We're currently developing a new Zigbee Heat Alarm and would love to get feedback from the Home Assistant community before finalizing the firmware.
The current feature set includes:
Heat alarm state
Fault / trouble reporting
Battery level monitoring
Tamper detection
Real-time temperature reporting
Remote self-test
Remote silence / hush function
Built-in siren control (same alarm sound used by our smoke and CO alarms)
Our goal is to expose as much useful functionality as possible to Home Assistant users through both Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA, rather than limiting the device to a simple alarm entity.
Before we lock down the firmware, we'd like to hear from the community:
What additional entities would you like to see exposed?
Are there any automations you currently use with heat alarms?
Would configurable alarm thresholds or rate-of-rise detection be useful?
Are there any diagnostics or maintenance features you'd like available in Home Assistant?
We're still in the development phase, so this is the best time to influence the final feature set.
All feedback is welcome, and we'll try to implement the most requested features where hardware allows.
Thank you for helping us build a better Home Assistant experience.
Wouldn't a heat or fire signal require a confirmation visual inspection before shutoff. Not entirely sure that's even legal in some us jurisdictions. May want to rethink that one. As ex fire emerg. staff Id strongly urge you to take that one out or put a VERY strongly worded caution on whatever enables it.
Edit: yes UL217 :
The UL update language says the user must be able to confirm physical proximity to the initiating alarm and confirm they checked for smoke/fire before silencing it.
UL 539 covers heat alarms.
Any jurisdiction that requires NFPA72 which refer to those will be problematic and why this is not a common feature.
Yes it's convenient but a visual post check after a heat or smoke alarm is not supposed to be convenient. Sorry. It's a LIFE SAFETY DEVICE we don't take shortcuts.
yep, I have been thinking of how to fix that in HA, it can do with manufacture's APP easily, it supposes to have a post check via camera, but HA offers sufficient flexibility, users are able to bypass it.
But many users do want to have such feature, image you are out for business or travelling, you are not in home, in case there's a alarm goes off, you can't do anything about it.
From normal user's perspective, the fire alarm goes off? I must check the all of the smoke and heat alarm all over the house, and check the cameras to make sure it's safe, but for someone who doesn't, that's indeed an issue for this feature.
Anyone who knows how to make this features replies on camera in HA?
Don't do it at all. If you cannot GUARANTEE the visual inspection end of line. Stop. You cannot unless you own the loop.
This is right up with DIY fireplace. Those also require a visual to enable a remote line of sight. That's why fireplace remote controls are ir and rated as heaters with thermostat LS and protection devices.
The mfr may he liable for resulting damage for enabling the silence I am not a lawyer but I absolutely used to be a fireman and an investigator - had I investigated the site, I would had to have reported if the alarms were present and functioning. If evidence of tamper or accelerant and in the case of a smart smoke they'll want the control records. If it's an automated system the investigation would want the pictures snapped used tto evaluate smoke (you can't visual heat unless your camera is also infrared.) (see how this gets complicated.. Fast?!
Then if it were my scene, write that the alarm was silenced remotely without proper visual inspection. And faulted the alarm silence.
If you are not the mfr and enable this then you might also be liable and a homeowner who installs it subsequently silences the alarm and has an incident may not be able to claim insurance as culpable.
Again. It IS NOT SUPPOSED to be convenient.
Look, real talk. I only have a few hard no's this is one of them. I won't enable it in my home, actively discourage folks from doing it, and refuse to install it if asked and all those books I read so many years ago say I halfway know what I'm doing... Nope. Don't do it.
The siren tones are regulated in the US changing them are likely not an option either.
Also should NEVERt use the sounder as an arbitrary alarm it should have a unique tone for the signal. That risk is alarm fatigue and it is very real.
Again NFPA 72
Single and multistation heat is UL539
Audible Alarms are UL217 See how intertek warns on remote silence.
UL2034 is CO sensors.
72/217 compliance is mandatory in most US jurisdictions. (if you have a building code prob so.) insurance will fight you if you don't have UL listed and certified devices or defeat the protection (and yes changing the allowed signal tones are altering)
Then your friendly neighborhood firemen will tell you one in every bedroom and one on every floor.... Test them annually. Your hardware store and Amz both have Fire alarm test 'smoke' available in a spray can.
Yes I'm being a pain on this but you pull someone out of a house once and you never want to do it again.
"Why are folks so intent on burning down thier homes with a remote silence smoke?"
Nathan- I would never remotely turn off a smoke alarm, but ours doubles as a dinner bell. If I had the capability, I would silence the smoke alarm so that my wife wouldn't have to wrangle a broomstick to acknowledge and silence the alarm. If we don't open windows to clear the smoke, it goes off again five minutes later.
I STRONGLY urge you to stop using the sounder as an alternative. That alarm fatigue is real and you DO NOT want people 'used to it'
If you look first I don't care if you do I will not endorse it
Look you do you boo. But these are KNOWN bad patterns that actuality get people killed and my answer doesn't change. I'll just ask you not to Steven
Convenience is great but not at the potential expense of a life. I honestly don't care how much my wife would burn the toast (and mine set fire to the oven once.) it's NOT happening in this house.
The smoke siren is used for automation links, if one is alarming on the basement, and then the smoke upstairs can be alarm with green leds, it can alerts you all over the house.
To be legal in the US, it MUST alert on every smoke detector in the house.
My comment was not intended to support any safety compromise. My problem is that sometimes when cooking, the smoke detector near the kitchen will set off every alarm in the house. WE KNOW THE SOURCE OF THE SMOKE! It is simply an annoyance to wait for a break in her cooking tasks to go get the broom to poke at the silence button on the smoke detector. If I remotely control anything, it would be this button press. If the smoke continues the alarm will resume in one minute.
Nathan- where is the risk in that? Either press the button on the smoke detector with a broomstick, which clears the alarm for one minute, or remotely (as in a button on the countertop) to do exactly the same thing.
The fact someone CAN remote silence without the inspect is the problem. You can't let the system allow it
If you can PROVE visual inspection with a camera on the covered area its not a problem...
How do you prove it though. Even if you have a camera how do you PROVE the visual is available for the person hitting the button.
Also these are heat you cannot visual inspect a heat alarm unless it's an Infrared camera.
Visual inspection through camera IS allowed IF you can prove it happens.
I don't hear anything here preventing silence without inspection. And that's the whole problem. You can't allow it even once. Else its a life safety issue.
I get what you are saying. Clarified: I don't hear anything here preventing silence without inspection.
I agree. If a smoke alarm can be silenced out of the house, then someone will and a catastrophe is possible. Not likely, but possible. However, commercial fire panels do have this ability.
They do and they also have facilities managers that understand the risk and a security company that tie them into the camera system. If there is no camera they require personell to visualize the site before clearing the alarm
In your home walking to and visualizing is great and it would be nice to say I see it hit the button.... but.. Being able to hit the button REMOTELY WITHOUT INSPECTION is and should always be a HARD NO. If the system can allow it it's wrong. The only way I know of is to either write your app with geofence that auto disables when you leave or require physical button.
So in theory you could setup a compliant system... But the op won't be in a position to enforce that setup. (if you can't enforce it should not be allowed)
Because the op cannot control the HA interface then only option left is a physical button in the inspected space. In those commercial BMS they are isolated systems and are closed loop and control everything and satisfy local codes through hardware for the entire system.
