How to hook up a smoke detector?

Question

For some reason a smoke detector in my home is disconnected. There are three wires (black, red, white/tan) which are coming out of the wall, these wires correspond with the wires on the unit. Obviously I plan to hook this unit up by corresponding the colored wires together - however my concern is getting shocked. Is there one set I should be careful of? How should I do this to prevent getting zapped? Tips?

Answer 1

You have to turn off the circuit breaker to those wires. Since there is no appliance or light hooked up to it, you won't be able to tell when you turn it off. You have two choices:

1. Turn off the main power to the whole house.

2. Get a voltmeter at Radio Shack for $20 and test the wires to see when the power to them has been cut.

Then make your connections, then turn the power back on.

Answer 2

First thing to do is get a circuit tester.. these are cheap and show if there is power there...turn off breakers until you find the one that controls the alarms. use your tester to make sure power is off by reading from the black wire to the white wire..Never under any circumstances hook the wires together to trip any breaker.... the black wire is the hot wire the red wire is the interconnected wire to set off all alarms if one goes off..the white wire is the neutral....

Answer 3

You should turn off the circuit but if you cant you dont want to touch the black wire while you are grounded that is the hot one the red is just a interconnected wire between other units and the white is the neutral wire

Answer 4

your best bet is to go to the breaker panel. Look for a breaker labled smoke det. If there isnt one turn every singlre pole breaker off and then back on , one at a time. When you turn the breaker off and on that has the smokes on it , the smokes that are still hooked up should let out a short beep. If you don't get the beep you should buy your self a voltage tester. Do not hook it back up with the power on to the smokes. You are asking for trouble.

Answer 5

never touch 2 wires together or touch another wire while your handling another, just carefully bend the other wires away in opposite directions then work on one wire only, or just shut down all the circuit breakers to the house and work with a flashlight to see

Answer 6

turn all your breakers off. then hook the black and white wires together and turn the breakers on one at a time. the one that goes to the smoke alarms will be tripped. now you wont get shocked. after you hook em up, turn your breaker off and back on and they should work.