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Is the smoke detector hard wired or battery power only? If it's hard wired, there may be a way to have the power cut to the range if the smoke detector goes off. An electrician could probably figure out a way to do this fairly easily. Actually, for all I know there may be something similar to a photo-eye just for this purpose.
That's a good question to ask him, Lamp, as he's the one who installed the two smoke detectors and they are both hard wired. I canned him today and he is checking on a timer shut-off that might work. I also found this:
In any case, you may consider using a portable electric cooktop or "hotplate" or even an induction cooking plate with a suitable high current timer switch. The advantage of these single pieces is they are readily available as 120V devices so many timer options could be looked at. An induction cooktop might be useful also, since it has no flame or hot coils as it cooks by magnetic field (may not be useful for pacemaker wearers). Supposedly some of them have a timer to set the on time, you will have to check with the specs. such as this one which appears to have this feature.
Is the smoke detector hard wired or battery power only? If it's hard wired, there may be a way to have the power cut to the range if the smoke detector goes off. An electrician could probably figure out a way to do this fairly easily. Actually, for all I know there may be something similar to a photo-eye just for this purpose.
shunt trip circuit breaker and a relay off the signal wire of the smoke det
southgeorgia, I really like that idea. A breaker of that size would be expensive, but a heck of a lot less so than a fire.
The fire suppressor is a bit overpriced, and I'm a little dubious about the magnet attachment and minimal amount of baking soda, but it could at least reduce the fire to give a chance to get to the burner. Another thing we have been leaving out is the obvious. Buy her three or four fire extinguishers. Take her outside and have her use one or two to get comfortable with how they work so she won't panic if she has to use one.
southgeorgia, I really like that idea. A breaker of that size would be expensive, but a heck of a lot less so than a fire.
The fire suppressor is a bit overpriced, and I'm a little dubious about the magnet attachment and minimal amount of baking soda, but it could at least reduce the fire to give a chance to get to the burner. Another thing we have been leaving out is the obvious. Buy her three or four fire extinguishers. Take her outside and have her use one or two to get comfortable with how they work so she won't panic if she has to use one.
That might be a possibility, harry, but, using the old stratagem of hoping for the best but planning for the worse, I'm planning a worse case where she's unconscious when the fire starts and not able to get out of the house. I'm going to ask the electrician about your strategy, southgeorgia and lamplight re cutting the power if the smoke detector goes off.
f_m, your induction cooktop was my best hope until I researched it and found on wiki that people with pacemakers should not use induction because of the magnetic field. Wouldn't you know it!! She has a pacemaker!
BTW, thanks all you guys/gals for your great input. If this saves her life you will be mostly responsible. The word, "heros" does not fall short IMHO.
LOL! We're all just trying to be helpful (at least I am). Being pedantic, your last statement gave me a chuckle that you actually had us pegged. ""heros" does not fall short IMHO." Heros does fall short. The word would be heroes, so it is short an "e", which is the sound I make when someone try to peg me as a hero when I'm not.
You did get some darned good ideas. Southgeorgia picked up the ball and ran with it after the rest of us dropped that "cut the power" idea. If the smoke detector is in the right spot, it'll likely pick up the first smoldering and could save a full-fledged fire.
LOL! We're all just trying to be helpful (at least I am). Being pedantic, your last statement gave me a chuckle that you actually had us pegged. ""heros" does not fall short IMHO." Heros does fall short. The word would be heroes, so it is short an "e", which is the sound I make when someone try to peg me as a hero when I'm not.
Well, in my book you all fill the bill.
I did make progress though. Did an extensive amount of research on induction stovetops (spoke with her pacemaker clinic, called manufacturer, read tons of literature, shopped online, etc. Turns out it's okay to use an induction stovetop as long as the person with the pacemaker doesn't climb onto the stove and put their chest right on the burner. Translated: the new versions are very safe for people with pacemakers. best news: they don't heat the pot more than 431 degrees F, lower than the flashpoint of cooking oil so she cannot start a fire. The worst that can happen is that the oil will smoke, triggering the smoke alarms, and even then some oils have smoke points of 500 degrees. It might be a good idea to use an oil with a low smoke point, which will alert our good neighbor to come check when the alarm goes off. Thanks to all you good people for your invaluable help. Without you I would never have learned about induction cookers (never heard of them). City-Data is the greatest!
If you're supplying a device with only half the voltage it requires, it's going to pull twice the amperage it's supposed to. She'd likely trip the breaker every time she turned it on, and if it didn't, there's a chance that the current could melt the insulation on the wiring in the walls or the device itself and start a fire. Also, the current could easily be too much for the device circuitry to handle and would likely render it inoperable anyway.
Again, do not try it.
Wrong. The resistance of the element is a fixed value, so at half the voltage the current will be half, not double (Ohm's law). The power dissipation (watts) of the burner will be about 1/4, so it is a viable option, but may not get hot enough to cook anything. I have done this myself to make a gentle heat oven for drying paint projects.
A 3500 watt oven element draws 16 amps on 220V, but the same element only draws 8 amps on 110V and will dissipate about 875 watts. Can't change the laws of physics.
Last edited by screamingpencil; 05-16-2019 at 09:42 AM..
I did make progress though. Did an extensive amount of research on induction stovetops (spoke with her pacemaker clinic, called manufacturer, read tons of literature, shopped online, etc. Turns out it's okay to use an induction stovetop as long as the person with the pacemaker doesn't climb onto the stove and put their chest right on the burner. Translated: the new versions are very safe for people with pacemakers. best news: they don't heat the pot more than 431 degrees F, lower than the flashpoint of cooking oil so she cannot start a fire. The worst that can happen is that the oil will smoke, triggering the smoke alarms, and even then some oils have smoke points of 500 degrees. It might be a good idea to use an oil with a low smoke point, which will alert our good neighbor to come check when the alarm goes off. Thanks to all you good people for your invaluable help. Without you I would never have learned about induction cookers (never heard of them). City-Data is the greatest!
You could get an induction burner and plug it into a smart outlet. Using a motion detector, if there is no motion for a period of time, turn the power off to the burner.
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Correction
