False Alarm

Last night, I was exhausted, so I went to bed really early. Then around 10pm, I was woke up by the smoke alarms. Our house was built 5 years ago, in these newer houses, all alarms are linked together, one of them detect something, all of them go off. It's a good thing, because you will know there is a fire in the basement even if you are in the attic. But it's also troublesome, since you have no idea which one started it, so you have to run up and down the stairs to check. If it's a false alarm, you have to figure out which one to take off so they can all quiet down.

So, back to my last night story. It turned out to be a false alarm. Our nanny accidently turned the humidifier, which is in the baby nursery, up to 65%. When DH opened the nursery door, it was so steamy, like a sauna inside. He finally turned that one off after a couple of minutes checking around the house. Our poor baby girl got so scared, she forgot to cry during this whole ordeal. Half minute after the alarms turned off, she started screaming. Poor thing, must be terrified. We had to hold her, walk her, talk and sing to her, trying to calm her down. Finally I had to turn on the faucet. It took us 45 minutes to help her relax. So much for going to bed early! I almost got a heart attack.

So first thing this morning, I went online to google about smoke alarm. There are two types of smoke detector, ionization and photoelectric detectors, and they are both effective. In either type of detector, steam or high humidity can lead to condensation on the circuit board and sensor, causing the alarm to sound. I didn't know that before. That's why they don't install detectors in bathrooms! If you are like me, don't know too much about smoke detectors, here is something you can read about. Tonight I am going home to change all the old batteries. You should do the same thing.