Performance of Home Smoke Alarms - National Institute of ...

5 Fire Source Test Results and CalculationsIn this section, experimental test results are presented which characterize the environment intypical residential fire scenarios. Data presented include the time varying concentrations of CO,CO 2 , and O 2 , gas velocities, smoke obscuration, and temperature at multiple locations in thestructure. Additional measurement of smoke particle size and concentration are discussed later inthe report.5.1 Tests ConductedReal-scale tests of current smoke, heat, and carbon monoxide alarms in actual homes withappropriate contents as fuels provide a base of data to evaluate the performance of modernresidential alarm technologies. Fire scenarios (including ignition source, first item ignited, androom of fire origin) were selected based upon a statistical analysis of available fire loss data.Selected fires include a mattress fire in a bedroom, upholstered chair fire in a living area, and acooking oil fire in a kitchen. In most tests, a single item fire was used. In one test, additionalitems in the room of fire origin were allowed to ignite to more fully characterize fire growth inthe structure. Table 11 summarizes the 27 tests conducted in the manufactured home. Similarly,table 12 shows the 9 tests conducted in the two-story home. Multiple replicates of mostscenarios were included to quantify repeatability and measurement uncertainty in theexperiments.Inclusion of all of the test data would overwhelm this report, with several thousand readings perinstrument, 150 instruments per test, and 36 tests. All of the data from the tests conducted areavailable in two companion reports, one for the tests conducted in the manufactured home [24],and one for the tests conducted in the two-story home [25]. For each of the tests, these tworeports include a summary of the test conditions and ignition source. Graphs of all test dataalong with spreadsheets of the data are included.For this report, detailed presentation and analysis will be included for one of the tests. For thistest, all of the measured data characterizing the environment (temperature, gas concentrations,smoke obscuration, and specimen mass loss) will be presented. For one of the alarm locations,data from all of the alarms (multiple photoelectric, ionization, aspirated photoelectric, and heatalarms) will be presented. Details of calculations to determine individual alarm times and toestimate time to untenable conditions will be discussed.For the remainder of the tests, the results of identical analyses will be summarized.93