Is there such thing as a completely silent smoke alarm system?

There would have to be a LOT of smoke before the alarm would go off -- the smoke would have to be thick enough to completely block out the light. It takes quite a bit of smoke to do that. Photoelectric smoke detectors therefore use light in a different way. read more

Traditional smoke alarms have two states: silent, and full-on freak-out mode. They don’t distinguish between early warnings and emergencies. Heck, they don’t even distinguish between rooms; they just blare a sound loud enough to catch your inferior colliculus’s attention wherever you may be in your home. read more