Digital Photography Challenge You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 

DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> Will a fog machine set off smoke alarms?
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 23 of 23, (reverse)
AuthorThread
MemberDirt_Diver
 Nikon D40X 		04/20/2009 03:08:24 PM
???
MemberJulietNN
 Canon EOS-50D 		04/20/2009 03:08:49 PM
mine hasnt and it produces a lot of fog

yet
MemberMelethia
 Canon EOS-7D 		04/20/2009 03:09:30 PM
A resounding YES. They will. And I know this from experience.
MemberJulietNN
 Canon EOS-50D 		04/20/2009 03:10:00 PM
So we have a yes and no

lol, gotta love DPC
MemberDirt_Diver
 Nikon D40X 		04/20/2009 03:11:23 PM
I plan to use it in a school but I don't want to set off the water sprinklers and mess up everything in the school, man would I feel stupid then...
MemberAmeedEl-Ghoul
 Canon EOS-20D 		04/20/2009 03:11:24 PM
I think I can help in here ..
Maybe ..
Like this you have 3 answers :P
Memberdknourek
 Canon EOS-40D 		04/20/2009 03:11:45 PM
Originally posted by JulietNN:
So we have a yes and no

lol, gotta love DPC


yea but 21_F.gif Melethia sounded more convincing ;)
Memberdknourek
 Canon EOS-40D 		04/20/2009 03:13:31 PM
Originally posted by Dirt_Diver:
I plan to use it in a school but I don't want to set off the water sprinklers and mess up everything in the school, man would I feel stupid then...


Judgeing from the answers above if there are smoke detectors then you have a good chance of setting alarms off, BUT as far as the sprinklers go they should only be triggered by heat...
MemberPipe_Dream
 Nikon D700 		04/20/2009 03:14:18 PM
I used mine once in a tight attic, and it didnt set anything off. Even if it did set off an alarm, it shouldnt trip a sprinkler head, as those usually trigger based on heat.

^^^ beat me to it...

Message edited by author 2009-04-20 15:15:05.
MemberDirt_Diver
 Nikon D40X 		04/20/2009 03:16:33 PM
I thought they were but I also thought that smoke alarms are triggered by slight amounts of carbon dioxide.
MemberMelethia
 Canon EOS-7D 		04/20/2009 03:19:53 PM
OK, here's what happened: I had a very fun boss at one time. He was always thinking of fun things for us to do, like set up and perform a live show at a military dinner. This particular live show involved Elvis (or a reasonable fascimile thereof) singing a song called California Fog (instead of rain) because where we lived and worked had LOTS of fog. So of course there had to be a fog machine. We were practicing with the fog machine in the conference room of our building. It set off the building alarm. The whole building. Which of course immediate triggered the base fire department to respond.... It really was very funny, except for the whole explaining it to the Fire Marshall of course.

I'd be VERY careful in a school setting....

P.S. When the show was actually performed, it was in a large tent - no fire alarms (though the Marshall was present). It also involved taking batteries out of cars and placing them under the stage to power stuff. Then we had to put the batteries back into the cars so we could drive them back to the office. Did I mention he was a fun boss?

Message edited by author 2009-04-20 15:24:37.
MemberRayEthier
 Canon EOS-5D Mark II 		04/20/2009 03:20:05 PM
Another issue to consider is that in some specialized environments, the activation of an alarm will immediately cut off the power supply to say the IT equipment and that the "Dry Pipe" sprinkler systems will then be activated by a "Shunt" switch... albeit I seriously doubt that this is the case in the present scenario.

Ray
Registered Useramathiasphoto
 Nikon D300 		04/20/2009 03:20:51 PM
I have definately set of smoke detectors with fog machines. Another yes from experience (and it didnt even seem like that much fog)
MemberDirt_Diver
 Nikon D40X 		04/20/2009 03:25:40 PM
Originally posted by amathiasphoto:
I have definately set of smoke detectors with fog machines. Another yes from experience (and it didnt even seem like that much fog)


How did you set yours off and what were you using or how were you using the fog machine?
Registered UserRefracted
 Canon EOS-50D 		04/20/2009 03:41:48 PM
definatly

way back, when i was starting university, we had an initiation in engineering... and one part was to walk through a hallway that was all fogged up .. well, it wasn't 20 minutes before the alarm went off and the whole campus was full of firefighters...

best not to :)
Memberfarfel53
 Pentax K100D 		04/20/2009 04:01:59 PM
There are two types of smoke detectors - ionization and photoelectric.

Ionization types check the actual chemical makeup of the air, i.e. ions that might be due to fire. Water vapor in the air from a fog generator generally would not trip this type.

Photoelectric sensors detect scattering of a small light beam contained in the detector. Fog scatters light, fog sets off smoke detector.

Check which type are in use, maybe. Some use BOTH technologies, particularly in public building.


Registered UserHye5
 Canon EOS-5D 		04/20/2009 04:33:16 PM
Originally posted by Melethia:
A resounding YES. They will. And I know this from experience.


Ditto... also speaking from experience.
Registered Useramathiasphoto
 Nikon D300 		04/20/2009 04:57:16 PM
I was using a fog machine from halloween- one that produces bubbles filled with fog actually. The fire alarm was a standard monitored fire alarm, nothing fancy. The machine ran for maybe 15 minutes, and we had the door open too! I honestly doubt it would set the sprinklers off, but you may want to notify the school office and the fire department that you are using a fog machine in the school at a certain time, so that they do not immediately respond with sirens blazing. Good luck on your shoot! I wanna see these pictures :), especially if the sprinklers do go off!
Registered Userkenskid
 Nikon D70 		04/20/2009 06:09:30 PM
I guess it will set it off.
MemberBJamy
 Nikon D300 		04/20/2009 06:16:43 PM
A few months ago I was photographin in a disco (that must've been my most challenging photography job yet... geez...) which was in the assemblyroom (or what I should call it) in a school. And we had no issues with the alarm or anything like that. But... I think we turned them off :-/
MemberMAK
 Canon EOS-1D 		04/20/2009 07:14:14 PM
Well it sent mine into overdrive...
Memberdelin
 Canon EOS-40D 		04/20/2009 07:41:46 PM
Originally posted by farfel53:
There are two types of smoke detectors - ionization and photoelectric.

Ionization types check the actual chemical makeup of the air, i.e. ions that might be due to fire. Water vapor in the air from a fog generator generally would not trip this type.

Photoelectric sensors detect scattering of a small light beam contained in the detector. Fog scatters light, fog sets off smoke detector.

Check which type are in use, maybe. Some use BOTH technologies, particularly in public building.


There are also beam detectors, a form of photoelectric that shoots light the length of the room and has a sensor at the other end to pick it up. These go off if anything breaks the beam, like a basketball or smoke machine. They are real popular in newer schools, they cover a lot of area cheap. I've been on many thousands of fire alarms in 18 years of firefighting,including smoke machines. I'd say you would have a real good chance of setting it off.
MemberDirt_Diver
 Nikon D40X 		04/22/2009 03:37:57 PM
Good news, I didn't set off any alarms but I wish I could have produced more fog than what I did. Guess I might have to invest into either a couple of machines or 1 really good one.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 11/21/2009 11:47:05 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2009 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Proudly hosted by Sargasso Networks. Current Server Time: 11/21/2009 11:47:05 AM EST.