have sounded two times recently. Both nights at about 3AM. It has been very humid, dense fog. I think the humidity was close to 90% according to my cheap wall hung weather station, you know the ones that look like a ships wheel around the dials.

    My electric bills are so high lately we have been cheaping out with a fan in the window. So all of the windows have been open on both occasions.


    I have seven detectors, AC/Battery, six smoke and one CO/smoke in basement. I had them installed not to meet any code but because it was the right thing to do. Practice what you preach so to speak.

    Both nights I went around and checked the house, no smoke, nothing suspicious. I closed the windows and turned on the a/c.

    So, could high humidity cause the alarm to go off?
  • Gordy_2
    Gordy_2 Member Posts: 43
    Smoke alarms

    Yes Bill, the high humidity will set off smoke alarms. Had it happen a few times with alarms adjacent to bathrooms, when exhaust fan was not turned on during showers.

    Gordy
  • Brad White_111
    Brad White_111 Member Posts: 19
    Opacity

    New one on me Bill! Might it be that your interior is cooled by AC then windows opened at night? Trying to see how fog outdoors translates into fog indoors (where it is warmer and hence less RH, all other things being equal).

    If you are 90% RH, sure that is sticky, but it is not saturation as (in)accurate as are those ships wheels "I went to Cape Cod and all my parents got me was this crummy.." weather station.

    I agree your tack of RH/Fog is a good one to explore but the chances of saturation within the detectors, unless all glass in your house is also fogged up, or it is your shower, (EDIT: As I just noted Gordy suggested) it seems remote. I could be wrong but I just do not see it with general humidity.

    Here in MA you cannot use an opacity type within so many feet of a bathroom or kitchen, it has to be ionizing. Aside from that, general humidity I do not see as a cause.

    Can you identify the one that is the source? I take it being AC type that they are orange-wired to all activate. Could just be a spider building a web in one detector. That happens to my basement detector about once every year or two. Hope it is not the CO one of course.
  • Ken_40
    Ken_40 Member Posts: 1,310
    We also

    had a few "false hits." We later discovered momentary power outages anywhere near our part of the grid, enough to make one digital appliance start the classic "12:00 blink" yet none of the others (inferring an extremely brief "outage"), was the cause.

    In his neck of the wooods, under a second, power dropouts are as frequent as rain or snowfall...
  • Larry Weingarten
    Larry Weingarten Member Posts: 3,801
    Here is a ...

    ... Google search for false alarm with steam or fog. It seems that fog is not an uncommon source of trouble. :~(

    Yours, Larry

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=false+alarm+detector+(fog,steam)&btnG=Search
  • Mike T., Swampeast MO
    Mike T., Swampeast MO Member Posts: 6,928


    From "How Things Work":

    "In either type [ionization or photoelectric] of detector, steam or high humidity can lead to condensation on the circuit board and sensor, causing the alarm to sound."

    Would seem to me that unusually humid and relatively cool night air coming in contact with a relatively warm smoke detector likely mounted on the ceiling could easily result in such a problem.

  • Brad White_111
    Brad White_111 Member Posts: 19
    This is why

    I love the Wall-

    Always learning something...
  • BillW@honeywell
    BillW@honeywell Member Posts: 1,099
    Tiny little red spiders---

    The same ones who like to inhabit gas jets on outside BBQ grills & spin webs causing a puffback, can set off detectors, they did in my house, scared the daylights out of us at 2 AM. I blew out the detectors with "canned air", never happened again.
This discussion has been closed.

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