Smoke alarm keeps chirping and beeping
It is possible the reason your smoke alarm keeps chirping is that the battery is low. Whenever your smoke alarm keeps chirping, replace the battery immediately. If the new batteries don’t stop the chirping your “new” batteries may not be fresh. If batteries are stored for a long period of time, especially in cold areas like refrigerators or freezers, they lose their charge more quickly. Some other factors that can cause intermittent alarms are dust or insects and spider webs inside the smoke alarm. AC and AC/DC units will have a power indicator light (red or green) that shines continuously when they are receiving electrical power. If the indicator lights are not working your AC power may not be on. Check your circuit breakers or fuses. (Read: How to Reset Circuit Breakers.) If the indicator light does not come on after resting the breaker the unit may be defective and needs to be replaced. Which leads us to life expectancy; smoke alarms have a limited life expectancy of 10 years. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends that smoke alarms be replaced after 10 years? The performance of smoke alarms older than 10 years is simply not reliable. To ensure your family’s safety, all smoke alarms need to be replaced every 10 years and all carbon monoxide and smoke/carbon monoxide combination alarms need to be replaced every 5-7 years. If it’s time to replace your smoke alarms, contact a licensed electrician. If you have any additional questions, give Voltek Electric a call at 262-224-3226, or you can reach us through our online contact form.