Which Smoke Detector Will Work Best to Alert You to the Possibility of a Fire?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to determine if a more expensive smoke detector would alert you to a possible fire faster than a less expensive smoke detector. Methods/Materials Materials:I used three different priced smoke detectors. Three 2ftx3ft covered boxes were used. 1 fog machine and 1 bottle of fog maker. 1 stopwatch. 3 9 volt batteries. 1 piece of PVC, 2" diameter by 19" long. I attached a different smoke detector to each box, and then labeled them accordingly, box 1, 2, and 3.An adult helped me with the fog machine and I waited for the alarm to go off and wrote the time down. I repeated the same steps 3 times on each box. Results The medium priced smoke detector faster to alert you to a fire by 00:07.16 seconds. I thought that the higher priced smoke detector would work faster so my prediction was wrong. Conclusions/Discussion After testing all 3 smoke detectors 3 different times I averaged the results from each one and found that the medium priced or #2 smoke detector worked better than the more expensive one by 00:07.16 seconds. Although 00:07.16 seconds does not sound like a lot of time, it would be enough time to dial 911. Enough time to yell and get someone up and out of danger. Basically 00:07.16 is enough time to save a life.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1134

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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