We all know that we are living in a highly competitive world, thinking about a thousand things. Living successfully is nothing but a tightly managed ropewalk between the work lives and the personal lives. When everyone is living a busy life, it is a common occurrence to lose focus on certain things, and more often than not, such momentary loss of focus can lead to unforeseen things that have enough potential to even alter the normal curse of things. Studies say that fire is a very common hazard that occurs across the globe. Fires can occur due to a variety of reasons and they are sometimes caused by factors beyond anyone’s control. Photoelectric Smoke alarms can become a quite handy tool in protecting one’s establishments against fire hazards by proactively sounding alarms, thereby letting everyone extinguish the fire even before it gets a chance to spread.

Prevention is better than cure 

Prevention is better than cure, although an old proverb, is quite how everything is when it comes to crisis management. Smoke Alarms in general specialize in identifying sources of fire by detecting the presence of smoke the moment it gets detected. Smoke Detectors are an essential safety precaution everybody should install at their homes and at the offices alike. Unlike outdoor fires, fires that happen indoors have a potential to cause much more destruction to life and property. Indoor fire can be triggered by a whole lot of reasons like short circuits from old wiring, malfunctioning electronics or electricals, substances prone to catch fire, malfunctioning stoves or cigarettes. Photoelectric smoke detectors are known for their high versatility in being deployed at an area inside a building and that inherently makes them the best choice of fire hazard monitoring systems. 

Types of smoke alarms

Smoke detectors make use of different principles in their operation, and they have certain differences in their working even. It is important to know the working of each of these models in order to make an informed decision about which of these smoke detectors are to be deployed at one’s house and office. 

1.  Ionization Smoke Alarms: This type of smoke detectors have a small amount of some radioactive material in them. The radioactive decay from this material will be strong enough to ionize the air molecules around it, and these ionized air molecules help conduct electricity between two parallel metal plates. In case of a fire, smoke particles will enter the enclosure of this smoke detector, thereby displacing the ionized air, causing the current to become weak. This triggers the alarm. 

• Photoelectric Smoke Alarms: This type of smoke detectors is slightly different from ionization smoke detectors. These detectors have a beam of light within them. There will be a light detector also within the enclosure, placed in such a way that the light would not fall on the detector on normal operation. In the event of smoke entering the detector enclosure, the smoke particles would diffuse the light all around, causing it to fall on the detector even. This triggers the smoke alarm. 

Comparison

There is no doubt that one shouldn’t take any chances when it comes to the matter of safety. One needs to carefully look at the pros and cons of each of the available alternatives before making a decision. In the tropical climate conditions of Australia, it is important to identify and stop the fires at the initial stage itself to prevent a disaster. By default, smoke eing lighter than air, will rise, and the photoelectric smoke alarms are more suitable for this specific use case. The radioactive smoke detectors on the other hand, require thicker fumes capable of displacing the air molecules within the alarm enclosure. 

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