Insect barbecue and heat alarm

[Des 56]

I can only think that it must be infra red light causing the problem

( I assume it is IR not UV)
A converted barn,completed and powered up for at least 3 months

The old dear has decided to rent the place out,prospective tenants are viewing tomorrow
Flies have decided to hatch and have a fly convention on her windows,because the sunshine as decided to wake them up

I had a message tonight (I am going to call there tomorrow)
She plugged a fly Zapper into the kitchen socket yesterday and the Aico heat/smoke alarms have started triggering when it is in use, and until the air is cleared

I believe its too much of a co incidence to be a detector fault
Does anyone know if insect debris floating around or UV/Infra red light can cause detector problems or is this "co incidence" just that, a co incidence

 

[SirKit Breaker]

These detectors are very sensitive, and it is not unreasonable for burnt flies to give off enough smoke to activate them, but it will depend on a lot of things, such as proximity of fly killer to alarm, and amount of flies being executed etc.

Cheers.............Howard

 

[Engineer54]

That fly zapper must be working overtime for it to set off a smoke detector and no chance at all of setting off a heat detector. Best wait until you check out the situation yourself Des. As you know customer descriptions rarely match what's actually happening.

From my experience false fire alarm activation is generally the smokes chambers are full of dust and need cleaning. Have had this problem on just about every project i've worked on (especially in dusty environments) over the years!! The longer the detectors have been installed the more chance of dust contamination you have....

 

[markc123]

As you know customer descriptions rarely match what's actually happening.

E54 that's a massive disrepect to the great british public...

(unrelated to OP)

...If she says her husband hasn't touched anything, he obviouslly hasn't - customers are always correct.

 

[tazz]

This is extremely rare ......unless the fly zapper is a vapour fluid system, or the smoke detector is an ionization type detector sitting virtually next to the zapper.

 

[Des 56]

That fly zapper must be working overtime for it to set off a smoke detector and no chance at all of setting off a heat detector. Best wait until you check out the situation yourself Des. As you know customer descriptions rarely match what's actually happening.

From my experience false fire alarm activation is generally the smokes chambers are full of dust and need cleaning. Have had this problem on just about every project i've worked on (especially in dusty environments) over the years!! The longer the detectors have been installed the more chance of dust contamination you have....

Sound comment and once again spot on

Here is my update

I visted the barn today,its quite an impressive conversion,but the countryside being what it is.the fly problem was more like an invasion force
I obviously missed the onset of this invasion but the left overs of live and dead flies was more than I have ever seen
There were still literally thousands upon thousands of them,the dead ones were covering everything,the live ones looking for their escape
What could have stirred up this onslaught I do not have a clue

Anyway
Some flies had been attracted to a glass open shaded wall light on the stair,it had an halogen tube,it was full of perhaps a couple or more hundred of the critters,toasted into a crispy pile,the smouldering bodies activating the smoke alarm a couple of feet above and keeping the alarm triggered
The old lady couldn't handle the noise of the 4 alarms and thats when I was called

The under glass of the wall light was clear glass,now its a pleasant shade of soot black
Thanks all for the replies

 

[markc123]

You shoulda got the snapper out Des.

 

[Des 56]

You shoulda got the snapper out Des.

I was more than happy to just get myself out mark

 

[ipf]

Why have a barbecue ?....... a chameleon or two would eat them raw

 

[Marvo]

Lol, sounds like some sort of biblical plague. Maybe a dead animal or old food or similar was the cause. Flies only multiply like that when there's a plentiful food source.

 

[shanky887614]

Sounds like clusterflies. We had the same problem.

Give pest control a call. They will spray the place then it only needs doing twice a year.

Usually you only need to spray the loft as that is usually where they get in.

 

[Des 56]

They seemed to be your bog standard house fly although maybe a bit on the meaty side

Please excuse my ignorance but what are cluster flies ?

 

[shanky887614]

They seemed to be your bog standard house fly although maybe a bit on the meaty side

Please excuse my ignorance but what are cluster flies ?

As many people living in the country have learned the hard way, flies that gather in windows, buzz around the lights and fall spinning to the floor are cluster flies. Their presence solicits anything from mild annoyance to putting a for sale sign on the front lawn!


Bassically instead of getting one or two in your house you get a whole swarm