The Intelligent Fire Alarm

Student: Angus McLennan

Supervisor: Richard Cocks

Category: Engineering Thesis Project - Electronics

The domestic environment accounts for the majority of fire related deaths. Smoke alarms have been developed to combat the threat of fire. The aim of installing smoke alarms is to alert the occupants to the fire earlier and improve their chances of survival.

Unfortunately, there are a number of locations within the home where the installation of a smoke alarm is impractical. These include the kitchen, the bathroom, the laundry and possibly the garage. Small amounts of smoke, gases or steam are present within these environments. This results in nuisance alarms. The general populous is not prepared to live with frequent and unpleasant nuisance alarms. As a result the alarms in these areas are often removed. The best compromise that can currently be achieved is a remotely located smoke alarm.

The Intelligent Fire Alarm (IFA) offers an alternative. The IFA utilizes both a smoke detector and a heat sensor. When the user is preparing to perform an activity that could potentially result in a nuisance alarm they can use their chosen infra-red device to turn off the smoke detector. While the smoke detector is inactive the heat sensor remains active. The heat sensor is less sensitive to nuisance alarms. This makes it a valuable failsafe. After 15 minutes the smoke detector is automatically reactivated. This prevents it being forgotten about.

Through the implementation of this device it is expected that fire related property damage can be reduced, and most importantly that lives can be saved.

Thesis Document (PDF)