Nest Protect Q&A: “We’re Redefining What You Should Expect from Your Smoke Alarm”

IFSEC Global spoke to Nest Labs general manager for Europe Lionel Paillet about how the Nest Protect smoke and carbon-monoxide alarm tests itself 400 times a day and ‘speaks’ to smart-home lighting during an emergency.

Paillet is speaking at FIREX about reinventing the smoke alarm for the digital age.

Click here for the full education programme for FIREX – which takes places between 21-23 June 2016 at London’s ExCeL – and here to register to attend.

Find out more about the Nest Protect and Paillet’s forthcoming FIREX presentation in the Q&A below.

IFSEC Global: Are there any lessons you learnt from that you have brought to NEST?

Lionel Paillet: During my time at Apple we learnt that you can change the way people think about something by putting all your love and passion into it. Not just the product, but the marketing and everything else.

Those principles are applied every day at Nest where we are reinventing these unloved but important products in people’s home – whether it’s helping them to save energy or keep their families safe.

IG: Can you tell me more about the Nest Protect?

LP: The Nest Protect alarm redefines what people should expect from their smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms. It is the first residential alarm to offer a custom, split-spectrum sensor that uses two wavelengths of light to look for different types of fires – both fast burning fires as well as slow smoldering fires.

It can also give you a friendly heads-up before it has to sound the alarm and you can hush it with your phone. In case you’re not home, Nest Protect alerts your phone when the alarm goes off or the batteries run low.

It also gives you peace of mind by testing itself over 400 times a day and showing you everything is working with a quick green glow when you turn off the lights.

IG: How do Nest products work with other products?

LP: Our ‘Works with Nest’ programme lets Nest devices interact with the things you use every day to deliver even more personalised comfort, safety and energy savings. For example, the Nest Protect can tell your Philips hue lights to switch to the best setting to see through smoke if there is an emergency or flash red as an additional warning system if the homeowner has hearing issues.

And of course Nest Protect works with other Nest products. For example, if carbon monoxide is detected it can turn off your gas boiler – a common source – to ensure the problem doesn’t get worse. Or turn on your Nest Cam security camera so you can see the problem.

IG: Why do you think people will prefer a smart smoke alarm to the traditional sort?

LP: When asked, more than two thirds of people (70%) in the UK found their fire alarm to have at least one annoying trait, with false alarms (43%) and the low battery ‘chirp’ (29%) being the two most common annoyances.

his often leads to the alarm being ripped off the wall, or batteries removed completely, leaving families at risk. In fact, national fire and safety statistics showing that nearly one fifth of fire-related deaths occur when the smoke alarm wasn’t working or removed.

Has your alarm ever yelled at you for taking a shower? Nest Protect is the only alarm with Steam Check.

It uses custom algorithms and a humidity sensor to look for steam, so you can enjoy a nice, quiet shower. And our split-spectrum sensor ensures that we can quickly spot smouldering fires and flaming fires, while minimising false alarms.

And smart alarms can avoid that low battery chirp, and even minimise the need to manually test, by checking the batteries, sensors, and speakers up to 400 times a day to ensure everything is working properly. It will even alert you via your phone if there is a problem.

They also allow you to know more and worry less. Everyone in your family can know what’s going on, from anywhere. When something’s wrong, Nest Protect sends everyone an alert in case no one’s home.

IG: How is smart technology from Nest changing a very conservative industry?

LP: There has been very little innovation in the smoke alarm industry over the past 50 years, both in terms of user experience and the technology inside. They are an unloved product, seen by most consumers as an annoyance, and we want to change that.

That said we’ve had great feedback from across the industry from trade associations to fireffighters to installers, and of course consumers themselves. We all have the same goal: keeping families safe.

IG: What will your session at FIREX be about? Who should attend and why?

LP: Today’s homes, from the building materials to the floor plans, are vastly different, and so is the technology and people inside them. For example, it used to take up to 30 minutes for a fire to take over a room. Now it can take less than five.

I will be talking about how technology is helping us reinvent the smoke alarm – from the way we detect different types of fires, to the ways we interact with the people who live in those homes. A beep is no longer enough.

Anyone with an interest in fire safety, from an installer to end users to specifiers, should attend for what I hope will be a truly engaging session.

Click here for the full education programme for FIREX – which takes places between 21-23 June 2016 at London’s ExCeL – and here to register to attend.