Editor’s note: MVS Chandrashekhar is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of South Carolina. In this interview, he explains how smoke detectors work and why they sometimes sound an ...

When you move into or buy a new home, no one hands you a guide to how the smoke detectors work. They “chirp,” which really means shriek loudly, and you occasionally have to put new batteries in them.

There’s never a bad time to invest in home fire safety, and the best place to start is checking your home’s smoke alarms to ensure they’re working properly. These invaluable devices protect you and ...

Almost every cook has set off a smoke alarm or two. Aside from fanning smoke out of the kitchen, it can be a good way to know that it is indeed still working. Smoke detectors inside the devices sense ...

Read more: Never Do Any Of These 14 Things On Your Android Phone How do smoke alarms work A pair of hands replacing a fire alarm's battery. - Brianajackson/Getty Images A smoke alarm's job is ...