1337Delta764 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 5087 posts, RR: 2 Posted (3 months 3 weeks 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 600 times:
It seems that all of today's hardwired smoke alarms have a solid green LED to indicate it is receiving AC power, and a flashing red LED to indicate operation. However, I remember seeing some smoke alarms long ago that had solid red LEDs on them.
When I lived in Virginia Beach, while the ones in our house had solid green LEDs, the ones in our neighbor's house had solid red LEDs. And since both houses were brand new when we moved in, the ones in our neighbor's house couldn't have been defective.
I was wondering, what type of visual indication did the solid red LED models use to indicate operation? I never really payed that much attention to our neighbor's smoke alarms; I simply noticed the red LEDs on them.
Also, when were green LEDs mandated on hardwired smoke alarms?
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ikramerica From United States of America, joined May 2005, 20630 posts, RR: 62 Reply 1, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago) and read 473 times:
What model flashes red to show it's working? I've not seen that.
Solid green indicates it's working. Flashing red would indicate it's on battery backup (power out), and chirping would indicate the back-up battery is low. At least in the modern models I've seen. And in the last 2 years we've installed linked alarms in 4 houses...
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1337Delta764 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 5087 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 446 times:
Quoting ikramerica (Reply 1): What model flashes red to show it's working? I've not seen that.
Solid green indicates it's working. Flashing red would indicate it's on battery backup (power out), and chirping would indicate the back-up battery is low. At least in the modern models I've seen. And in the last 2 years we've installed linked alarms in 4 houses...
The red LED flashes once every 40 seconds under normal conditions, and flashes faster when sensing smoke. I know this is the case with Kidde/FireX and BRK/First Alert; not sure about USI Electric.
However, I can confirm I remember seeing hardwired models with solid red LEDs at our neighbor's house when we lived in Virginia Beach. Our house had FireX with both the red and green LEDs; not sure what brand our neighbor had. The houses were built by different buliders, which is probably why theirs were different from ours. How did these models indicate operation?
[Edited 2012-02-01 17:41:59]
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GuitrThree From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 1910 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 423 times:
Why not just climb up and read the brand name and model numbers? Then google search the operations/user manuals and see what red and green mean? I'm saying they both mean normal, just different makers use different colors.
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airportugal310 From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 2745 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 423 times:
Quoting 1337Delta764 (Reply 2): The red LED flashes once every 40 seconds under normal conditions, and flashes faster when sensing smoke. I know this is the case with Kidde/FireX and BRK/First Alert; not sure about USI Electric.
My childhood home had the flashing red LED. What it did I'm not sure...but it did flash every so often under normal conditions.
The one in my apartment is hardwired AND, get this...talks to you (yells at you?)...as a side not, it has a constant green LED. I think its made by First Alert
It has, from time to time, awoken me at 630a making some loud bizarre noise and yelling "ERROR". Though when I run the test, it seems just fine to me.
1337Delta764 From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 5087 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (3 months 3 weeks 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 414 times:
Quoting GuitrThree (Reply 3): Why not just climb up and read the brand name and model numbers? Then google search the operations/user manuals and see what red and green mean? I'm saying they both mean normal, just different makers use different colors.
This was a long time ago in a neighbor's house. The ones we have now have both the green and red LEDs.
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