How to Wire a FireX Smoke Alarm

Slide a stud finder over the ceiling to locate the ceiling joists inside each bedroom and in the hallway. Mark the locations of each joist with a pencil.

Trace the template supplied with a single-gang remodel junction box onto the ceiling at each location you chose for your FireX smoke alarms. Remove the drywall from each alarm location with a drywall saw, cutting along the trace lines.

Turn off the main breaker on your circuit breaker box. Remove the screws holding the cover onto the box, using a Phillips or slotted screwdriver.

Pull a piece of 14/2 nonmetallic electrical cable from the breaker box to the closest FireX smoke alarm location. Pull another piece of cable from the closest alarm to the next closest. Repeat pulling NM electrical cable from one alarm location to the next until you have cable at each location. Each location will have two sets of cable except for the farthest location, which will have one.

Pull a length of 14-gauge solid THHN yellow electrical wire from the first FireX smoke alarm location to the next location. Repeat pulling the yellow wire from one alarm location until each location has one or more yellow wires.

Pull each length of cable and yellow wire through the open slots, or knockouts, in the back of each single-gang remodel junction box. Push each box into the hole in the ceiling and turn the two screws on the face of each box clockwise, clamping each junction box to the ceiling.

Rip the exterior sheath from the electrical cable at each alarm location with a cable ripper, exposing the black, white and bare copper wires inside. Strip 1/2 to 3/4 inch of insulation from the wires inside each alarm junction box and the breaker box with wire strippers.

Connect the bare copper ground wires together inside each FireX junction box by twisting an orange connector onto them. At the last alarm location, wrap the copper wire around the grounding screw at the back of the junction box.

Pull all the wires through the opening on the FireX smoke detector mounting plate at each location. Attach the mounting plates to the junction boxes with the mounting screws provided with the alarms.

Connect the FireX connector black wire to the junction box black wires with an orange connector. Twist two additional orange connectors onto the FireX connector's wires, connecting the white and yellow connector wires to the white and yellow junction box wires. Repeat the alarm connection wiring at each location.

Snap the plastic end of the FireX connectors into each detector. Twist the alarm onto the mounting plate, locking them in place.

Install a 15-amp single-pole breaker for your FireX smoke alarm circuit inside the breaker box. Snap the rear of the breaker onto the lip along the outside of the box first, then push the front of the breaker firmly on the bus bar in the center of the box.

Push the black wire beneath the set screw on the rear of the 15-amp breaker. Turn the set screw clockwise until the black wire cannot be pulled from the breaker. Locate the silver ground and neutral bars in the breaker box. They have all white, green or bare wires attached. Slide the white wire beneath an empty set screw on the neutral bar and the bare copper under the ground bar. Tighten the set screws until you cannot pull the wires from the bars.

Replace the breaker box cover and turn back on the main breaker. Press the test button on each FireX smoke alarm to confirm the connections.