Mcsteph here again.

I wish to remove a hard wired smoke detector but cannot find the fuse that switches it off. Is there a fuse or is it always on?

Either way, how do I remove it without smelling like burnt pork?

TKRussell?, anyone?

tkrussell

The smoke detector circuit can be connected to any circuit in the house. It certainly should be disconnected by the main breaker or fuse.

What may be throwing you is if the detector has a battery backup in it, which it should. Are you trying to shutoff and watch the pilot light on it? The light will stay on because of the battery.

You may need to remove the detector from it's base, and unplug the wire harness to it. Then connect a temporary light bulb socket to the black and white, then find the breaker or fuse that powers it.

Sometimes the detectors are on their own circuit, I always connected them to the furnace circuit, or something that would be missed and that the occupants would not want to shut off if they wanted to shut off the detectors.

If you cannot de-energize with one branch circuit breaker or fuse, then you have a serious problem, which I really doubt you have.

mcsteph

Thank you TK.

Since asking this question, researching on the web and now looking at your response, I feel that it might be safer to let someone more qualified than myself do the job.

This seems to be an old setup and having just purchased the place, I will go for a new photoelectric smoke detector. I tried the ionization type before and found that it went off even when boiling water !

Once again sir, thank you very much.

mcsteph