With daylight saving ending soon it the time is right for household owners to change their smoke alarm batteries.

It's a timely reminder after more than 9000 residential fires were attended by fire and emergency services throughout Australia last year alone.

Port Macquarie Fire Brigade's Geoff Peacock said it was important everyone changed their smoke alarm battery at the completion of daylight saving.

"Once a year we recommend changing the batteries on smoke alarms and daylight saving works in New South Wales because everyone has it," he said.

"It makes sense when you change your clock to change your battery as well."

Smoke alarms provide an opportunity to evacuate the house in time; it can save your life.

"If you don't have smoke alarms, don't gamble with your family's life by waiting to install them - you should do it now," station officer Peacock said.

"It's really important as well that if people sleep with the door closed they have a smoke alarm both inside the bedroom and outside as well, because if it's only on the inside by the time the smoke gets into the room it's too late to get out," he said.

Station officer Peacock said nine-volt alkaline batteries were the best ones to use.

"They're the top of the range ones because sometimes people want to save a bit of money on a battery which they end up having to change more than once a year," he said.

"People should also think about putting smoke alarms above television cabinets or anywhere there is a lot of power cords and dust because there's still a lot of electricity that goes through them when they're on standby mode."