If it is a ten year alarm, you will need to replace the whole alarm every ten years. Other equipment you could consider Plan an escape from your home in advance and talk about it with your family. If a fire occurs you may have to get out in the dark and difficult conditions. Escaping will be a lot easier it everyone knows where to go. Make sure your routes remain free of any obstructions and that there are no loose floor coverings that could trip you. If your home is on one floor, one smoke alarm, preferably of the optical type, may be enough to provide you with early warning of a fire. Pros: Can suit dustier areas, such as lofts, the area near your bathroom or rooms where people smoke. You could add another layer of protection by installing smoke alarms in every bedroom. This is a good idea, as studies have shown that sometimes children and older adults don't wake up when a smoke alarm on the landing goes off.

Bedrooms, living rooms and hallway: Optical smoke alarms or combined optical smoke and heat alarms. Wireless devices communicate with each other and other devices without the use of connecting wires. This can be through interlinking by radio or through wi-fi. Interlinked smoke alarms will use the same optical or ionisation technology mentioned above, so, they're not a type of alarm in their own right. In a standard smoke alarm, the battery will need to be replaced every 12 months. You can buy alarms fitted with sealed 10 year batteries. The advantage is that you don’t have to replace the battery every year.

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Now that the alarms law has changed in Scotland, you'll need to install interlinked heat and smoke alarms in your home. Some people find their alarms are frequently set off when they are cooking or when the toast burns. An alarm installed inside the kitchen must be a heat alarm rather than a smoke alarm. Just outside a kitchen (eg in hall or dining room) an optical smoke alarm or, even better, a combined smoke and heat alarm should be installed, as these are less sensitive to false alarm. These alarms are more sensitive to smaller particles of smoke produced by the flaming stage of fires than optical alarms, and more easily triggered by cooking – causing false alarms. Heat (thermal) alarms detect heat (hot air) instead of smoke. The alarm is triggered when the temperature within the sensor chamber reaches over 58 degrees Celsius – generally when a fire is well established. Combined Optical Smoke and Heat Alarms: Combinations of optical and heat alarms in one unit to reduce false alarms while increasing the speed of detection.

Smoke alarms require very little maintenance but according to the Fire Service, there are a couple of things you should do every year to make sure they're working properly:The regulations state that all homes will need a smoke alarm to be installed in the most used room, which is likely to be the living room in most homes. And an interlinked heat alarm will need to be needed in the kitchen. If you can't find a Best Buy, look for an alarm that's been tested to the BS EN 14604 standard – this will be shown on the box. But bear in mind that we've tested alarms that officially meet the standard, but that have failed our tests and that the standard is broad and allows slow-to-trigger alarms to pass The number of smoke alarms to fit in your home depends on your particular circumstances. Fires can start anywhere, so the more that are fitted, the higher the level of protection. Homes that have a fuel burning appliance, such as a boiler, an open fire or a log burner will also need to have a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm installed in the room the appliance is in, but the CO alarm doesn’t need to be interlinked.