Smoke alarm keeps going off - advice needed

DevilsAdvocate1

The smoke alarm has gone off twice in the middle of the night in the last 4 weeks. We have been having some problems with the spotlights in our extension and my dad (who used to be an electrician) was having a look at them last weekend. Two of the spotlights had completely burnt out.

At 5am this morning, the smoke alarm went off again. Again, we could find no smoke, but I'm assuming that another spotlight has burnt out. Obviously, I am worried incase the house burns down.

What should I do? I'm thinking of contacting the company who did the extension. However, my dad was not impressed with the electricians work and said the reason we are having so many problems with our lights is because the electrician did not tighten things up enough. (We are also having problems with the living room lights where the bulbs go off. We tap the bulb and it comes back on).

The extension was done 2 and half years ago.

Thanks.

WLM21

Some smoke alarms are also heat detectors, so they go off even if there is no smoke.

Get the lights checked by another independent electrician if you are worried.

tillycat123

Mine do this as well, this time of year especially. Mine are mains wired and I have changed them but still happens now and again.
I think spiders are part of my cause, give them a good vac and see if that helps.

ic

They might be hard wired - but don't they also have back-up batteries? have you checked those?

maninthestreet

tillycat123 wrote: »

Mine do this as well, this time of year especially. Mine are mains wired and I have changed them but still happens now and again.
I think spiders are part of my cause, give them a good vac and see if that helps.

Second this - a few years back my downstairs smoke alarm wemt off 3 or 4 times early in the morning. I opened it up to find fine cobwebs inside. I got a duster and removed the cobwebs - the smoke alarm was then silent, but I gave it a good vaccum later on in the morning, and continue to do so about once a month.

Hintza

Interestingly we had year old smoke alarm go crazy the other night, hard wired and even replacing the battery didn't stop it. So it has gone.

Perhaps yours is broken too? (But your other comments do suggest caution) I guess my point is these detectors do go faulty too.

DevilsAdvocate1

Thanks everyone. Still feel a bit worried as when we saw the burnt out spotlight wire, the plastic was all brown and melted. There is a bit of a strange smell in the kitchen.

The smoke alarm which went off is hard wired and is in the extension, so its just 2 years old. Will also give it a clean, but I don't think I'll feel happy until the electrics have been checked out.

ytfcmad

Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years at least.

keystone

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

...........so its just 2 years old.

ytfcmad wrote: »

Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years at least.

keystone

OP. I'm assuming ELV lighting so could be wrong. Extension ceiling void probably isn't big enough to carry away the heat generated by the spots so transformer overheats, wires melt, light goes out and sufficient ionising particles are generated to set off the alarm.

I would agree with the spiders web theory if it were just the alarm going off and all the lights still functioned and although spiders could be contributing you still need to get your electrics looked at.

Cheers

dan20rhino

Mine went off last night about 6 times in total for no apparent reason. They are hard wired with battery backup. In the end I took all the covers off them and left them like that so I could get some sleep.
Im not sure what caused them to go off? The house is thatched approx 300 yr old so possibly dust or a draught? The detectors were installed new this year around July so this is the first proper cold spell they would have experienced. Anyway my landlord has had an electrician round to look at them and he said he would give them a good clean and see if that sorts them out.