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Safer Home Tips

Ensure you’re keeping your home and loved ones safe.

You can’t put a price on safety. Between lockdowns, and working remotely, we’re at home more than ever before – meaning there’s never been a more important time to ensure your family is kept healthy and safe. 

Here’s how to ensure you’re protecting your loved ones and your home:

Smoke alarm front view
Woman changing smoke alarm
Person holding smoke alarm
Man changing smoke alarm
Smoke alarm in house
Smoke alarm front view
Woman changing smoke alarm
Person holding smoke alarm
Man changing smoke alarm
Smoke alarm in house

1. Check your smoke alarms

Have you ever wondered how often you're meant to check your smoke alarms? It’s more often than you think.

Here’s a safe guideline to go by:

Every month: 

  • Test all your smoke alarms using the test/hush button. 
  • Check the batteries with mains power switched off. 
  • Clean the alarm by removing dust and insects (to ensure they won’t cause any malfunctions). 

1. Check your smoke alarms

Have you ever wondered how often you're meant to check your smoke alarms? It’s more often than you think.

Here’s a safe guideline to go by:

Every three months: 

  • Vacuum all your smoke alarms. 
  • Spray insect repellent on a cloth and wipe the ceiling around the smoke alarm to deter bugs getting in. 
  • Test all your smoke alarms after cleaning them. 

1. Check your smoke alarms

Have you ever wondered how often you're meant to check your smoke alarms? It’s more often than you think.

Here’s a safe guideline to go by:

Every year: 

  • Choose a recurring date that’s easy to remember (first day of spring, end or start of daylight saving or a family birthday etc) and replace the back-up battery. 

1. Check your smoke alarms

Have you ever wondered how often you're meant to check your smoke alarms? It’s more often than you think.

Here’s a safe guideline to go by:

Every 10 years: 

  • Replace all smoke alarms. (All smoke alarms have a limited service life of 10 years – after that period, the entire smoke alarm unit must be replaced with a new one.) 

1. Check your smoke alarms

Have you ever wondered how often you're meant to check your smoke alarms? It’s more often than you think. Here’s a safe guideline to go by:

Pro Tips:

  • Make sure all your home’s smoke alarms are interconnected so that when one sounds, they ALL sound (a licensed sparky can do it for you).
  • Get the smoke alarm that’s best for your home – the most common and high-risk home fire is a smoldering fire (for which we recommend our Clipsal Fire Tek® Photoelectric smoke alarm as it reliably detects smoke from smoldering fires before it turns into flames).

View our Smoke Alarm range

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Nightlight in Dark Room
Nightlight with child sleeping
Nightlight in Dark Room
Nightlight with child sleeping

2. Lighting the Way

Night lights aren’t just for kids – ever stubbed your toe trying to get to the bathroom? Or tripped over something in the dark?

Whether you’re scared of the dark or not, adding night lights can be preventative in stopping accidents particularly if you have little ones (and make your house feel a little less scary at night). You can add a subtle sensor light in the hallway or bathroom that will help light the way, without disturbing the rest of the house.

2. Lighting the Way

Our Iconic Night Walk has integrated motion sensors that brighten when it detects movement within a 1.5-2m range. It has two modes:

  • Sensor light: comes on when there’s movement, and dims 2 mins after last movements are detected.
  • Night light: sits as a dimmed light, and brightens when movement is detected (and returns to a dimmed light two minutes if no further movement is detected). The LED illumination can be adjusted by turning the dial on the side of the product.

You’ll need a sparky to install it, and it comes in a range of colors so that you can match it to the look and feel of your home – an easy solution to a nightly problem.

View the Clipsal Night Walk Sensor Light

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People entering house

3. Install outdoor motion sensors & timers

Wouldn’t it be great if your lights knew when you were coming home? We agree – that’s why we’ve created the Infrascan Motion Sensor. 

Infrascan Motion Sensor lights make lighting your home easier, smarter and safer. You can:

  • Schedule your lights to match your routine (e.g. automatically turn on at 6pm when you arrive home from work each night)
  • Set them to operate even if you’re not home to deter intruders 
  • Program a turn-off time to save energy 
  • Never be left in the dark again 

Remember that a well-lit home is a safe home – not to mention a welcoming home. 

View our Motion Sensors

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electrician at switchboard with RCBO
Switchboard with surge flatlay
AFDD flatlay
electrician at switchboard with RCBO
Switchboard with surge flatlay
AFDD flatlay

4. Update your switchboard

What actually is a switchboard, you ask? It’s your home’s electrical box that directs and re-directs electricity to different sources throughout your home. Having the right devices in there is crucial in helping protect your loved ones, your appliances and your property itself.

We recommend a 3-stage approach:

To protect people: RCBO

An RCBO is a circuit breaker meaning it interrupts or stops the current when a fault is detected. It’ll provide protection against earth leakages, overload currents and short circuits, plus save space in your switchboard.

It helps protect the people in your home from electrical shock and your cables from damage.

4. Update your switchboard

What actually is a switchboard, you ask? It’s your home’s electrical box that directs and re-directs electricity to different sources throughout your home. Having the right devices in there is crucial in helping protect your loved ones, your appliances and your property itself.

We recommend a 3-stage approach:

To protect your appliances: surge protection

A surge protector will protect electrical devices and appliances (like your TV, fridge, microwave) from power surges and voltage spikes.

It will either block or short any unwanted voltage to ensure that your appliances, in layman's terms, don’t get fried.

4. Update your switchboard

What actually is a switchboard, you ask? It’s your home’s electrical box that directs and re-directs electricity to different sources throughout your home. Having the right devices in there is crucial in helping protect your loved ones, your appliances and your property itself.

We recommend a 3-stage approach:

To protect your physical home: arc fault detection

Arc faults happen when too much power jumps between two or more conductors, generating heat and breaking the wire’s insulation. It’s caused by broken wires, loose connections, crushed cables and worn insulation and can trigger electrical fires.

Arc faults are dangerous as they can be strong and last for a lengthy amount of time – installing arc fault detectors helps isolate a faulty circuit as soon as the fault is detected. 

Read more about updating your switchboard

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