Battery: Uses a 9 volt or AA batteries
Long Life Battery: Power may last up to 10 years with a long-life lithium battery.
Hardwired: Wired to the home 110 volt electrical service (with battery back-up)
Battery smoke alarms are readily available and can be installed by a homeowner or tenant. Hardwired alarms must be installed by a qualified electrician but can be easily replaced by the homeowner at the end of their service life or if faulty.
Photoelectric smoke detectors are typically used in commercial buildings like hospitals, schools and nursing homes where our most at-risk citizens are located. In fact, they have been for many years because the commercial fire alarm industry understands the differences.
Not Necessarily! The airborne particles from burned toast, ordinary cooking and shower steam are different from the smoke from burning furniture and household items. These nuisance false alarms lead people into a false sense of security that their ionization smoke alarm is ultra-sensitive and will give them an early warning in the event of a fire in their home. In fact, your ionization smoke alarm may not go off early enough to save your family in an actual fire! Ionization smoke alarms are, on average, over five times more likely to have a nuisance false alarm!
Photoelectric smoke alarms are 72% less prone to these nuisance false alarms and may alert tens of minutes earlier than ionization or dual-sensor alarms in an actual fire.