How do smoke detectors intercommunicate?

Smoke Detector on Ceiling with Smoke Below — Smoke detectors can save lives. Here is how they work to alert you to smoke indoors. Steven Puetzer / Getty Images

Battery-powered smoke detectors are stand-alone units. But if you have AC-powered smoke detectors in your home and your home has been built in the last 10 years in the U.S., chances are they are wired together to intercommunicate. This sort of wiring guarantees that if one alarm in the house goes off, they all go off. Even if the fire starts and is detected in the basement, people asleep upstairs will hear the alarm because of this safety feature -- every alarm in the house goes off.

If you buy an AC-powered smoke detector today, it will have three wires -- black, white and red. Black accepts 120 volts AC, white is neutral, and red is the intercommunication wire. All of the alarms operate off the same circuit from the fuse box and are normally connected using normal wire for three-way switches (see How Three-Way Switches Work for details -- this wiring contains black, white and red wires in a Romex casing). The electrician runs the red wire from alarm to alarm to interconnect them.

When any alarm detects a fire, it sends a 9-volt signal on the red wire. Any alarm that detects a 9-volt signal on the red wire will begin sounding its alarm immediately. Most alarms can handle about a dozen units intercommunicating on the same red wire. It's a very simple and a very effective system.

Smoke Detector FAQ

How do you interconnect smoke detectors?

An electrician can interconnect smoke detectors using a three-way switch, which contains black, red and white wires. To interconnect the detectors, they simply connect the red wires from all the alarms together. Itâ€™s also possible to buy wireless interconnected smoke alarms.

What type of smoke alarm is interconnected?

An AC smoke alarm can be interconnected, meaning if a fire starts and an alarm goes off, all the alarms in the home will go off as well. Wireless smoke alarms can also be interconnected.

What is an interconnected smoke detector?

An interconnected smoke detector is an AC smoke alarm that you can connect with multiple smoke alarms in the same residence so they go off together.