Looking for an advanced smoke detector or other safety precaution

[szpond]

I had planned to get an Ambilobe panther cham from Kammerflage for my 21st birthday, but the 'rents are not having it due to the fire hazard of the basking bulb/fixture.

I have read through this thread:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/electrical-safety-fire-risk-120279/index3.html
But the Nest product seems to be suspended for now.

Does anyone know of any other advanced smoke detector products that would notify me and/or 911 if any smoke were present in my cham's room?

Does anyone have any other suggestions for fire safety that I may not have heard or thought of?

Or other way to convince them to let me get a little panther cham for myself as a birthday present?

 

[szpond]

So far I've researched that:

NEST has been pulled off the market for a flaw that they're working on.
https://nest.com/smoke-co-alarm/life-with-nest-protect/


Birdi is a "smart" smoke detector in the works, but has not launched the product or the app that goes with it.
http://getbirdi.com/


Here is a current one I'm looking at:
Direct Connect 911 is a service that if the smoke detector goes off, it will notify an operator that will then try to call you. If you do not answer, they call 911 for you.
http://www.directconnect911.com/

 

[Carlton]

I had planned to get an Ambilobe panther cham from Kammerflage for my 21st birthday, but the 'rents are not having it due to the fire hazard of the basking bulb/fixture.

I have read through this thread:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/electrical-safety-fire-risk-120279/index3.html
But the Nest product seems to be suspended for now.

Does anyone know of any other advanced smoke detector products that would notify me and/or 911 if any smoke were present in my cham's room?

Does anyone have any other suggestions for fire safety that I may not have heard or thought of?

Or other way to convince them to let me get a little panther cham for myself as a birthday present?

I find it hard to believe that one basking bulb fixture for one cham cage could be a significant fire hazard. We don't need to use high watt bulbs compared to say a monitor or bearded dragon. If you are using a fixture, cord, and circuit that can handle the load of the bulb and the bulb's dome is vented correctly chances that anything overheats enough to start a fire is very low. If you are concerned about the wiring in an older house, get the circuit checked. Better safe than sorry. It may be lower tech than the options already described, but don't home security companies offer house alarms that detect smoke too?

 

[szpond]

Hi Carlton, thanks for your reply. I myself don't see the single cham cage and lighting fixtures as a fire hazard, but the home owners do. I have the basking light dome set up in such a way that it's clamped up off any surface and the cord is trailed away, again not interfering with anything.

I think what I will do in this case is get some sort of thermostat monitor for the voltage of the lamp, use that automatic turn-off if it's getting too high, and then also get one of the smoke alarms for the room that is linked to a monitoring company (same one that does Life Alert) that would call me and/or the fire department if it detects any smoke. I hope this will be enough to prove to the home owners that there is little to no fire hazard.

From what I understand, the house has pretty up-to-date wiring (thankfully!)

 

[Carlton]

Hi Carlton, thanks for your reply. I myself don't see the single cham cage and lighting fixtures as a fire hazard, but the home owners do. I have the basking light dome set up in such a way that it's clamped up off any surface and the cord is trailed away, again not interfering with anything.

I think what I will do in this case is get some sort of thermostat monitor for the voltage of the lamp, use that automatic turn-off if it's getting too high, and then also get one of the smoke alarms for the room that is linked to a monitoring company (same one that does Life Alert) that would call me and/or the fire department if it detects any smoke. I hope this will be enough to prove to the home owners that there is little to no fire hazard.

From what I understand, the house has pretty up-to-date wiring (thankfully!)

And, maybe demonstrate to them the actual temps the light would produce, how little the voltage draw is for that circuit, wiring, and fixture rating, and maybe show them comparisons to the combustion temp of cage materials...so they can see how unlikely it is to cause an actual fire. Yeah, I was thinking of some monitoring company you mentioned. ADT?

 

[ParabuthusKing]

Just my 2 cents, but using properly rated electrical equipment and lighting is great, but NEVER underestimate the danger of fire when working with such items. Also important to remember you will have water source very close to electricity which is always a bad combination. And as far as low wattage and combustion temperatures, be forewarned... I almost burnt down an apartment building with a 100 watt red incandescent in my old snake cage that was improperly mounted. 4 foot flames licking the wall and smoke alarms going off will surely get your heart pumping all snakes were ok thank god Thank goodness I was home sleeping and my Gf woke me up. Get a chameleon or 10, they are amazing and have been integral to my passion of reptiles! Don't try to play down the risk of electrical fires though. It is no joke! )

 

[szpond]

Certainly never a joke! I know that the risk of fires with any type of lamp is all too real...we had a house burn down nearby us from electrical fire. I think this has shaken up myself and my parents more than anything.

My wants have been rejected, another chameleon is not in the cards right now unless I want to give my father a heart attack on a daily basis. Doesn't care how little of a risk these domes produce, cares that there is a risk at all. Which there is. I will wait until I've purchased my own home to set up my own "Chameleon Room" .. stay tuned!

I think I will be using that monitored smoke detector, though...love the idea of that, especially if I'm not in the home most of the time. I talked to a representative on the phone today about the smoke detector and it seems like quite a promising product.

 

[ataraxia]

most security providers like ADT or Brinks offer smoke alarm services.

Things that would help alleviate the worry.
1. You could have a professional electrician come in and make sure the wiring to the plug is correct and offer advice on products.
2. Buy a nice timer that supports the amount of watts you will be using or just dont use one at all.

 

[fluxlizard]

I went through a fire in my lizard building 1 year ago this past week.

Mine was caused by a flourescent ceiling light that had a bad ballast which malfunctioned from excessive heat. This time of year, I struggle with excess heat in my building, venting it during the day, but closing things up at night for security. The night of the fire, I was out there late digging up eggs and then had to make a midnight run to the airport and back. I closed the windows up, all the cage lights were off, but failed to turn off one set of flourescent ceiling lights before leaving in haste for the airport. The fixture was located a few inches above a stack of reptariums which were placed in a bank of 36 cages. A second bank of the same size next to it also caught fire. These 2 stacks generated a huge amount of heat, melting and destroying reptariums and plastic tools all the way across the room and completely coating everything in a thick, greasy, black heavy soot from the plastics and fibers of the reptariums.

A couple of electricians came to visit during the rebuild and I picked the brain of a couple more at electrical supply stores during this time and I was surprised at a couple of things I learned from them.

Things about the experience that surprised me in no particular order-

Firstly - flourescent light fixtures usually have a warning on the box about using in excessive heat. They are designed for normal room temperatures. One electrician who worked at lowes pointed this out to me.

Secondly- flourescent light ballasts malfunction is not as uncommon as I would have thought. My father in law worked for a prestigous hotel and they also had a fire in one of the rooms at one point in his career because of one of these ballasts.

Thirdly- According to the electricians that came out- things like surge protectors, and basically about anything you can plug in between your electrical equipment and the outlet do nothing to protect you from fire from what is plugged into an outlet- they only protect you from what is coming in from the electrical company through the power line toward your lamp. Your lamp can catch fire, and they won't trip off and put out the fire. Same story with the breaker box.

I was thinking about installing all GCFI breakers, but was told because they are so sensitive they would probably drive me nuts from constant tripping and the cost would be really heavy (I've got 32 breakers in the lizard building). I don't know. The plan for now is to begin slowly replacing breakers with them over time to ease into the cost and evaluate the reliability of the performace (If breakers are tripping off all day, will mess up timers and potentially breeding).

Honestly- it left me feeling a little helpless when it comes to prevention after talking to these guys.

I still came up with a few things-

Firstly- no more flourescent ceiling lights- heat cannot escape these because it is trapped against the drywall.

Secondly- I've got a ventilation fan now in one of the walls and will be installing a thermostat to control it so I can vent the heat out of the building.

Thirdly- Metal cages. No more reptariums. They sucked anyway- I was always patching holes in them.

Fourthly- I installed all 20 amp lines and breakers and outlets- a bit more heavy duty and safe than the old 15 amp lines- will be safer especially if I keep my 15 amp habits.

Fifthly- I am using only incandescent fixtures rated for 300 watts for heat lights- even though the heat lights I am using are mostly 72 watts and smaller now. Before the fire, the fixtures were mostly 100 watt fixtures- didn't cause the fire but I was always afraid one day one of them would. I had used some of them for 20 years and saw a few fail- was not a pretty sight sometimes when they failed. It was always the fault of the switch dying from heat over time. So my new fixtures do not have switches either. I never used the switches anyway.

If I had just followed the first of these, there would have been no fire. The rest are just added layers of protection. I was already being careful about load on my timers and power strips, etc. In the end- who'd have thought one of the stupid ceiling lights (and a flourescent one, with the ballast in a metal box at that) would have been the thing that landed the killing blow?

Play carefully- the only thing worse than this fire for me would have been loosing one of my children. I hope none of you ever have to go through what I have gone through this past year.

Warning pics-

Pic of before- this one years ago but I didn't have any more recent to show what these banks of reptariums looked like. 4' x 29" x 29" 175 gallon reptariums-

Pic of after-

The ceiling light on the left is what started the fire. For scale- the blue enclosure in the background is a huge 8' x 30" x 30" neodosha. The stacks actually went up to a few inches of the ceiling. The fire ate/melted the top of the stack so it doesn't look so high now, but it was nearly ceiling high.

Chameleon cages across the room away from fire. 175 gallon reptariums. Melted from the heat.

Sons and I cleaning out the building. 4 big 24' dumpster loads completely full to nearly overflowing of equipment and tools accumulated over many years. Doesn't look so big in this photo- but it is wide enough that you could drive a small car in there and it is 24' long.

Gutting the building early stages. The left wall is white because it was a seperate room before the fire. The black bits you can see above the window is how the rest of the room looked. The flash on the camera in some of the other photos sort of shines through the black and makes it look not as bad as it was- it was thick and black everywhere.

I stopped taking photos after this. I kind of wish I hadn't because I had a lot more work ahead- all the insulation had to come out- it had black streaks and smelled horrible. Then all the wood (framing studs, the outer wall board and everything in the attic and underside of the roof) had to be cleaned with chemical sponges or sanded clean. Some of the roof was replaced. The wiring was completely removed and replaced, the plumbing was removed and partially replaced- just a faucet now that I have used the past few months, will replace the rest later. Floor had to be scrubbed and power washed several times before sealing with a penetrating sealer- will never look the same- could not get the black out but it does not smell and is clean now. Insulation and drywall had to be replaced. Doors were ruined and had to be replaced, 2 of 3 windows had to be removed and replaced.

I never thought it could happen to me.

Don't take it for granted that you are safe. Think about what could happen if something does go wrong for some reason so you have multiple layers of safety in place.

You never want to live through this.

It's odd- just looking at these pics I can still smell the horrible smell from the soot.

 

[Carlton]

I went through a fire in my lizard building 1 year ago this past week.

Mine was caused by a flourescent ceiling light that had a bad ballast which malfunctioned from excessive heat. This time of year, I struggle with excess heat in my building, venting it during the day, but closing things up at night for security. The night of the fire, I was out there late digging up eggs and then had to make a midnight run to the airport and back. I closed the windows up, all the cage lights were off, but failed to turn off one set of flourescent ceiling lights before leaving in haste for the airport. The fixture was located a few inches above a stack of reptariums which were placed in a bank of 36 cages. A second bank of the same size next to it also caught fire. These 2 stacks generated a huge amount of heat, melting and destroying reptariums and plastic tools all the way across the room and completely coating everything in a thick, greasy, black heavy soot from the plastics and fibers of the reptariums.

A couple of electricians came to visit during the rebuild and I picked the brain of a couple more at electrical supply stores during this time and I was surprised at a couple of things I learned from them.

Things about the experience that surprised me in no particular order-

Firstly - flourescent light fixtures usually have a warning on the box about using in excessive heat. They are designed for normal room temperatures. One electrician who worked at lowes pointed this out to me.

Secondly- flourescent light ballasts malfunction is not as uncommon as I would have thought. My father in law worked for a prestigous hotel and they also had a fire in one of the rooms at one point in his career because of one of these ballasts.

Thirdly- According to the electricians that came out- things like surge protectors, and basically about anything you can plug in between your electrical equipment and the outlet do nothing to protect you from fire from what is plugged into an outlet- they only protect you from what is coming in from the electrical company through the power line toward your lamp. Your lamp can catch fire, and they won't trip off and put out the fire. Same story with the breaker box.

I was thinking about installing all GCFI breakers, but was told because they are so sensitive they would probably drive me nuts from constant tripping and the cost would be really heavy (I've got 32 breakers in the lizard building). I don't know. The plan for now is to begin slowly replacing breakers with them over time to ease into the cost and evaluate the reliability of the performace (If breakers are tripping off all day, will mess up timers and potentially breeding).

Honestly- it left me feeling a little helpless when it comes to prevention after talking to these guys.

I still came up with a few things-

Firstly- no more flourescent ceiling lights- heat cannot escape these because it is trapped against the drywall.

Secondly- I've got a ventilation fan now in one of the walls and will be installing a thermostat to control it so I can vent the heat out of the building.

Thirdly- Metal cages. No more reptariums. They sucked anyway- I was always patching holes in them.

Fourthly- I installed all 20 amp lines and breakers and outlets- a bit more heavy duty and safe than the old 15 amp lines- will be safer especially if I keep my 15 amp habits.

Fifthly- I am using only incandescent fixtures rated for 300 watts for heat lights- even though the heat lights I am using are mostly 72 watts and smaller now. Before the fire, the fixtures were mostly 100 watt fixtures- didn't cause the fire but I was always afraid one day one of them would. I had used some of them for 20 years and saw a few fail- was not a pretty sight sometimes when they failed. It was always the fault of the switch dying from heat over time. So my new fixtures do not have switches either. I never used the switches anyway.

If I had just followed the first of these, there would have been no fire. The rest are just added layers of protection. I was already being careful about load on my timers and power strips, etc. In the end- who'd have thought one of the stupid ceiling lights (and a flourescent one, with the ballast in a metal box at that) would have been the thing that landed the killing blow?

Play carefully- the only thing worse than this fire for me would have been loosing one of my children. I hope none of you ever have to go through what I have gone through this past year.

Warning pics-

Pic of before- this one years ago but I didn't have any more recent to show what these banks of reptariums looked like. 4' x 29" x 29" 175 gallon reptariums-

Pic of after-

The ceiling light on the left is what started the fire. For scale- the blue enclosure in the background is a huge 8' x 30" x 30" neodosha. The stacks actually went up to a few inches of the ceiling. The fire ate/melted the top of the stack so it doesn't look so high now, but it was nearly ceiling high.

Chameleon cages across the room away from fire. 175 gallon reptariums. Melted from the heat.

Sons and I cleaning out the building. 4 big 24' dumpster loads completely full to nearly overflowing of equipment and tools accumulated over many years. Doesn't look so big in this photo- but it is wide enough that you could drive a small car in there and it is 24' long.

Gutting the building early stages. The left wall is white because it was a seperate room before the fire. The black bits you can see above the window is how the rest of the room looked. The flash on the camera in some of the other photos sort of shines through the black and makes it look not as bad as it was- it was thick and black everywhere.

I stopped taking photos after this. I kind of wish I hadn't because I had a lot more work ahead- all the insulation had to come out- it had black streaks and smelled horrible. Then all the wood (framing studs, the outer wall board and everything in the attic and underside of the roof) had to be cleaned with chemical sponges or sanded clean. Some of the roof was replaced. The wiring was completely removed and replaced, the plumbing was removed and partially replaced- just a faucet now that I have used the past few months, will replace the rest later. Floor had to be scrubbed and power washed several times before sealing with a penetrating sealer- will never look the same- could not get the black out but it does not smell and is clean now. Insulation and drywall had to be replaced. Doors were ruined and had to be replaced, 2 of 3 windows had to be removed and replaced.

I never thought it could happen to me.

Don't take it for granted that you are safe. Think about what could happen if something does go wrong for some reason so you have multiple layers of safety in place.

You never want to live through this.

It's odd- just looking at these pics I can still smell the horrible smell from the soot.

I remember your fire...absolutely horrible to go through! Terrible pictures.