My house has regular dumb smoke alarms installed. Is there any zigbee device which can somehow know when smoke alarm went off? Maybe by hearing the loud smoke alarm sound and hence triggering a Hubitat event?
The Ecolink firefighter does just that, comes in both Zigbee and Z-wave versions.
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Do you have any Alexa devices near your dumb smoke alarms? In theory, Alexa Guard can detect smoke alarms and take action accordingly (through a switch).
Caveats:
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I've tested this but never got it to work. Perhaps the test sound a smoke alarm makes isn't the same as the real thing.
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Cloud dependent
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Alexa Guard should still be free, but Amazon is making some additional Alexa Guard services a subscription charge.
Amazon just announced that feature is going to move behind a subscription pay wall for like $5/month.
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Yeap can confirm about Alexa going to a subscription, just got the email as well myself. I was only using it because it was free so whatever.
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That’s why I mentioned that in my post. But my understanding was it was only additional features to Alexa Guard.
As far as I can tell, Alexa Guard features as they have existed will be without cost. Alexa Guard Plus, which primarily adds monitoring, is what is going to subscription.
[Edit: I stand corrected. I was looking at old information. It does appear that Smoke/CO alarm detection is going to be part of the subscription service. Oh well, I never got it to work anyway.]
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I'm using the Z-wave+ version of the Ecolink FireFighter (because the Zigbee version wasn't supported by Hubitat when I installed it over 2 years ago). It works pretty well, and I really like that it passively listens to my smoke & CO sensors, rather than being part of them.
(especially since my house has hard-wired interconnected sensors. when I replaced all of them 3 years ago I could pick the best available, and then use the Ecolink to monitor for them detecting something)
Once you've installed the unit and added the device, you just configure it into Hubitat Safety Monitor to get notifications of the alarms being detected.
In my opinion, you simply can't beat the Zen55. Any home built in the last 25 years should have hardwired interconnected smoke alarms and many older homes have been updated. Most smoke alarms are designed to be replaced every 10 years or so. Today, it is also easy to purchase combination smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
For myself, I don't really see the point of "smart" smoke/co alarms. I just want my HE to know when a smoke or CO alarm is activated in my house. The Zen55 does just that with regular everyday smoke/co alarms (hardwired interconnected) that you can often buy significantly cheaper than their "smart" counterparts. The Zen55 differentiates between smoke and CO alarms. So your HE knows when it is smoke or when it is a CO alarm.
When it comes time to replace my existing smoke/co alarms, I just buy the pack on sale and everything is good, no need to buy specific "smart" alarms or change anything in HE. And nothing in the entire setup is battery powered (other than the fact that the smoke/co alarms have battery back-up in case of a power failure).
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I would think many (most?) newer alarms (in the last decade or so) would have wireless rather than wired interconnect like the Nest Protect.
I'm not an expert in this realm by a long shot, but my guess is that Interconnected is code in many locales (it is in my area).
I also like the ZEN55. It seems to work in my tests, differentiating between Smoke and CO alarms.
I recently put in a First Alert Z-Wave ZCombo, Smoke and CO, in the garage because it wasn't hardwired...apparently not a code requirement. Running wire out there would be a hassle. No false alarms, yet, even with the cars and spiders.
When the test button is pushed, the ZCombo puts out a test message for smoke, but not CO, oddly. That's something the ZEN55 or Ecolink can't discern. No biggie, at all.
It's nice to know which sensor caused the alarm, but with the hardwired, I still have to go around the house looking for a flashing light. Haven't had a false alarm, yet, knock on wood, with the new ones I just put in, but I went with the ionization type, thinking the photoelectric were more prone to spider initiated false alarms.
Yes, interconnected is code, but code is silent on the technology to use to interconnect. Wireless meets code, else Nest smoke alarms for the last decade wouldn't have been per code.
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Years ago I tried using the First Alert wireless interconnected detector for the garage. I found that range wasn't good and I had to add detectors just to get the signal inside to the detector that was interconnected with the hardwired system.
The ZCombo using z-wave has much better penetration.
I replaced all mine recently and got the fancy talking ones on a good deal so it tells you which one triggered the alarm while all 4 interconnected go off at once. My house was built in 1997 and it is setup for hard wired interconnected alarms. Basement, Main Floor, and two upstairs right outside the bedrooms. They are very loud compared to the old ones I replaced!
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When did they come out with a zigbee one?
If memory serves correctly (!), they've had the ZB version for a long time, but it's always had a bad reputation for connectivity or reliability or something like that, so it's never been a popular choice.
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Hmm.. Didn't realize that,. I found them in the wild but they're not on the ecolink website anymore, on the z-wave one
I can only speak for Canada, cause that is where I live, and wireless interconnect is allowed in Canada, and has been for some time. But realize the code requires the smoke alarms to be hardwired for power. At this point it is so easy, and the extra cost is negligible, to also wire an interconnect wire. This is simply standard practice and I have yet to not see it done. The electrician needs to wire up the smokes anyway, so you might as well use 3 wire, instead of 2 wire, and you still only need 2 wire from the panel to the first smoke. There is nothing special about the wire used for the interconnect, it is simply 14-3 vs 14-2, the electricians wiring the house have rolls of both, so whats the point of not wiring the interconnect.
If the home owner or builder chooses to use wireless interconnect (Nest Protect), no problem, but typically (in Canada) the hardwired interconnect is used with detectors the builder buys in quantity. The builder needs to provide a finished home to the homeowner with working interconnected smoke detectors that are hardwired (for power). He can spend an extra $20 on cost of wire to wire in an interconnect and then install 5+ detectors at $20 a piece. Or he can save the $20 in extra wire cost and install 5+ detectors that have wireless interconnect at ......
