Ok, so i was incorrect here. I grabbed a ladder and took the detector off the ceiling. It's a Firex 120-1072B model smoke detector, not a CO/ smoke combined. That's all it says about it. It's hardwired into 120V house power. I can't find a manual for it anywhere, however I did find the replacement is a Kidde i4618 smoke detector that includes "ionization sensing technology". After researching this, the problem wih the alarm going off is easily understood.
Excerpt from the EPA website:
Ionization sensor technology contains a small amount of radioactive material encapsulated in a metal chamber. Ionization technology is faster at reacting to fast flaming fires that give off little smoke.
Ionizing sensors contain a small amount of americium-241, a radioactive material. It is housed in an ionization chamber, which is basically two metal plates a small distance apart. One of the plates carries a positive charge, the other a negative charge. Between the two plates, the alpha particles emitted by the americium-241. The alpha particles collide with the air in the ionization chamber to produce charged particles. The positively charged metal plate attracts the negatively charged ions (electrons) and the negatively charged plate attracts the positively charged ions (mostly oxygen and nitrogen). The steady flow of ions creates a small but steady current.
The current is disrupted when smoke enters the ionization chamber. Smoke particles attach to the charged ions and restore them to a neutral electrical state. This reduces the flow of electricity between the two plates in the ionization chamber, and when the electric current drops below a certain threshold, the alarm is triggered. Hot air entering the chamber changes the rate of ionization and therefore, the electric current level, which triggers an alarm.
So basically, the air at ceiling level is getting too hot too fast and tripping the alarm. Now this is a royal pain in the ass since I don't want to keep this disconnected and you cna't really control the amount of heat coming from the heater. I'm going to try and locate the heater in an area farther from the detector and hope the ambient air will take more time heating up and allow the detector to maintain it's quiet mode. If that doesn't work, I really have no idea how to solve the situation.. I don't want to disconnect the detectors, if i moved them to another location i'd have to terminate wiring and patch up a hole, which i really don't wanna do ither. Any ideas?