Been testing out the HEIMAN Zigbee Smoke Detector and it seems to integrate perfectly in my ConBeeII system. Before I start ordering more I just have a couple of questions that somebody might be able to answer; If I add multiple of these on the same network, do I have to add an automation to get all of them to go off if smoke is detected or is this some sort of built in feature in home assistant, that all smoke detectors goes off if 1 detects smoke? Did a search in the docs, but unable to find anything. And also, but I guess I might have to contact Heiman about this; worst case scenario is that the fire starts in the computer running HA and any automations set are unable to run ( yes, I know 1 in a billion) But does anyone know if these set up a network between themselves, so that all will go off, even if HA is unavailable? It says on the product page “Networking way - Zigbee Ad-Hoc networking”
You will have yo trigger them using a service call.
Just a note from an ex fireman and investigator. If you do this your HA kit is now part of a life safety system. It MUST work. It may also not be allowed in certain jurisdiction fire codes. (interconnected smoke rule)
Basically. If your install isn’t 100% highly available and bullet proof (Mines not, no way I would rely on a external system for interconnect signals) please reconsider.
That doesn’t seem right but I believe you are the expert in this.
I can see that being the case if the smoke alarms were designed by the manufacturer to be interconnected and you used HA to accomplish that in some way. Then absolutely.
But if each smoke alarm is a stand alone unit and the manufacturer never designed them to be a part if any interconnected system then I would think that having HA alert the user of an alarm in some other location that they wouldn’t have otherwise known about as per the design of the system and that it should be seen an improvement even if it might not be 110% reliable. If HA fails then I’m no worse off than if I never had HA running in the first place and if it works I’m safer. At least that’s how i see it.
And the reality is how would an investigator know that a homeowner had HA running automations to improve the system safety in the event of a fire?
I doubt the vast majority of inspectors would have no idea that HA exists or that those automations existed.
They don’t that’s why they usually just fail radio connected smokes period because they don’t understand it. Nest protects are 100% in spec but they used to fail all the time. But that’s because they were designed to be 100% independent of a third party system.
Its your system and do as you will. I would 100% monitor them and get signal off them and even attempt/do to cross alert them. There is no such thing as too much alarm in such a case…
What I’m saying is don’t RELY on it for life safety purposes if that’s the only way they cross connect figure out a second way, like a dedicated manufacturer supported cross connect system, or traditional wired cross connection. I’ve got 5-6 year old nests now (yes I trust thier cross connect it meets NFPA standard for a wireless cross connect system) but I don’t recommend them and am looking for a replacement within the next four years. (replace them every 10, they wear out) and there’s not a lot out there.
My current plan. Unless things change significantly before I need them is traditional wires cross connect and adding a ZWave relay to the alarm loop. 100% code, independent of any other systems and i still get the signals in to HA…
I do wish Halo hadn’t folded…
(edit and to answer your direct question. It doesn’t matter until there’s an incident that needs to be investigated. at which time you bet they look at what kind of smokes were there and did they sound. How do we know? Etc. Common practice.)
I am not sure how the regulations are written but what I would expect is if HA is the hub that relays the alert to other alarms then we are asking for trouble.
However, I would hope with zigbee being a mesh system that an alarm is a broadcast therefore HA can be down without impacting the alarm. Similar to how paired switch+light combos communicate directly.
The issue probably becomes that your zigbee nodes become core to the alarm system, (unlikely to be peer-to-peer) therefore any brand will only approve their own brand of hub. Are there any approved?
Nest protects are 100% in spec but they used to fail all the time. But that’s because they were designed to be 100% independent of a third party system.