5 Reasons To Update Your Smoke Alarms
With spring winding down and summer just a few short weeks away, temperatures are getting hotter and conditions are getting dryer, which means that if your smoke alarms aren’t up-to-date, you could be setting yourself up for serious problems. Keeping your smoke alarms up-to-date is an important part of being a responsible residential property owner, and is actually required by the new safety codes. In addition to code compliance, there are a number of different reasons it’s important to update your smoke alarms in addition to code compliance, and to highlight what some of those reasons are, our team of skilled San Francisco electricians have taken the time to put together this short list for your convenience.
Keep People Safe
First and foremost, smoke alarms are designed to help save lives. Whether it’s for you and your family, or your tenants, you want to be sure that everyone in your residential property gets the early warning they need to safely escape in the event of a fire. Updating your smoke alarms periodically is an important factor in ensuring that happens.
Protect Your Property
Properly-working smoke alarms are one of the most important safety features you can have in place around your property, and might just give you the early warning you need to extinguish a fire before it gets out of control. Some automated smoke alarm systems can actually locate the source of the fire and even communicate the location of your building to the nearest firehouse. All of this means quicker response times and can help minimize damage to your property.
Reduce Downtime
Even minor fire damage can make a space uninhabitable for a time while cleanup is performed, which can be a major inconvenience for you and your family, as well as your tenants. Updated smoke alarms can go a long way in helping to prevent damage by alerting you or the fire department to any problems early, minimizing damage and reducing cleanup times.
Help Your Insurance
Updated smoke alarms can often help you qualify for better coverage and better premiums from your insurance company. In most residential buildings, smoke alarms will almost certainly need to be in place before any insurance provider agrees to a policy, so make sure you’ve invested in updated smoke alarms before it’s too late.
Prevent Compliance Issues
Like we stated above, updated smoke alarms are required by law in most residential buildings, and in order to prevent compliance issues, it’s important to make sure you stay on top of it. Making sure that your building stays code compliant can help you avoid hefty fines, as well as damage to your reputation.