This is a very big topic by itself. We will try to summarize it here. Smoke detectors should be installed along the path of escape out of homes. Why? Because the intent of smoke detectors is to give you early warning on potential fire threats, so that you have ample time to escape if the fire can't be put out by yourself. It will be useless if by the time the smoke detectors sound out alarm, your escape path out of your home is no longer viable.
Presence of fire is an obvious reason. However, very often the escape path may be made non-viable because of smoke.
- You may be surprised that many fire casualties are from smoke (inhalation), rather than the fire itself.
- You will also not expect by the time dense smoke has built up, the temperate of the smoke can be upwards of 80 degrees celsius. Most cannot endure such heat.
- Smoke from household items burning are extremely toxic. Breathing in too much can make one unconscious. Putting aside the toxicity of the smoke, breathing in too much smoke deprives your brain of oxygen, which will result in yourself rendered unconscious. Once one is unconscious, how does one escape?
- Smoke makes one loses directional sense. There have been many incidents when fire casualties were found within metres of their main door after the fire was put out. Most of such casualties were unable to find their main door to escape in the midst of the dense smoke. It is also this reason that as part of the fire escape practicing, it is recommended that one blindfolds oneself to try to navigate from room to main door.
Hope that you now have a better understanding of why smoke detectors should be installed along your escape path out of your home. In addition, most of us are living in flats & apartments, which often only has 1 escape option - through the main door. If this escape option is rendered non-viable, the situation is going to get worse quickly. On average, it takes only 3 minutes for a fire to occupy the entire house once fire starts to burn.
There is also the concept of dead air space that we need to avoid. Essentially, this is the air space that's ~10cm from any corner. It's called dead because smoke will never reach these areas due to physics of air. Installing a smoke detector there guarantees your detector will never ring. You can read more about dead air space in this link.
There are also certain locations with our homes that we need to avoid as they are either too dusty, too steamy or too breezy, such as kitchens, bathrooms. You can read more about these places in this link.
One question in your mind now is likely to be "Yea, I understand. But this still doesn't really tell me where to install".
Yes, we are aware of that. The reason why we explain all the above is to let you understand the important fact (if you cannot understand most of the above) that smoke detectors should be installed in correct locations so that they can do what they do best.
So the best way to help answer this question is if you can share your floorplan / pictures with us via whatsapp @ 8815 8752 or email to support@yourblazeguard.com, so that we can advise you on optimum locations.