Spanish law regulates the installation of fire prevention devices in public buildings, hospitals and colleges, but not in private homes. Whether to install them or not depends on your criteria and the risk of a fire in your home.

Smoke detectors are incontestably an effective way of preventing fire. However, before installing them in the house, you should be aware of their characteristics and how to use them correctly.

Types of detectors
There are various types of smoke detectors on the market, but the most common are ionisation or photoelectric varieties. The difference between them is that the former are not only cheaper but are triggered more rapidly by open flames, such as those of a hob or log fire. Photoelectric detectors are triggered by genuinely uncontrolled flames, and not by the controlled flames present in the home, especially in the kitchen.

The maintenance of these devices is fairly simple. You can find rechargeable smoke detectors, whose batteries last around a year and which advise you with a buzzing sound when they need to be recharged. Another model connects to the electric light, and does not require a change of battery, but needs to be checked to ensure the installation is correct.
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The devices are simple to clean: ensure they do not fill up with dust or that insects do not obstruct the mechanism. If this is the case, open the detector up and clean it carefully, before checking that it functions correctly. Depending on the sensitivity of the apparatus - check the instructions - you can check it is functioning correctly by letting smoke drift into it.

Placing the detectors
Once you've decided to install detectors in your home, you should evaluate which rooms are most susceptible to fire.

A bedroom, for example, does not tend to suffer from problems of this type: you can simply install a detector in the corridor outside the rooms. However, the risk rises if you are a smoker or if there is a TV in the room that can provoke a short circuit, in which case you should install a detector.

The rooms where it is not recommended that you install one of these detectors are kitchens (smoke rising from pans etc. can trigger the alarm when there is no danger), the bathroom (the heat of the shower or the dampness can affect the detector) and small attics, which suffer from lack of air and high temperatures.

However, it is advisable that you protect the kitchen from small fires by installing an alarm in the nearest room, which will detect the smoke of a real fire and not those caused by daily cooking.

The most common place to install detectors is on the ceiling, some 30 centimetres from any light or decorative object hanging down. They should also be as centred as possible, given that during a fire the smoke that gathers in the corners is dead, i.e. it doesn't move and it is in the centre of the roof that the smoke spreads out.

If you cannot install the detectors on the ceiling, find a spare wall and ensure you place the device some 30-40 centimetres from the corners and do not situate it more than 30 centimetres below the ceiling.

Finally, be sure you will be able to hear the alarm when you are sleeping. Run a test with the doors closed and adjust the volume accordingly.