Thank you Bill. Now please tell me the percentage of single family homes that have the professionally installed hardwired professionally monitored integrated fire safety systems that you claim we all need as opposed to the percentage of single family homes that have nothing more than a standard battery operated audible smoke detector. And then provide me the cost differential comparison for the installation and monitoring of your beloved hardwired system against that of one integrated into the WiFi HMS system you are so adamantly opposed to. And then try to convince me, and everyone else here, that the installation of a WiFi enabled detector into an existing HMS by us lowly untrained unskilled know nuthins isnât a solid step up from the 1970âs beep boxes hanging on the majority of home ceilings and walls which have 0.00% capability of contacting anyone should they detect when no one is there.
Given your years of professional service to the trade I am sure this information would be readily available.
And, my WiFi has a lower outage percentage than your entire electrical grid. Underground Fiber with redundant power backup at both ends and local cellular hotspot backup switch, also on redundant UPS.
You said âhard wired.â I did not. Iâd say that you might want to familiarize yourself with products that are already available for fire alarm, actually made by fire alarm companies. And, while many are wireless, no, they do not use wifi, for very good reasons.
Wireless interconnected, ten-year battery operated smoke detectors and CO detectors that can be simply screwed to the ceiling and connect with each other automatically cost about $29.00.
They will continue to operate with full interconnected primary function when your house power is out, when your wifi is unplugged, when there is a crash at AWS, when your kid changes the SSID on your wifi, a neighborâs wifi channel interferes with yours, when somebody cuts the underground fiber trunk with a ditch witch, when a tree falls over the cable service, when a tornado goes through your neighborhood, etc.
For $37, you can find some detectors that will connect to wifi, not to interconnect the detectors, but to push notifications. The interconnect will never be wifi, though. Obviously, the push notification will fail under any of the above conditions, but the detectors will still be interconnected and still perform their primary function of getting the occupant out of the house in an emergency.
Since the IRC code has required the detectors to be interconnected for about the last 22 years in new construction, and some states are now requiring the same for existing buildings upon change of occupants, Iâd say that it is the predominant way that things are being built.
Takes time to do the development and testing and get something like that through UL. The better way might be to work with one of those manufacturers and do an interface box, and not one of those stupid listening devices. It is not like there is a hole in the market.
Thanks Bill, that does answer some of my questions. However I do have more.
You called these interconnected, which I will assume means they talk to each other. Or, is that interconnectivity to a control hub?
How do the interconnected units communicate with the monitoring service or fire department?
My concern is NOT getting out of the house in an emergency as the old 1970âs beep boxes already do that, the proposed WiFi connected units do that, and the interconnected ones do that.
Where my needs lie is in the notification of an alarm to 1.) My phone and 2.) Noonlight which is my monitoring service.
I donât have a need for more than 2 units. One in my house and one in my detached garage.
Wyze should implement the smoke alarm listener in the same way as Ring does it. Ring has a training feature where you teach the listener to recognize your smoke detectorâs alarm signal.
Not sure where Wyze does the recognition - in the cam or in the cloud? If in the cloud, it should be easier to make it as smart as you want.
I am trying to understand the interconnected systems you mentioned and how they will alert my phone if they are not WiFi connected or how they alert the monitoring service or the fire department when no one is home.
Ask your fire marshall what is required by code. Most statesâ codes say that they have to be UL listed, line powered with a battery backup, and hard wire interconnected. But your fire marshall is the final arbiter on how the code is interpreted where you live. Also check with your local fire department to see if they accept direct notifications. Many do not.
Read what I said in a previous note. You can buy detectors that do have an additional wifi connection in addition to the 900 mHz network that does the interconnect. I found them for $37 asking price. Not expensive. You might or might not have to buy a hub, and pair with the detectors, depending on the manufacturer. Some pair with Alexa or Google. Like I said before, obviously those push notifications are dependent on house power, proper wifi connection and operation, and the existence of a working internet connection. You might be able to buy an interconnect relay to give a contact closure to your monitoring service.
I didnât want you to design it for me, I was hoping to get to the point of the discussion, and the point of this wishlist topic, the same point you have avoided addressing from the beginning. Thanks anyway.
@SlabSlayer A bit of terminology clarification may help: âInterconnectedâ in the context of smoke detectors usually means that when one of several installed smoke detectors is triggered, it causes all units in the same building to alarm as well. This would apply to both internet-connected alarms as well as non-wifi alarms that only emit an audible warning when triggered. Local building code often requires all smoke alarms to be interconnected in new construction.
The terminology can be confusing since we use the term âconnectedâ to refer to internet connectivity. But âinterconnectedâ has nothing to do with internet. It only refers to whether the detectors âtalkâ to each other within a building. This is usually accomplished by an extra wire running in the cable between units used to transmit the alarm condition between units. This hardwire interconnectivity may be required by code and not be satisfied by any type of radio/wifi interconnectivity, independent of the internet.
Really wish you all would make a smoke/CO2 detector that would integrate with wyze home monitoring and would automatically make a call to emergency services when necessary.
DMP makes a smoke ring product that taps into the existing linked smoke detectors in the house. They use Wireless signaling back to their base station much like all of the wireless sensors for an alarm system. This method is ideal for existing installations. Include a receiver in the HMS base station and license the smoke ring.
I have a system like this with multiple detectors connected. I also have a security system in which the door sensors have screw terminals in parallel with the reed switch. I rigged a connection from a smoke detector to a door sensor using the screw terminals. The the sensor was configured to report fire to the monitoring company. I think the Wyze sensors would he simple enough to hack to do this though I havenât tried since the Wyze system has no concept door sensors for alternate uses.
The problem is the sensor would need configuration settings to set it as a smoke alarm, and have it monitore 24/7 whether armed away or not.
If Wyze is unwilling to make a smoke detector for the system, they should at minimum provide this ability since smoke/fire alarms are a make or break deal for many costumers.
We are asking for a dual CO/Smoke alarm detector that actually detects the presence of CO and Smoke right? I donât want these silly dual CO/Smoke âsensorsâ that listens for the tone or sound of an actual CO/smoke alarm like the Wyze cameras do. I find that just unreliable. I want the real deal guys.