Smoke Alarm Placement

Hey guys,

I am planning on installing a smoke alarm in my room. However, my bedroom is somewhat small, with a ceiling intake vent mounted over the door and an 18 inch ceiling fan in the center of the room. It should be noted that these two factors greatly affect duct the airflow of the room.

Considering these, and the NFPA Guidelines for installation, I’m having some difficulty choosing a location for the smoke detector to be placed. The manual recommends 60 cm (2 feet) of clearance between walls and the center of the detector, and be placed 1.5 m (4 feet) away from any sources of fan-forced vents for best operation, though I would be okay tuning down the numbers to follow NFPA Guidelines instead. I would prefer the smoke alarm to be ceiling mounted, but I wouldn’t mind wall mounting it instead (which seems more practical for this application anyway).

I have so far narrowed the placement down to two locations, the possible placements hatched in red:

Do you have any advice or recommendations on where to place it? Thanks in advance. :smiley:

Quick update:

So I plan to mount it on a wall since it doesn’t meet any of the instruction requirements when mounting on the ceiling.

Are there any advantages to mounting it on one side of the room than the other? I heard you are not supposed to mount it on the same side of the wall the hallway door is located.

If it were me, I would install it on the ceiling near the corner shown in the first picture, about 2-3 feet from either wall. Ideally you would place it in the center of the ceiling, but with a ceiling fan that isn’t possible. The rule of thumb based on NFPA 72 is that all points on the ceiling should be within 21 feet of the smoke detector. Since I don’t think your room is that large, you can place it just about anywhere that airflow is not an issue, including walls 4-12 inches down from the ceiling.

I agree with Harrison here. This way the fan might not block the detector if necessary.