Change your detector batteries when you change your clocks this fall

                        
Summary: While we joke about Daylight Saving Time it is the best way to remember a life-saving biannual event that is quite serious; change smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector batteries to insure they will work if you need them. While it never fails to elicit remarks in favor of but mostly against Daylight Saving Time happens November 4 at 2a.m. For those of us that live in a place that follows the oft-thought ridiculous tradition that means we turn our clocks back an hour placing us back into Standard Time. This will be the fall back portion of the biannual event that occurs on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. The term spring forward, fall back is not entirely accurate as spring does not officially begin until later in the month of March but the phrase winter forward and fall back isn’t quite as catchy. Daylight Saving Time started in World War I when there was a need to conserve energy and again when the nation became involved in the Second World War. Not until 1966 did Congress, yep leave it up to them to pass the Uniform Time Act that made the length of Daylight Saving Time standard. In 2007 Congress was at it again passing yet another act, this time calling it the Energy Policy Act which extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks in an effort to save 10,000 barrels of oil a day through energy conservation even though there has never been any proof that energy is indeed saved by instituting Daylight Saving Time. Americans are not the only ones who participate in Daylight Saving Time if that is any consolation. Countries around the world feel the need to confuse their citizens as well. In Iceland Daylight Saving Time is observed all the time further confusing those that live there as well as those that travel to the Scandinavian nation. We may never know all the mystery that surrounds the need for the observation of Daylight Saving Time and like other great mysteries like why pants are called slacks and how many licks does it take to get to the center of that gum-filled candy, Daylight Saving Time however does remind us to do an important function in our busy and altogether too hectic households. Many families have adopted the twice-yearly event to change the batteries in their smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. All humor aside, this is an action that can save lives, protect property and prevent disaster. Dover Fire Chief Russ Volkert can’t stress the importance of detectors in the home nearly enough. “I think that smoke detectors are the single best lifesaving devices that have come along to protect people from fire, which is especially important when our homes are so full of synthetic materials that burn hotter and faster than fires of the past,” said Volkert. Chief Volkert also stresses the importance of testing the detectors and never assuming they will work. “Every year we try to stress the importance of having working detectors and everyone should test their detectors monthly and change the batteries when they change their clocks; more importantly people need to consider that in the last decade a newer, better type of detector has become available, and people should seriously consider replacing older style detectors with a dual sensor type,” said Volkert. Like most electronic equipment improvements have been made and it is easy to justify the cost of a device that it is so important. “Traditional smoke detectors are photo ionizing, meaning they have a very small source of radioactive material that ionizes smoke particles that enter the sensor and then the detector alarms. Dual sensor detectors also have a photoelectric detector that will function when smoke particles may be too large to activate an ionizing type detector,” said Volkert. “These types of dual sensor detectors are in the twenty dollar range and offer the best overall protection. There are other types of dual sensor detectors that have built in carbon monoxide and photo-ionizing, as well as other options, so be careful and check to make sure that what you are looking at clearly is described as photo-ionizing and photo electric and you will have the best protection available for you and your family.”


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