# smoke alarm in kitchen



## Rick18071 (Feb 8, 2013)

Most houses here are small vacation homes. They have two bedrooms upstairs with a balcony over a great room with a catheral cieling. No basement. Master bed room is on 1st floor off kitchen. Where are they suppose to put the smoke alarm? The home is only 38' x 20'. If you put the smoke alarm 10' away from kitchen it ends up on the far side of the house from the bedroom by the gas fireplace. And you would have to put it outside on the deck to get 20' from the stove.


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## Rick18071 (Feb 8, 2013)

By the way the one upstirs on the balcony ends up right above the stove too.


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## mark handler (Feb 8, 2013)

Installing a photoelectric smoke alarm instead of an ionization smoke alarm may be one approach to  reducing nuisance alarms.

photoelectric smoke alarms are less prone to nuisance alarms in the kitchen area than ionization smoke alarms


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## north star (Feb 8, 2013)

*& =*

From the `06 IRC, *Section R313.2 - Smoke Alarms, # 2:* "outside

each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms".

Installation of an approved type Smoke Alarm may be a trial & error

process in your case **Rick**, to find the most workable & compliant

location.



*= &*


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## cda (Feb 8, 2013)

Without seeing a floor plan hard to give a good answer

With that said one in each bedroom

One "somewhere" outside

Not sure about your distances

But would say technically a smoke alarm covers 15 feet on each side

So as stated above maybe trail and error

I would not worry to much about the upstairs one

Does the upstairs bedrooms have doors to them??

And the one for the master bedroom to me can be max fifteen feet from the door to the bedroom

This is what bugs me about the requirements, say you had a very large house the way ideas the code you only need one on say the first level, if it did not have any bedrooms.

Does a one require them to be spaced  for coverage, in that there would be a few detectors on that first level with very large sq ft


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## Francis Vineyard (Feb 9, 2013)

I think the best option is to install an alarm with the hush feature that allows it to be temporarily silenced.Francis


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## Rick18071 (Feb 10, 2013)

Yes the upstairs bedrooms have doors and smokes in them..

In a great room it's also hard to measure 10' from a kitchen be because it's all one room.


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## Rick18071 (Feb 10, 2013)

I think the whole idea for alarms is wake people in the bedrooms. So what's more important, the alarm close to the bedroom in the kitchen or 25' away on the other end of this house.


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## cda (Feb 10, 2013)

Rick18071 said:
			
		

> I think the whole idea for alarms is wake people in the bedrooms. So what's more important, the alarm close to the bedroom in the kitchen or 25' away on the other end of this house.


In your case near the bedroom door

But does no hood if cooking constantly sets it off

So I would look where I could put it up to fifteen feet away from the bedroom door in order to cut down on false alarms and the home owner just taking it down


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## mark handler (Feb 10, 2013)

Kitchen and Bathroom Smoke Alarm

Helps Prevent Nuisance Alarms from Cooking and Steam

http://www.firexsafety.com/NR/rdonlyres/12D7DEE5-B62E-43AD-BC54-E1607442F814/0/1501721B.pdf


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## cda (Feb 10, 2013)

Maybe on the upstairs put them on the wall above the bedroom doors, installed properly.

That should get them as far from the kitchen as possible, plus they are not on the ceiling


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## tmurray (Feb 11, 2013)

Strongly agree with Mark on the photoelectric alarms.


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## David Henderson (Feb 11, 2013)

We require Photo Electric here, and the feed back is rarely any nuisance alarms.


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## Pcinspector1 (Feb 12, 2013)

Code still allows the SD to be placed on the wall, would that help? I would'nt think steam from cooking in the kitchen would set the alarm off if mounted on the wall. In my home the SD would go off due to a header trapping steam, so the wall mount idea may work.

pc1


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## Forest (Feb 12, 2013)

I remeber something about 20' from cooking appliance.It is in the Manufactures installation instructions or NFPA 72 that is referenced by the code.


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## rnapier (Feb 13, 2013)

2007 NFPA 72 11.8.3.5(4) Smoke alarms and smoke detectors installed within a 6.1m (20 ft) horizontal path of a cooking appliance shall be equiped with an alarm-silecing means or be of the photoelectric type.


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## cda (Feb 13, 2013)

rnapier said:
			
		

> 2007 NFPA 72 11.8.3.5(4) Smoke alarms and smoke detectors installed within a 6.1m (20 ft) horizontal path of a cooking appliance shall be equiped with an alarm-silecing means or be of the photoelectric type.


Well you learn something new every day!!!!

Love this job


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## rnapier (Feb 14, 2013)

That is why I read these forums.


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## David Henderson (Feb 14, 2013)

Steam sometime set's them off same as smoke, as them steam can block the light beam, hence photo electric.


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## cda (Feb 14, 2013)

UPDATE::::

2010 and 2013

29.8.3.4 Specific Location Requirements.   The installation of smoke alarms and smoke detectors shall comply with the following requirements:

(4)*

Smoke alarms and smoke detectors shall not be installed within an area of exclusion determined by a 10 ft (3.0 m) radial distance along a horizontal flow path from a stationary or fixed cooking appliance, unless listed for installation in close proximity to cooking appliances. Smoke alarms and smoke detectors installed between 10 ft (3.0 m) and 20 ft (6.1 m) along a horizontal flow path from a stationary or fixed cooking appliance shall be equipped with an alarm-silencing means or use photoelectric detection.

Exception: Smoke alarms or smoke detectors that use photoelectric detection shall be permitted for installation at a radial distance greater than 6 ft (1.8 m) from any stationary or fixed cooking appliance when the following conditions are met:

(a)

The kitchen or cooking area and adjacent spaces have no clear interior partitions or headers and

(b)

The 10 ft (3.0 m) area of exclusion would prohibit the placement of a smoke alarm or smoke detector required by other sections of this code.

(5)

Effective January 1, 2016, smoke alarms and smoke detectors used in household fire alarm systems installed between 6 ft (1.8 m) and 20 ft (6.1 m) along a horizontal flow path from a stationary or fixed cooking appliance shall be listed for resistance to common nuisance sources from cooking.


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## Rick18071 (Feb 15, 2013)

We go by the 2009 IRC which requires UL 217. Do photoelectic alarms meet this?


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## cda (Feb 15, 2013)

Here is one

Photoelectric Smoke Alarms and Smoke Detectors | Gentex

And

Interconnectable Photoelectric Smoke Alarm, Smoke Alarm, Smoke Detector | DHgate Factory

Scope does not seem to say anything

Scope for UL 217


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## Architect1281 (Feb 15, 2013)

My wife uses it to know when dinners done


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