Smoke Detectors Activate on Emergency Back up.

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Coreyd1@optonline.net

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I have a customer that just recently when the house goes on Emergency Backup Generator (Residential) All the Smoke detectors activate. This only happens when the house loses power from the Utility. When the house is on Utility power the detectors do not beep or chirp if there is a trouble or low batter. All detectors are line voltage. I have never seen/heard of anything like this and this is why I am posting. The appliance is 15' from a window.

Thank you in Advance
 
Never saw this, but then, I dealt almost exclusively with system detectors. Do any detectors show an alarm? If not, a single detector could still be causing the others to sound. Try opening all interconnect lines and killing POCO power to identify the offender (hopefully not plural). Manufacturer's tech support may have a solution or at least offer some insight.

 
Coreyd1@optonline.net said:
I have a customer that just recently when the house goes on Emergency Backup Generator (Residential) All the Smoke detectors activate. This only happens when the house loses power from the Utility. When the house is on Utility power the detectors do not beep or chirp if there is a trouble or low batter. All detectors are line voltage. I have never seen/heard of anything like this and this is why I am posting. The appliance is 15' from a window.

Thank you in Advance
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Do you know approximate age and the brand?

Are they on a dedicated circuit or tapped off lighting?
 
House is only 2 years old - I would have to imagine the smokes are either Kidde or BRK. Generator is GE/Briggs Called tech support - didn't have an answer. When house is on Utility power and non emergency power everything is fine. When the house loses power and the ATS switches over to Generator - all the smoke alarms go off.
 
Coreyd1@optonline.net said:
House is only 2 years old - I would have to imagine the smokes are either Kidde or BRK. Generator is GE/Briggs Called tech support - didn't have an answer. When house is on Utility power and non emergency power everything is fine. When the house loses power and the ATS switches over to Generator - all the smoke alarms go off.
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Do the alarms go off again when the ATS switches back to utility power? Do they go off immediately when connected to the genny, or a few minutes later. Maybe getting some CO from the genny exhaust through the window, setting off the alarm.
 
Kidde issued a recall last year on some of their smoke alarms that would latch into alarm mode during a power failure. I believe the manufacturing dates were aprox. 2 years ago. It might be worth looking into if the installed alarms are Kidde and part of this recall.
 
sparkyrick said:
Do the alarms go off again when the ATS switches back to utility power? Do they go off immediately when connected to the genny, or a few minutes later. Maybe getting some CO from the genny exhaust through the window, setting off the alarm.
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I'd start at the generator exhaust.
 
edward said:
Why at the exhaust? Generator is outside and presumably the windows are closed.
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Plus the exhaust is not too likely to activate a smoke alarm unless the generator is diesel powered, CO detector would be more likely to be activated.
 
edward said:
Why at the exhaust? Generator is outside and presumably the windows are closed.
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Generator is an internal combustion engine. Smoke detectors detect products of combustion. Seems simple enough to go look at the arrangement.
 
mgookin said:
Generator is an internal combustion engine. Smoke detectors detect products of combustion. Seems simple enough to go look at the arrangement.
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But smoke detectors are designed to detect heavier particle products of combustion, the ICE will primarily give off CO, and/or CO2 which is not detected by typical smoke detectors.
 
mgookin said:
Generator is an internal combustion engine. Smoke detectors detect products of combustion. Seems simple enough to go look at the arrangement.
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Yes, but the generator is outside. By the time it turns ON and generates amount of smoke/CO for the smoke detectors to sense and operate will take some time. That is assuming the generator exhaust is pointed towards an open window and there is close by detector. Maybe there is something that I don't see. :?:?

I think Curt gave the solution.
 
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