Here i-St@r comes with a simple and automatic fire alarm and

detection system. This fire detection alarm circuit is based

on thermistor. What is a thermistor? A thermistor is nothing
but a variable resistor whose resistance changes with
temperature. Fire detection is simply possible via this low-cost
alarm circuit.
A simple potential divider arrangement using thermistor is
capable of sensing the temperature(presence of fire) and alerting
us with a warning signal. This is suitable for your home security
systems. Also school students can do this fire detector
circuit as their high school science fair projects. Here I will
explain in detail about fire alarm circuit wiring with animation/
simulation of fire alarm.

Circuit diagram of simple fire alarm

Components required
1. Power supply
2. Resistors (1k)
3. Potentiometer (10K)
4. Capacitor (10F, 16V)
5. BC548 transistor
6. High resistance thermistor (NTC)
7. Diode (1N4001)
8. 6V Buzzer

Working of fire alarm circuit

Working is based on the switching property of transistor.

The thermistor and R1 forms a potential divider network

which drives the transistor.

The heart of this circuit is a thermistor. Thermistors are lowcost, easily-available temperature sensors widely used for
uncomplicated temperature measurements.

Thermistors are temperature sensitive resistors. When

temperature increases resistance offered by the thermistor
decreases and vice versa. At normal temperature, the
resistance of the thermistor is around 10k.

All resistors vary with temperature, but the semiconductor

materials used for thermistors are especially sensitive to
temperature.

The transistor is turned ON by the voltage drop across the

resistor R1.

Consider the temperature of the atmosphere is around 25C,

and then the resistance of thermistor is high so the voltage
across the thermistor is also high according to the basic
ohms law V=IR.

The threshold voltage can be set by varying the

potentiometer (R1).

At this situation voltage across resistor R1 is low and it is not

sufficient to turn on the transistor.

As temperature rises, the resistance of thermistor decreases

so that the drop across the resistor R1 increases which turns
ON the transistor.

When the transistor is turned ON, the current from Vcc starts
to flow via 6V buzzer which produces a beep sound.

Diode is used for enabling unidirectional conduction and the

capacitor removes sudden transients from the thermistor.

Simulation of the fire alarm project

We have used an LED instead of buzzer for the simulation of fire
alarm system.