Yes, people LOVE to tell everyone what they own on message boards. (as I adjust my signature to include my new phone...)
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Nest Introduces $129 'Protect' Connected Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector
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Yes, people LOVE to tell everyone what they own on message boards. (as I adjust my signature to include my new phone...)
Batteries are great as back-up in case of a power-failure. No need to be so critical.
On a separate note-I love my Nest Thermostat. The Nest Protect seems great-expensive since I have six smoke detectors.
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Haha...thanks. Although I hate when people do that as well. Lol... I'll be a little more mindful in the future
Thanks
Thanks
They do not have UL sign-off yet, but they'll have it before they sell. That's why they have the preorder period.
Yes. You have to turn off the power, remove the leads from your existing wired smoke detector, attach the Nest leads (and cap the red wire with a wire nut if your system has one--Nest doesn't use the red wire), and plug in the Nest.
Never been a fan of combo smoke+CO detectors.
Smoke Rises... Carbon Monixide falls. You can't place one detector in one position and get good readings. You need a smoke detector high and a carbon monixide detector low to get good early warning detection.
Smoke Rises... Carbon Monixide falls. You can't place one detector in one position and get good readings. You need a smoke detector high and a carbon monixide detector low to get good early warning detection.
These smoke detectors do a lot more than just detect smoke/CO. They act as occupancy sensors for your Nest thermostat (Control4 home automation integration coming soon), they act as night lights that come on when they detect your presence (if you configure them to do so), and they offer advanced announcing and silencing features. The cost savings of removing the occupancy sensor would be negligible, I'm sure.
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It must use disposable batteries as a backup during a power outage. This is required by code.
So they are. Ouch though, they're way more expensive here. $129 US vs £109 here. $129 in GBP + VAT = £96. Smoke alarms don't carry an import duty so it would be cheaper to buy battery versions from the US and have them shipped over.
The Nest thermostat is just doing its job. If it doesn't sense someone passing in front of the thermostat it will go into 'auto away' mode. There is no other way for it to know you haven't actually left your home/room. I don't see why you should be annoyed. It is not the thermostat's fault. If it get's too warm/cool you can always manually change the temperature or just log-on with your iPhone. I know I do.
Maybe little benefit to you, but I can't wait to get mine.
Never again getting a phone call from my girlfriend while I'm out of town saying "a smoke detector is cherping and I can't figure out which one it is/I can't figure out how to change the battery/we don't have any batteries" is worth the price alone.
The fact that I can easily silence an alarm (before it starts beeping, mind you) when I set it off while cooking is amazing, oh and the system will announce exactly where the alarm is (in a human voice "Smoke in the basement")
Adding more occupancy sensors to my Nest thermostat system is just a bonus.
There is no price too high to keep my family safe, and if 7 of these smoke detectors means I'll never come home to a smoke detector sitting unplugged and with no battery on the dining room table, count me in.
I have 8 smoke or CO2 detectors around the house, so would be pricey to replace them all. Not sure if just adding one or two would be worth it. I'll probably cave and get one to try it out, I'm a sucker for anything new tech.
My batteries currently last about 2 years - then when one goes I replace them all at the same time rather than trying to figured out which one went and then having to do the same thing a week or a month later when the next goes... So that isn't really hasn't been an issue... I never understood those who wait until each one goes before replacing it.
My batteries currently last about 2 years - then when one goes I replace them all at the same time rather than trying to figured out which one went and then having to do the same thing a week or a month later when the next goes... So that isn't really hasn't been an issue... I never understood those who wait until each one goes before replacing it.
I have two Nest Thermostats, the added motion detection would be very welcome, but I'd need 7 to replace the current alarms in my home. So I will hold off.
If they added functionality to notify you of motion when manually set away then I will buy them immediately.
If they added functionality to notify you of motion when manually set away then I will buy them immediately.
In a 2,400 sqft house we have
1) C02 alarm directly above the garage
2) Smoke detector in the center of the house - 1st floor hallway (any kitchen smoke will come out into the hallway to sound an alarm.
3) Smoke detector in the center of the house - 2nd floor hallway
The basement smoke will come up into the hallway on the first floor.
This is more than sufficient. If you are in the room you'll notice the fire and if you aren't, it'll signal smoke within 3-5 seconds of the area burning. I've tested it. If 3-5 seconds is "too long" for you, then enjoy wasting your money as if something is going to explode, 1 second or 5 seconds won't matter.
The most important part is making sure the unit is working.
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I prefer battery operated. Ours probably go longer than 3 years on the battery but we replace them right at 2 or 3 years to make sure there's enough battery life to sound the alarm long enough to wake up
This is cool but it's a bad investment. The thermostats will save you money and eventually pay for themselves, while also having a nice user interface. The smoke detector just has a nice user interface. The Nest smoke detector is definitely the best smoke detector ever made, but I don't think it's an order of magnitude better....because the price is an order of magnitude more than a traditional smoke detector.
Perhaps a smart compromise is to use one of these in areas where it will do most good (e.g. in high-traffic areas where the night light and motion sensors will do the most good) and continue to use your basic $20 smoke detectors in outlying areas such as in the garage and basement.
Unfortunately, I believe fire code says the entire unit must be replaced every 7 years. Though I guess when you think about it, 7 years is a long time for any piece of technology.
Perhaps Nest will be able to lobby for a change so all that needs to be replaced is the detectors, but the electronic "guts" of the unit could remain.
New benefits not compelling
Nest Thermostat: A very cool-looking device that I engage with almost daily. Helps me be comfortable when I'm home and save money when I'm home and away. Useful features I can use via my iPhone at home or away. Benefits are compelling to pay a premium and replace a working thermostat.
Nest Smoke Detector: Something I hope I never need to interact with. Detects smoke and CO similarly to my existing detectors. Offers a few minor new benefits (night light, help with auto-away). Worth spending several hundred dollars to replace my working smoke detectors? No way.
Maybe if I had to replace all my smoke detectors, I'd consider it. But I don't know when that will ever happen. I think this is a big miss for Nest. Sure, 'protecting your house and family' is important but most people have a satisfactory solution for that already and the Nest's benefits in that regard just don't seem very compelling.
Nest should have gone after more useful energy-saving devices like light switches and electrical outlets like Belkin is doing with their WeMo devices.
Nest Thermostat: A very cool-looking device that I engage with almost daily. Helps me be comfortable when I'm home and save money when I'm home and away. Useful features I can use via my iPhone at home or away. Benefits are compelling to pay a premium and replace a working thermostat.
Nest Smoke Detector: Something I hope I never need to interact with. Detects smoke and CO similarly to my existing detectors. Offers a few minor new benefits (night light, help with auto-away). Worth spending several hundred dollars to replace my working smoke detectors? No way.
Maybe if I had to replace all my smoke detectors, I'd consider it. But I don't know when that will ever happen. I think this is a big miss for Nest. Sure, 'protecting your house and family' is important but most people have a satisfactory solution for that already and the Nest's benefits in that regard just don't seem very compelling.
Nest should have gone after more useful energy-saving devices like light switches and electrical outlets like Belkin is doing with their WeMo devices.
I mean... if a smoke detector saves your life, I think it has probably paid for itself.
On the Nest website they link to a study that found many fire fatalities happened in houses where one or multiple smoke detectors were unplugged and without batteries. How many of us are guilty of disabling a smoke detector instead of properly changing the batteries? I know I've done it more than once.
Just last week one of my 4 smoke detectors started to chirp indicating it was on low battery. I had to listen and track it down to see which of the 4 it was. I then popped it open, took out the battery and left it that way since I had no spares. A few days later I got some and got the smoke detector operational again. The first floor hallway unit has no batttery in it as once a week it detects normal cooking as some sort of fire and we spend the next 5 minutes waving a magazine at it and opening the kitchen doors and windows. In these two instances we were/are unprotected and it seems to me that Nest has both of these situations resolved.
But you'll still have to change the batteries (as you would with any alarm), so I'm not entirely sure how your "girlfriend scenario" would change if they happen to go out when you're gone and the app hasn't notified you yet (it's not clear to me how soon that notification happens).
And I'd really like to know what these people are cooking that sets their smoke alarms off so much. I have one literally in my kitchen (though mostly for CO), and it's gone off exactly once: in the middle of the night when I accidentally left a pot of boiling water on the stove as I went to bed, and the utensil started suffering heat damage.
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Most building codes in the US require smoke alarms in each bedroom as well as at least one outside the bedrooms that can be heard through the door. They also require at least one on each floor.
There are agencies like the National Fire Protection Association whose job it is to do exactly this. The above is their recommendation.
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As for this product, I'd consider it if I didn't already have all the smoke and CO detectors I needed. If you have a Nest thermostat and want extra occupancy sensors, this seems like a decent way to get them if you also have a use for the smoke alarm, and the connected nature may be handy for people with larger homes (although this is certainly not the only option in such cases). The night light feature is also neat, although for battery-only ones I hope it doesn't take too much of a toll.
As others have pointed out, ALL smoke detectors need to be replaced every 8–10 years (depending on model), and CO detectors every 7 years.
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I'm sorry, but I don't think I agree with you. Technically speaking, Carbon Monoxide is lighter than air... but not by much. There is so little difference that they are considered as weighing the same. Since warm air rises, it's believed that carbon monoxide will rises with the warm air. There are units (like ones that plug into your electrical outlet) that are low, which is fine, but being on your ceiling is OK too.
References:
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com...-best-place-put-carbon-monoxide-detector-home
http://www.ask.com/question/does-carbon-monoxide-rise-or-fall
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem03/chem03364.htm
http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingswork/a/codetectors.htm
Studies have also found that the typical smoke detector alarm is more often "slept through" and that more people are awaken with a voice notification. It seems like the Nest covers that as well.
I currently have 3 smoke detectors... and I doubt I'll be replacing all of them with a Nest, but I think the "heads up" warning alone would make it a worthy replacement of the detector near the kitchen.
Nest says the batteries last "multiple years" (the 9V batteries in a $10 alarm need to be replaced every year)
You can check the battery level from the Nest app at any time.
The Nest will announce exactly which alarm needs new batteries, so you don't have to wonder around your house at 4am listening for a chirp that only happens once per minute.
The Nest uses AA batteries (which I'm much more likely to have in my house than 9V's)
The Nest Protect mounts to the ceiling with the same system as the Nest Thermostat. Even my girlfriend will be able to remove one of those and change the batteries. The basic detectors we have now are a nightmare to get off of the ceiling, and very difficult to open without breaking.
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This is definitely not up to code. If you have a fire in your house, your insurance company could decline coverage. You need a detector on every floor of your house, and in every bedroom. If a fire starts in your bedroom while you're sleeping, you could quite easily sleep through it and die.