Smoke detectors for the elderly

Posted by Robert Green on October 4, 2009, 11:30 am

<<Seems to me someone in our dysfunctional Congress needs to address

this issue. Or maybe Consumer Reports or AARP could launch a campaign.>>

I've come to believe that only laws that help businesses who bring buckets
of cash to campaigns get passed. )-: Congress critters on both sides of
the aisle are equally guilty and it will only get worse until we ban
campaign contributions. Who in this world gives money to someone without
expecting something in return? Yet Congress wants us to believe they are
above all that. Edwards has been paying his mistress with left-over
campaign funds. Ensign has been trying to bribe the husband of the woman
he's having an affair with and more than a few are in jail, or heading there
soon. Trust them to fix the smoke alarm problem? I wouldn't trust any of
them with even a burned-out match.

<<We supposedly have Consumer Product Safety working for us, but they

seem to be asleep except for traces of lead in Chinese toy paint.>>

The key word is "supposedly" - a lot of people bought into the idea that any
regulation was bad regulation along with the fairytale that you can lower
taxes but still run government effectively. Now, as a result, there's very
little pre-emptive enforcement. It's only when the dead children and pets
start to stack up that regulators seem to notice anything's amiss.

<<On the technical side, what do you audio experts think of having a
raunchy sounding dual tone that would generate a beat frequency that

would be even more (maybe disagreeably) audible?>>

As I read up on this subject, research indicates that flashing lights are
nearly useless in rousing someone from sleep. High frequency sounders are
almost as bad. Kids and adults are apparently able to sleep through both.
The lower square wave of 520Hz seems to be the best at waking people, as far
as tones are concerned. Even better is to have a "bed shaker" connected to
the alarm output.

The problem I face here is resistance. My friend says he's quite happy with
not being able to hear the alarm, but I suspect because he's infirm and
usually in a lot of pain, that he's feeling a little suicidal. I know he
won't spring for a complicated security system. He already got sold an
expensive system from the people that wander door-to-door selling such
things (I know, I know. I already chastized him greatly for that.!) He's
not likely to buy another one (he doesn't even use this one because the
vendor went under. So my best hope of getting him protection is to make it
cheap and easy to install.

Thanks for your input!

--
Bobby G.

Posted by mm on October 5, 2009, 1:43 am

On Sun, 4 Oct 2009 11:30:44 -0400, "Robert Green"

> Ensign has been trying to bribe the husband of the woman
>he's having an affair with

That one's really low. If he doesn't shape up, he'll never make
captain.

Posted by HeyBub on October 4, 2009, 12:32 pm

Joe wrote:

> Seems to me someone in our dysfunctional Congress needs to address
> this issue. Or maybe Consumer Reports or AARP could launch a campaign.
> We supposedly have Consumer Product Safety working for us, but they
> seem to be asleep except for traces of lead in Chinese toy paint.

Yeah, for every perceived or possible problem, there's got to be a
government solution. If not, the government will study the need and solve
some other problem.

Posted by Ashton Crusher on October 3, 2009, 1:03 pm

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009 11:27:35 -0400, "Robert Green"

>I was at an elderly friend's house the other day when the smoke alarm went
>off. It was quite loud and I reacted instantly to the noise. My friend, a
>former Army marksman in his 70's, who's suffering from profound high
>frequency hearing loss, heard nothing!!!
>Then I started looking around for alarms that used lower frequency sounders
>but the only thing I could find were specially converted smoke detectors
>that cost $300!!!!
>I'm wondering why COTS alarms operate at such a high sound frequency,
>especially when it's well known that older adults lose their high frequency
>hearing first. I have been thinking of just unsoldering the Sonalert
>sounders in low priced alarms and replacing them with lower frequency
>sounders, but that could compromise the detector's ability to sense smoke if
>the replacement sounder has sufficiently different electrical
>characteristics.
>Does anyone know of a *reasonably* priced smoke detector whose sounder is
>audible to people with high frequency hearing loss? I'd like to buy a
>couple of such detectors for him, but the price on the only unit I've found
>would bring the bill to over $1200 for four detectors, and that's just
>unreasonable. I know what goes into making a smoke detector and 10x the
>cost of the parts still wouldn't bring the price that high.
>The idea that smokes use sounders that can't be heard by a lot of elderly
>people seems pretty unreasonable to me as well.
>Surely someone out there makes a smoke detector or combo smoke/CO detector
>(even better) that makes a sound people with typical hearing loss could hear
>a little better.
>BTW, we can skip flashing light smoke detectors. BT, DT, GTS! He's got a
>phone ringer/flasher that he never hears or sees. The unit's flasher can't
>really be seen in daytime easily and the electronic ringer again uses a tone
>in the 5000Hz and above range and is inaudible to him. FWIW, based on some
>simple tests I did with CoolEdit, a PC program that allows you to create any
>audible tone, he can hear most stuff below 4000Hz. Yes he has a hearing aid
>but no, he does not sleep with it in.
>Thanks in advance for your help.

The wired smoke detectors in my house are not high pitched at all and
I'm sure the builder didn't pay more then a small amount for them.
They make a loud buzzing sound, sort of like the emergency broadcast
sound you probably have heard on your TV and radio.

Posted by dpb on October 3, 2009, 1:51 pm

Ashton Crusher wrote:
...

> The wired smoke detectors in my house are not high pitched at all ...

Maybe you could ferret out the manufacturer for OP????

--

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Smoke detectors for the elderly - Page 2