Roll forward your clocks this weekend to welcome the warmer months with the start of daylight saving time.
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Daylight Savings Time (DST) is practiced in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria and sees the clock move forward by one hour.
This Sunday, the time will shift forward at 2am to 3am local daylight time instead.
Sunrise and sunset will also be later, meaning that there will be prolonged light in the evenings for the next few months until DST ends on April 3rd next year.
Gavin Raccanello, Station Commander of the Yenda Fire Brigade said that DST was a good opportunity to change the batteries in smoke alarms throughout the house and other occupied premises.
"Changes to and from DST is a really good trigger point for people to remember to do things like changing the batteries in your smoke alarms," Commander Raccanello said.
"Removing and replacing your smoke alarm batteries twice a year is a really good habit to have and utilising DST as a trigger point is a great way to remind yourself to make sure your smoke alarm is functioning properly".
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According to Mr Raccanello, this week is also a good time to give your smoke alarms a good clean and test that they are working as they should.
"Avoid standing up on a chair and get the end of a broom to press on the test button on your alarm, if you hear a sound you are in the clear but if you don't you'll need to either change the batteries or get a new alarm," Mr Raccanello said.
"It is also good to give it a wipe down and vacuum to clean it up and remove residual dust."
Lithium powered battery smoke alarms are the most popular at the moment due to their 10 year working life, however Mr Raccanello said that even though the batteries in your smoke alarm may be long lasting, the quality of performance of smoke alarms can fade as the batteries age.
"Irrespective of if you have ten year lithium batteries or not, you should be changing and checking the batteries in your smoke alarms regularly as it may not be at an optimum performance," Mr Raccanello said.
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