Daylight Savings Time Begins on Sunday

Friday, 11 March 2022 09:52

The clocks will spring ahead one hour this weekend and the Woodstock Fire Department says you should be checking all of the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in your home.

WOODSTOCK - Monday morning will hit a bit harder than usual next week.

Daylight Savings Time will begin at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday March 13th. The clocks will jump ahead one hour, which means we will lose one hour of sleep.

The Woodstock Fire Department says you should be checking the batteries in all of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms this weekend. If you have hardwired alarms in your home, you should be checking their battery backups.

You should also check the expiry dates on your alarms and purchase new alarms if they are more than 10-years old. If you do have to buy new alarms this weekend, Public Information Coordinator Lisa Woods says you shouldn't be buying them off Amazon.

"They are not always tested to the same standards that we require here in Canada and Ontario. So make sure that you are getting something that has both the CSA (Canadian Standards Authority) stamp and the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) stamp."

You can purchase CSA and UL approved alarms at Walmart, Canadian Tire, Home Depot and other stores near you.

Woods says all homes must have a working carbon monoxide alarm outside all of the sleeping areas.

"A lot of people get confused and think they need to put it near the furnace because that's where they would have a possible carbon monoxide leak, the problem is you might not hear that in the middle of the night. We want to make sure that the alarm is near the bedroom because carbon monoxide does disperse equally and evenly throughout the house because it's a little lighter than air."

Smoke alarms must be located on every floor of the home and also outside the sleeping areas.

Woods says you can call the Woodstock Fire Department if you have any questions regarding smoke and carbon monoxide alarms or if you need help checking/replacing the alarms in your home.

"We want to make sure the community is safe and we will do whatever we can to assist."

You can find the Woodstock Fire Department's contact information online here.