On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:49:12 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

I have a house wired smoke alarm. I noticed that a burned English muffin
will set it off even though there is no smoke that I can see.
On the other hand if I leave my wood stove door open too long and I see
a cloud of smoke in the room it will NOT set of the alarm.
Just an observation. I know many false alarms are set off in apartments
and assisted living places because of burned toast.
Maybe it's not really a smoke alarm but a burned toast alarm.

There are two methods used by common domestic smoke detectors.
One is optical, it sees the smoke, the other uses elextrical charges.
Both detect different kinds of fires best. For best protection you
want both. I don't recall which, but one is less sensitive to false
cooking/frying alarms.