We don’t mean to alarm you (excuse the pun)… but how are your smoke alarms? You DO have smoke alarms in your home, right?
Aside from their obvious life-saving role for your family, the proper installation and upkeep of smoke alarms in your home can lower your insurance premiums – 10% or more in annual savings! The logic is simple: If you take fewer risks as a homeowner – in this case, an early warning system to prevent/reduce fire damage – then you are a lower risk for making insurance claims.
Although smoke alarms are standard in new homes today, you can and should install them in an older home; some tips:
- Install at least one smoke alarm on every level of your home, especially outside bedrooms.
- Do not install alarm directly above stoves/ovens, or they will go off accidentally. If you hear too many “false alarms” someone in your family will take out the batteries and leave them out. Did you know that the removal of batteries or tampering with a smoke alarm is a violation of the Ontario Fire Code?
- Test each alarm at least once a month by pressing the test button; the alarm sound ring or buzz loudly.
- Refresh batteries as needed; replace the alarms entirely every 10 years.
- Make sure you are able to reach the alarms easily or you may not bother to test them.
- Consider getting alarms that are interconnected – if one goes off, they all do.
While you’re at it – some other safety measures that also work in your favour when it comes to keeping insurance premiums down:
- Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, another in the garage, and one on each floor of your home. Make sure to train yourself, and your family members, how to use an extinguisher properly.
- Install a CO2 alarm in your basement, near your furnace. Carbon monoxide is a silent, scent-free killer that cannot be detected any other way.
If insurance premium savings aren’t motivating you to install smoke alarms, consider this: You are twice as likely to die in a house fire that has no smoke alarms than in a house with alarms… Your choice.
