Smoke alarms and you.

Okay, safety is an important issue when living in a home. Feeling safe is a very comforting feeling, and knowing you can let your guard down relieves stress.

However, there is a fine line between safe and ridiculous. There comes a point when you just start to wonder.

When Hilary and I were visiting Winifred, we heard chirping everywhere we went. These were not baby birds. No, they were the poor, pitiful chirps of smoke detectors... er... alarms, wondering why attention was not paid to them. One of the first things I did when we started working on the home was to remove all the old smoke alarms in the house.

Winifred has 13 rooms. A basement, two entry ways, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, an office, two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and a laundry room. I counted eleven smoke alarms within this household. The only rooms that did not have a smoke alarm was the dining room, the office, and the laundry room. If you do the math, that does not add up. Yes, there were two smoke alarms in the kitchen. Only one of the smoke alarms are hardwired, so that means ten smoke alarms, most of them with low batteries.

When I bought the appropriate amount of smoke alarms (six or so), I read that smoke alarms will not operate with chirping batteries... This, folks, is safety turning into the ridiculous.

Me, and the smoke alarms. In face, this is only eight of them. I missed removing one before the photo, and another I had no idea it was in the back stairwell. Ignore the look on my face.
Here is a properly installed (link to pdf) smoke alarm. It's between 4 to 12 inches away from the ceiling (since it could not be installed in the middle of the ceiling). The alarm is also four feet away from any doors or windows.
Here is the ideal location for a smoke alarm.
For the record, I plan to replace any and all batteries if need be. That's just how I roll.