What kind of smoke detectors?

Q. I was told by my village that I need to have smoke detectors in my two-family house in order to renew my application. They said that even though I didn’t have them before, I have to install them. One guy said they have to be hard-wired, but my electrician called and they said just battery-operated. Which is it?

A. A section of the residential building codes and the code for “existing” residences requires battery-operated smoke detectors, unless work is being done that would allow for hard-wired detectors with a battery backup or changes in the dwelling are over 50 percent of the building. New work and new homes require hard-wired detectors.

Incidentally, with safety as their first concern, officials want me to remind everyone that the law, known as Amanda’s Law, requires all new and existing dwellings to have carbon monoxide detectors. Considering recent deaths from furnaces, space heaters and generators, there’s no excuse not to have smoke and monoxide detectors. Quite often, people tell me how remote the possibility is that they’ll have a fire or how they don’t need a monoxide detector because their heating system is fairly new. This law no longer differentiates. Now everyone must have a monoxide detector on each level where there’s a bedroom.

The law was named for 16-year-old Amanda Hansen of West Seneca, N.Y., who died due to a carbon monoxide leak from a defective boiler while she was sleeping at a friend’s house. Under Amanda’s Law, homes built before Jan. 1, 2008, can have battery-powered CO alarms, while homes built after this date are required to have the alarms hard-wired into the building. Previously, only homes built or bought after July 30, 2002, were required to have these devices installed. Additionally, Amanda’s Law requires New York state contractors to install a CO alarm when replacing hot water tanks or furnaces if the home isn’t equipped with an alarm.