Are Smoke Detectors Required In Australia?

[freezkat]

I was reading about the fire at the home of Chef Matt Golinski.

I belive Egress Windows and Smoke Detectors in every room could have saved all of their lives.

What happened?

 

[Clutch]

New houses are required to have them, and rentals as well. I think.

 

[Maheel]

New houses are required to have them, and rentals as well. I think.

and your mad if you dont have them and check them in any home

 

[MarkBastard]

Everyone I know with them ends up turning them off because of the following reasons
1 - Near a kitchen, goes off when you open the oven door or cook a steak. Frigging annoying.
2 - Run out of batteries and chirp and wake you up.
3 - Have loose contacts or something, so despite having a full battery and being hard wired into the house they still chirp randomly (this happened to me)

You could say that people should be more on top of them which is true but any compulsory system like this should take annoyance into consideration. False positives are a failure of the system. It's a shame they're compulsory to some extent because people just get the cheapest ones that are probably next to useless due to the false positives and annoying chirps all the time.

 

[petesbrew]

Everyone I know with them ends up turning them off because of the following reasons
1 - Near a kitchen, goes off when you open the oven door or cook a steak. Frigging annoying.
2 - Run out of batteries and chirp and wake you up.
3 - Have loose contacts or something, so despite having a full battery and being hard wired into the house they still chirp randomly (this happened to me)

You could say that people should be more on top of them which is true but any compulsory system like this should take annoyance into consideration. False positives are a failure of the system. It's a shame they're compulsory to some extent because people just get the cheapest ones that are probably next to useless due to the false positives and annoying chirps all the time.

We check em every 6 months, and change the batteries while we're at it.
The old batteries go in the remote controls for the kids RC cars. Sorted.

edit, as suggested on Airgeard's links below... they suggest changing batteries when you change clock times at daylight savings start/end

 

[Airgead]

I believe that all new builds and any major renovation you are required to put in mains powered (with battery backup) detectors. At least in NSW anyway.

Ahh yes.. google to the rescue - http://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=290 and http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/smokealarms...visory_note.pdf

Cheers
Dave

 

[komodo]

I actually thought all homes were supposed to have them

I've got battery powered ones - I upgraded to better ones when I moved into this house as the cheap ones would go off for no reason and chewed through batteries.
The house I grew up in had hard wired and I believe these are much better.

I certainly wouldnt be without some detectors. We had one go off in our holiday house a few years ago - admittedly only because the batteries ran out and the power had gone off so it was a false alarm. But it got us all out of bed and moving out of the house pretty quick. Better to be woken up falsely on the odd occasion than to die in a house fire because you didnt want to deal with a smoke detector

 

[newguy]

Carbon monoxide detectors are well worth the peace of mind too. Every winter there is at least one tragic news story of an entire family succumbing to CO poisoning. Around here at least.

 

[bconnery]

Everyone I know with them ends up turning them off because of the following reasons
1 - Near a kitchen, goes off when you open the oven door or cook a steak. Frigging annoying.

I changed mine to the photo-electric, or whichever way around it is, for this very reason.
I can't remember the exact term but one gives off far less false positives.

I had my old one turned off because even with fresh batteries I couldn't cook anything without it going off.
The new one does not go off just because the toaster got a little enthusiastic that morning...

 

[argon]

Are Smoke Detectors Required In Australia?

Yes

 

[petesbrew]

I was reading about the fire at the home of Chef Matt Golinski.

I belive Egress Windows and Smoke Detectors in every room could have saved all of their lives.

What happened?

Shocking what happened. And to that poor kid in the caravan at Taree last week.

It happend to the old neighbour next door to my brother a few months ago in a cold spell. Seems like he fell asleep with the gas heater on. He died from the smoke & the house was gutted.

Honestly if you're too tightarse or stupid to at least buy a pack of those alarms from the supermarkets or a hardware store, you've got rocks in your head.

 

[brettprevans]

yup required as argon

ive even got one near my arse...you know for when people try to blow smoke up it

edit: in all seriousness as pete said, youve got to be mad not to have them. as annoying those stupid little chirps are, it not worth risking your lives if you can prevent a possible tragidy

a mates co-op property has all the alams hardwired in and on battery back up and then wired up another way so that if one fails (ie no current/dead currrent from one), then the others will go off thus building in further redundences. but they are out in the bush in bushfire territor and they can have a tonne of people staying at the property so its worthwhile being cautious

 

[warra48]

One of mine went off its head last weak doing a good interpretation of a sick bird chirp.

Replaced it with a new one, and also installed another at the same time.

For very little money, it's worth it for some peace of mind.

 

[mika]

I could be wrong, but think I'm good with the battery operated ones in the house at the moment, but if I wanted to sell it I'm required to upgrade them to hardwired units before the property can change hands. Think the same goes with RCD protection as well now.

 

[DU99]

they are cheap insurance., different types available Ionisation Smoke Alarm,Photoelectric Smoke Alarm made for different type of fires
victoria's rules

Smoke alarms are mandatory in all new homes, and also in all existing homes in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.