Incidents of fire can happen at any time of the day. The National Fire Protection Association recommends installing a smoke alarm in every bedroom to prevent great damage and loss when a fire occurs. There are two types of smoke alarms that you can use to secure your safety in your Rockwall, TX home – the hardwired and battery-operated smoke alarms.

Here’s the summary of their differences:

Installation

A hardwired smoke alarm takes much effort in the installation. It needs to be connected to your home’s power supply to operate and may take proper wiring expertise for successful installation. The battery-operated thermostat, on the other hand, can be installed easily. It may only take a minute to mount it in your desired rooms.

Maintenance

Maintenance for battery-operated smoke alarms focuses mainly on battery replacement. However, you should do this regularly to prevent power drainage and malfunctioning alarms. Meanwhile, before doing maintenance works for hardwired smoke detectors, you need to make sure that the power is turned off in the main electrical panel. Aside from the alarm, wiring must also be checked by a professional technician.

Interconnection

You cannot chain two or more battery-operated smoke alarms. These are stand-alone appliances that cannot supply power to other connected devices. Hardwired smoke alarms can be interconnected. So if one detector fails, all the other alarms are triggered. In case of fire, the interconnection can save precious moments as the detector sounds the alarm simultaneously with all other alarms connected into it.

Dependability

Hardwired smoke alarms are more dependable as they are connected on a power supply. Once the alarm sounds, they will not stop until turned off. In case of power interruptions, they have battery backups for continuous operation. Battery-powered smoke alarms depend solely on the batteries. Weak batteries mean dull operations. The amount of time the alarm sounds will depend on how much battery life is left.

Rockwall One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® Recommends Hardwired Smoke Alarms

If you are after reliable operations, we recommend you install hardwired smoke alarms. They may require slightly more work but will surely give you peace of mind. You do not have to worry that it may lose power because it will be connected straight from your home’s power supply. Once it detects smoke, everyone will be alarmed because of its interconnectivity feature.

Are you in for a smoke alarm upgrade? Give us a call at Rockwall One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning®, and we’ll do all the hard work for you.