Standing precariously on tiptoe on a kitchen chair while frantically waving a tea towel to disperse the smoke and turn off the fire alarm at the same time is a frustrating experience known to most of us.However, help is now at hand thanks to Nest, a relatively young French company – acquired by Google in 2014 – who are using advanced technology to connect their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to a smartphone.
“We wanted to see how we could use technology to change attitudes to fire prevention in a smart way,” explained Lionel Paillet, manager of Europe Nest Labs, to the audience in the Expertise and Guidance Theatre at FIREX 2016.
The result of their research and development efforts was the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, which can connect via the internet to a home automation system.
Domestic fires spread faster in modern homes, which contain furniture made with foam and particle board, than their 1970s counterparts
Research carried out by the company found that one in five consumers has a fire prevention product in their home which does not work, usually due to low batteries. Another 43% said they were frustrated by recurrent false alarms in their home with their current fire alarm.
Paillet said these statistics were worrying when today a fire can spread in a room in less than five minutes. This was due to the foam and particle board used in most of today’s furniture which burn and spread very quickly when compared to the soft furnishing materials used in the 1970s.
The company therefore decided to put themselves “in the shoes of the consumers” by not only using the most advanced sensors but also introducing a system which talks to the owner or occupier when something is wrong, rather than indiscriminately beeping at them.
“The system even comes with an introductory welcome message because people hate setting up their smoke alarms,” explained Paillet.
The technology therefore uses a human voice which can give an early warning that something is wrong in the property and can also alert the user’s phone. “Please be aware, there’s smoke in the kitchen, the alarm may sound,” the friendly voice announced in the demonstration video.
Paillet explained that the sensors not only told the household if there was a risk of fire in the room(s) they were occupying but also if there was a problem in any other room in the house. This is because the sensors can “talk to each other” and therefore the alarm in the bedroom can tell you if there is smoke downstairs in the kitchen.
The system will also send everyone named an alert on their phone, when it detects something is wrong, in case no-one is at home. The only downside is this could cause unnecessary concern if the alarm was set off by, say, burnt toast and you are a long way from home.
It is also the first home fire alarm system that can be silenced from a smartphone without extra hardware by using App Silence.
“If you get the heads up from the system, you can take your smartphone out if it is a false alarm and silence it on the app,” explained Paillet. However he added: “It is not only about fire protection, or convenience but also what consumers do not do – ie testing”.
Fire alarm systems should be tested once a month, but in reality few householders do it. But Paillet said that Nest Protect checks the batteries and sensors over 400 times a day and then sends a message to the user to advise all is well with the system.
Paillet said that a “green glow” at night showed the batteries had been tested and the system even had light sensors which could light your way in the dark.
However, fire is not the only risk in the home with about 200,000 houses in the UK experiencing high level of carbon monoxide every year. The problem is that while it is poisonous, you cannot see and always smell carbon monoxide.
Paillet explained that Nest Protect therefore incorporates a carbon-monoxide sensor. Moreover if a consumer has other Nest products in their home, these automatically work together and can be controlled from an app on a phone – for example telling the thermostat to turn off the heating to keep the danger from spreading.
At £89 per unit, the Nest Home Protect is certainly an affordable as well as a user-friendly product – one that could finally herald the end of frantic towel-waving next time the toast burns.
IFSEC Global also interviewed Paillet about the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm before FIREX 2016.
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An end to the frantic towel-waving at the smoke alarm is in sight.