Edwards Signaling 517FH - Manual (Page 2)

••••• Decide on a meeting place a safe distance from your house
and make sure that all your children understand that they
should go and wait for you if there is a fire.
••••• Hold fire drills at least every 6 months to make sure that ev-
eryone, even small children, knows what to do to escape safely.
••••• Know where to go to call the fire department from outside
your residence.
••••• Provide emergency equipment such as fire extinguishers and
teach your family to use this equipment properly.
WHAT TO DO IF THERE IS A FIRE
IN YOUR HOME
If you have prepared family escape plans and practiced them
with your family, you have increased their chances of escaping
safely. Review the following rules with your children when you
have fire drills so everyone will remember them in a real fire emer-
gency:
a. Don’t panic; stay calm. Your safe escape may depend on
thinking clearly and remembering what you have practiced.
b. Get out of the house following a planned escape route as
quickly as possible. Do not stop to collect anything or to get
dressed.
c. Open doors carefully only after feeling to see if they are hot.
Do not open a door if it is hot; use an alternate escape route.
d. Stay close to the floor; smoke and hot gases rise.
e. Cover your nose and mouth with a cloth, wet if possible, and
take short, shallow breaths.
f. Keep doors and windows closed unless you open them to es-
cape.
g. Meet at your prearranged meeting place after leaving the house.
h. Call the Fire Department as soon as possible from outside
your house. Give the address and your name.
i. Never re-enter a burning building.
Contact your local Fire Department for more information on
making your home safer from fires and about preparing your
family’s escape plans.
WHAT THIS HEAT DETECTOR
CAN DO
This alarm is designed to sense heat produced by a fire. IT
WILL NOT SENSE SMOKE OR OTHER TOXIC GASES.
When properly located, installed, and maintained, this heat de-
tector is designed to provide warning of developing fires at a rea-
sonable cost. This alarm monitors the air and, when it senses
heat, activates its built-in alarm horn. NOTE: This heat detector
is designed for use within single residential living units only; that
is, it should be used inside a single-family home or one apartment
of a multi-family building. In a multi-family building, the alarm
may not provide early warning for residents if it is placed outside
of the residential units, such as on outside porches, in corridors,
lobbies, basements, or in other apartments. In multi-family build-
ings, each residential unit should have alarms to alert the resi-
dents of that unit. Alarms designed to be interconnected should
be interconnected within one family residence only; otherwise,
nuisance alarms will occur when an alarm in another living unit is
tested.
IMPORTANT NOTE: WHAT HEAT DE-
TECTORS CANNOT DO
Heat Detectors will not work without power. A battery must
be connected to the alarm to maintain proper alarm operation if
AC power supply is cut off by an electrical fire, an open fuse or
circuit breaker, or for any other reason. In the event of AC power
failure, the battery will supply power for a minimum of 24 hours.
Heat detectors may not sense fire that starts where heat
cannot reach the alarms such as in chimneys, in walls, on roofs,
or on the other side of closed doors. Smoke alarms should also
be placed in each bedroom as well as in the common hallway
between them.
Heat detectors also may not sense a fire on another level
of a residence or building. For example, a second-floor alarm
may not sense a first-floor or basement fire. Therefore, alarms
should be placed on every level of a residence or building.
The horn in your alarm meets or exceeds current audibility re-
quirements of Underwriters Laboratories. However, if the alarm
is located outside a bedroom, it may not wake up a sound
sleeper, especially if the bedroom door is closed or only partly
open. If the alarm is located on a different level of the residence
than the bedroom, it is even less likely to wake up people sleeping
in the bedroom. In such cases, the National Fire Protection Asso-
ciation recommends that the alarms be interconnected so that an
alarm on any level of the residence will sound an alarm loud enough
to awaken sleepers in closed bedrooms. This can be done by
installing a fire-detection system, by connecting alarms together,
or by using radio frequency transmitters and receivers.
All types of smoke alarm and heat detector sensors have
limitations. No type of smoke alarm and heat detector can
sense every kind of fire every time. In general, alarms may
not always warn you about fires caused by violent explosions,
escaping gas, improper storage of flammable materials, or
arson.
NOTE: This detector is not designed to replace special-pur-
pose fire detection and alarm systems necessary to protect per-
sons and property in non-residential buildings such as warehouses,
or other large industrial or commercial buildings. It alone is not a
suitable substitute for complete fire-detection systems designed
to protect individuals in hotels and motels, dormitories, hospitals,
or other health and supervisory care and old age institutions.
Please refer to NFPA 101,The Life Safety Code, and NFPA 72 for
smoke alarm requirements for fire protection in buildings not de-
fined as “households.”
Installing smoke alarms and heat detectors may make you eli-
gible for lower insurance rates, but smoke alarms and heat de-
tectors are not a substitute for insurance. Homeowners and
renters should continue to insure their lives and property.
HEAT DETECTION
General. - While Chapter 2 of NFPA 72 does not require heat
detectors as part of the basic protection scheme, it is recommended
that the householder consider the use of additional heat detectors
for the same reasons presented in the next section. The addi-
tional areas lending themselves to protection with heat detectors
are the kitchen, dining room, attic (finished or unfinished), fur-
nace room, utility room, basement and integral or attached ga-
rage. For bedrooms, the installation of a smoke alarm is recom-
mended over the installation of a heat detector for protection of
the occupants from fires in their bedrooms.
Heat Detector Mounting – Dead Air Space. Heat from a fire
rises to the ceiling, spreads out across the ceiling surface, and
begins to bank down from the ceiling. The corner where the ceil-
ing and the wall meet is an air space into which heat has difficulty
penetrating. In most fires, this dead air space measures about 4
in. (0.1 m) down the wall as shown in Fig. 5. Heat detectors
should not be placed in this dead air space.
The placement of the detector is critical where maximum speed
of fire detection is desired. Thus, a logical location for a detector
is the center of the ceiling. At this location, the detector is closest
to all areas of the room.
If the detector cannot be located in the center of the ceiling, an
off-center location on the ceiling may be permitted to be used.