Always Assume Human Error

So I've been going in circles with my electrician for a week and a half. I'd say the smoke alarms don't work, they'd say they do.

Only one of the five (5!) in my house chirped when the battery was removed, and it was the only one with the light that indicated it was wired into the system. The electricians said, "Well when we test one, they all sound off."

Here's the thing, they all have a battery back up and are wired together so that when one goes, they all go, even when they're all on battery back up power. So instead of "reading the directions" like they suggested I do, they just went on their merry way.

In order to find out what the hell is going on, I pull them all down out of the ceiling. Lo and behold, I find the one that has a loose neutral wire. It's just floating in the box. All but one of my alarms are down circuit of this one, so that all of them have no neutral only the hot. Open goddamn circuit. Way to go.

I fixed it. Took me an hour, and most of that was painstakingly reviewing the instructions the damn things came with, hunting down the right tools, and figuring out how to get the stupid things off and back onto the ceiling. I'm going to charge them for two hours, the customary minimum for a site visit.

Better see that credit on my bill.