Smoke Detector with HA Triggered Silence

Hi all,

I am looking for a smoke detector, which I can silence for a certain duration through home assistant. Preferably I should be able to post the silence duration, or it should have a silence / unsilence api, so that I could unsilence it at the prefered time through the api.

Reason is, that I live in a studio appartement and would like to silence the smoke detector while cooking.

Zigbee or Wifi are both ok.

I have seen some devices with a silence command in the z2m device list and also a few mentions here about the Frient or Shelly smoke dector, but is not clear to what the silence command entails in each case.

Looking forward to your recommendations!

Thanks!

If you are in the US you won’t find one that is up to code. (and subsequently you probably won’t find one at all…)

Why. Silence requires visual inspection according to NFPA. (the ruling body for fire code in the US)

Basically… You should NOT be able to do so without looking first. Is bad juju.

Because most manufacturers don’t like to be sued by insurance companies they generally won’t make devices that aren’t up to code.

The only types of silent alarms are those that will flash a visual queue instead of an siren that is designed for those that are deaf. You would be combining those with the z-wave adapter to bring them into HA for alerts this way for when it goes off.

edit to add to my reply for those in Australia this is AS 3786:2023:

image

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Also… According to code, flash/visual alert is ADDITIVE. audible alarm is still required.

And finally…

You probably can’t change the smoke alarms

Thank you for the reply, I live outside the US. Currently my appartement does not have a smoke detector at all, so I assume the rules are different here.

I am not sure if manufacturers modify their devices per country, but I assume since some devices have some silence functionality, it should still be possible?

They usually don’t. You’ll find most build one or two general units because fire code is generally the same world-wide now. (these rules have stayed pretty much the same since the '60s and every country has lawyers…)

You DONT want to do this. Please.

…Says the guy who has actually pulled people out of burned buildings.

Its a REALLY bad idea.

Thanks.

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So which is your recommendation for a studio appartement?

As I have mentioned at the moment my appartement does not have a smoke detector at all and if I install a regular one, I can imagine it going off multiple times per day, each time I cook something, boil water etc.

I saw some devices, like this one, that have this functionality:

but it doesn’t seem like the highest quality device, so I was hoping to a least find a good combination of both.

If your apartment does not have at least one smoke alarm in the home then its a highly dangerous situation and the landlord of the building will have to be taken to court about the matter to have it installed if other apartments as well do not have one and the only ones are in the common area but no where else.

My building has alarms in the common area at each level and each unit has one alarm installed powered by both a battery and mains just above our fire rated doors so in my case I would just be investing in the z-wave adapter to bring it into HA and have it properly installed for me or invest in a complementary alarm that is battery operated that integrates into HA out of the box.

Fires are the one thing that shoots my anxiety levels to the roof and past it so anything that breaks codes in this regard boils my blood.

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I’m with Robert I’d be pressing the landlord. But let’s assume this doesn’t happen for whatever reason.

Id take a crappy detector over no smoke detector every day. One in every common area at least one on every floor and one in every bedroom.

Yeah false alarms happen. Even in my home but it’s a small sacrifice.

Open a window when you cook.

That experience sticks with you and Id prefer nobody else have to deal with the fallout.

OK, I did some research (I live in Switzerland) and it indeed looks like smoke detectors here are not obligatory by law, but recommended to the tenants to install. I am surprised by this difference in sentiment and appreciate your concerns, fire is not something to be taken lightly, therefore I decided to take a look in the first place.

Now regarding the question “smart or not smart one” I really don’t know. My wife is against installing one at all and I was hoping to find a compromise with the one I described. Now I am really not sure.

For reference these are the ones we have installed currently which have a replace by 2029 sticker on them and are checked out by our housing department when its time for testing:

and how its installed in the unit since I moved in:

Just adding this data so you have a better idea for safety.

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ok, thanks for sharing.

So what is not clear to me is, how do these things behave with cooking, do they fire off each time there is some steam, or are they able in general to distinguish between smoke from fire and steam? What about smoke from burned oil during frying? These are the cooking methods we use in general.

Do you have these devices also installed in the kitchen in the US or just in other rooms?

Install a heat detector rather than a smoke detector in area where cooking occurs.

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I personally don’t cook since I just order my food in and at most I just use the microwave but my neighbor when he cooks if he does not open the door it can trigger it due to the sensitivity and the ones in the common area I have seen it take about a min for it to trigger when cooking smoke from burnt toast in a downstairs unit float up to my level.

It comes down to the placement and the type of device used, this is why if you read the PDF linked previous the recommendation for kitchens is to use heat based detection instead of particulate (this also goes for garages if you have similar particulate generation from tools when working on projects that may create a false trigger).

The alarm shown in my previous reply and its placement is the only one in my unit and is far from the kitchen but close to the front door and in my lounge room.

I have an airgradient one to help me monitor co2 and other particulate matter levels in the home via central placement so it’s that balance in my setup.

All that said the one gripe I have with the kitchens in our units is the lack of proper exhaust using the range hoods as all they do is cycle the air above the stoves… you have to actually have someone install a proper exhaust in our case when they are switched on to vent steam etc out the home properly hence the false triggers at times.

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I have smoke, carbon monoxide (CO), and natural gas detectors.

The smoke detectors are placed in a central area on each floor (basement, 1st, & 2nd) and the garage. The CO detectors are placed very close to the source of combustion (basement furnace, basement hot water heater, and kitchen stove) and near the bedrooms on the second floor. The natural gas detectors are in the basement.

I cook almost every day and I have good ventilation when cooking. It is very rare (once per year maybe) for the smoke detector to trigger - this happens because I have accidently burnt something while cooking.

The CO detectors saved our lives when the furnace malfunctioned.

I would gladly have a false alarm rather than die.

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Thank you for the detailed replies, my kitchen actually does have an exhaust that removes the air from the room, so it looks like in this case I might not get as many false alarms. Once per year is definitely acceptable, I was more worried about something like 2-3 times per day.

The heat sensor also sounds like a great idea.

In addition I almost forgot, that I already have a CO2 sensor in the room that I use for general ventilation reminders, so I could also use this to fire of an alarm if the CO2 level becomes abnormally high.

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Generally if CO2 levels become high you will start feeling tired more and want to sleep which is also a leading reason for deaths esp in fires (more so with carbon monoxide exposure).

I used this graph as a baseline for my tracking and alerts in my setup:

co2-ppm-table-400x419

alias: Air Quality Notifications
description: ""
triggers:
  - type: carbon_dioxide
    device_id: bab8294dc1791213bb0c8953d047c390
    entity_id: a93bccf2642069b6f916aa9a3ff105e0
    domain: sensor
    trigger: device
    above: 1099
    below: 1598
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
    id: Mediocre Co2 Level
  - type: carbon_dioxide
    device_id: bab8294dc1791213bb0c8953d047c390
    entity_id: a93bccf2642069b6f916aa9a3ff105e0
    domain: sensor
    trigger: device
    above: 1599
    below: 2100
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
    id: Bad Co2 Level
  - type: carbon_dioxide
    device_id: bab8294dc1791213bb0c8953d047c390
    entity_id: a93bccf2642069b6f916aa9a3ff105e0
    domain: sensor
    trigger: device
    below: 500
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
    id: Normal Co2 Level
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - Mediocre Co2 Level
        sequence:
          - data:
              message: Contaminated indoor air. Ventilation Reccomended.
              title: AQI Mediocore Co2 Level
              data:
                notification_icon: mdi:molecule-co2
                color: yellow
            action: notify.mobile_app_rkphone
          - type: turn_on
            device_id: 84f621331e03317db049531f9338d348
            entity_id: 86aa87cc4b2796bc48d097a9f6055f5d
            domain: fan
          - action: fan.set_preset_mode
            metadata: {}
            data:
              preset_mode: sleep
            target:
              device_id: 84f621331e03317db049531f9338d348
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - Bad Co2 Level
        sequence:
          - data:
              message: Heavily contaminated indoor air. Ventilation Required!
              title: AQI Bad Co2 Level
              data:
                notification_icon: mdi:molecule-co2
                color: red
            action: notify.mobile_app_rkphone
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - Normal Co2 Level
        sequence:
          - type: turn_off
            device_id: 84f621331e03317db049531f9338d348
            entity_id: 86aa87cc4b2796bc48d097a9f6055f5d
            domain: fan
mode: single

Figured I may as well give ya a template based on what I have going heh.

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Yeah, I have a similar setup, where I get reminded through the speakers to ventilate when the CO2 level is above 1500. But at the moment this function gets muted at night, to don’t wake me up :grinning: Guess I need to add another unmutable alarm for a higher treshold.

But in any case, I think the CO2 sensor should only be an auxilliary measure for fire protection and I still have to look into the other 2 solutions.

Correct having the proper dedicated device is what you want with others working in tandem for overall safety in the home.

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I just discovered there is a way to silence the Shelly Smoke from HA: Shelly Plus Smoke - Silence Alarm - #2 by tom_l