…Nest is indeed coming out with a smoke / carbon monoxide detector and yes, the product is called “Protect.” As you can see in the photo above, Nest is trying to do for smoke detectors what it’s already done for thermostats. Which is to say, it’s trying to take a mundane household object and make it sexy. Well, sexy and smart. It wouldn’t be a Nest device if it didn’t have WiFi built in, allowing you to control the settings and check the battery life using a mobile app (it’s available for iOS, with Android versions in both Google Play and the Kindle App Store). Also, the WiFi connection allows one Protect to talk to another. In the event of an emergency, all of the Protects in the house will go off, using a female speaking voice to let you know there’s a fire or CO.
But wait a second, what if there’s no emergency? What if you just slightly burned your artisinal grilled cheese? In low-threat situations like this, Protect will warn you that it senses smoke, and then give you a chance to wave away the alert with your hand – yep, the same way you’d wave away smoke itself. As you’d expect, the grace period depends on the urgency of the situation: if you’ve just been boiling water with the kitchen windows closed, you might be able to wave away the alert before the alarm goes off, but if there really is fire, you understandably won’t get the luxury of a warning. Meanwhile, on the back end, the Protect can work in tandem with a Nest thermostat, so that if the Protect detects carbon monoxide, Nest will shut your heat off (many CO leaks are related to heating).
In addition to being a proper smoke and carbon monoxide detector, the Protect also acts as a night light of sorts: it has a motion sensor that allows it to glow briefly when you pass by in the middle of the night. What’s nice, too, is that although you might want this feature while making your way to the bathroom, that pathlight is actually disabled by default in bedrooms, so you don’t have to worry about waking your partner. (When you set up the Protect, you specify what room of the house you’ll be using it in.) As for battery life, it’s said to last for years at a time, though Nest isn’t making any specific claims beyond that. Once this ships in a few weeks, you’ll be able to buy a version that takes six AAs or a different one that’s powered by a 120-volt wired connection. Either way, it costs $129, and will be sold in the US, UK and Canada, with white and black color options.
Let me preface this by saying that the (initial) popularity of the Nest thermostat surprised me. When I first saw it, I did not think there would be any/much demand. I think much of that initial popularity has since waned, due in no small part to the price. But I’m willing to admit that I may have been wrong about the thermostat.
But, I’m pretty confident that the smoke alarm will not be popular. While it does have some gimmicks that are appealing at first blush, I don’t think that smoke alarms should have gimmicks.
Today’s smoke alarms are cheap, fade from view, and behave in a completely reliable, familiar, and predictable manner for their ten year lifetimes. Conversely, this Nest is quite expensive for a smoke alarm. This Nest goes out of it’s way to be noticeable, not just with bold colors, but also with a bright LED that will certainly be a detriment in the night, when you want darkness(yes, I know it’s configurable). The gimmicky hand waving is interesting, but I’m unsure that the nonstandard behavior will catch on. Certainly it doesn’t justify the price, at least for me.
My feeling was similar … I personally believe that the proper way to do smoke detectors (at least in a new home) is to wire them altogether with 120V 3-Wire connection. If any trip they all trip … They are still powered by batteries … yet they have 120V to lengthen the lifetime of the battery. I believe this is code in some larger homes, multi-family dwellings, and commercial buildings in many places.
I do have a bi-directional link to both sense that they are tripped and I can force the alarm. I only use 1 Z-Wave device to sense ANY Smoke/CO detector. I use a left over relay from my Garage Door iTach to trigger the alarm.
But FWIW, I do share the sentiment - I did not understand the appeal of Nest T-stat and now this Smoke/CO detector. I’m quite happy with DYI approach - a network of hard-wired connected Combo detectors with relay connection to security panel and/or automation w/ Vera…
Imagine for a second that you wanted to embark on a MUCH wider Home Automation strategy, one for the masses (not the DIY community).
You’d need a few items to make that really successful including:
a) presence in many rooms, in order to accurately automate lighting, temperature (etc)
b) motion detection everywhere, in order to be more like a security system
c) easy installation/configuration - stuff that a child could do
d) WiFi for easy configuration and external access
e) Another radio to handle future expansion without a gateway device (lighting, etc)
f) Apps pre-built to handle the Device setup/communication (avoiding clunky web UI’s)
Not saying this is what they’re doing, but it would be a very logical way to do it if that’s the end-game. A trojan horse of sorts, expensive, but certainly a great way to get into people’s homes.
The downside?
In CA the CO2 sensors need to be replaced every 5-7yrs, not sure what the lifetime of smoke sensors is, but this could get expensive in the long run, esp with 5-7 per house.
The Wired and Wireless options are nice, and the videos explain all of it fairly well.
We have 6 Nests in our home and will probably be getting at least 6 of the smoke detectors. Two years ago, I was lucky that I preordered the Nest within hours of when they initially opened it up. I sold my initial order of two for nearly $1k each on eBay which was enough to pay for the rest of them. I don’t think the gold rush will happen again with these.
We have hard wired detectors now, but my understanding is that these will enhance the ability to detect activity and set Auto Away more accurately.
Yes the Nests are expensive, but not much more than other “connected” thermostats and Nest does not have a monthly fee. They also look nice and are easy for my parents and guest to adjust since it behaves like a old style round thermostat. I had programmable thermostats before and never bothered to tinker with the program on the tiny displays. The Nests have easily paid for themselves in energy savings on our 6,000 sqft house over the last two years. I’m not sure we can easily optimize for further savings.
Some of our house was built in 1975 and a year ago we replaced half our HVAC systems with Trane XL20i and the Nests work with it, but lack some features that are built into the Trane XL950 Comfort Link II. I didn’t want a 7" tablet like thing stuck to the wall and the associated monthly fee for remote access.
Techie / DIY Hack-together people are always surprised when well designed things like Nest are popular.
I was attracted to the Nest as well, even though it is not compatible with typical European heating systems out of the box (though apparently they are expanding to Europe). Simple reason: it is one of the few rare thermostats that look nice, with a lot of thought put into the design. Most look like crappy plastic boxes. (The Horstmann Z-Wave thermostat is another thermostat that looks and feels nice, but it’s no patch on the Nest). Good design goes a long way, and the popularity of the Nest did not surprise me at all, when I first laid eyes on it. People do get exited over well designed but otherwise mundane objects; this was the iPod all over again.
However I’m not so sure that this smoke detector will similarly appeal to the masses. Smoke detectors are install-and-forget, the more out of sight the better, and we never interact with them. I also don’t think that they make good forerunner for HA for the masses. The extra features will appeal to people already into HA, but I fail to see the attraction in situations where there’s no HA equipment to exploit the extras.
The company is doing interesting things, though. I wonder what their take on the future of home automation is.
Well, the way I think of it is that they’re 1 ZLL driver, and a control app, away from doing a “hub-less” Phillips Hue/Sylvania (or WiFi LIFX) lighting controller. Walk into a room, and it turns on the lights for you, without needing to rewire every light switch, work out how to pair stuff, and keep it functional over time (heals etc).
It’s anyone’s guess at this stage. For me, I don’t imagine you build a 200+ company just for T-Stats and Smokes, at some point they’ll want something they can attach a recurring revenue model to, but would be willing to pay (like Security, which could really do with a kick)
I just bought one today, for me I wanted the co function as well as smoke alarm as my current co alarm is ugly. Yes ?100 is not cheap but buy a co alarm and fire alarms and you spend money anyway. Also having them in one unit is nice.
What will be nice for me is to get the alarm when Away from the house that something is going on I don’t want to be, at least I could call the fire brigade lol. Yes I’ve not needed them yet but you never know.
The light features I’d turn off they are not that bright but it’s a good idea. They also talk to nest thermostats if you have one and turn off boilers etc if they sense co so might save a life somewhere along the line. If the motion sensors can be tapped into and read via vera they will be a nice solution for triggering lights etc when you walk into a room.
A smoke alarm that actually tells you where the fire is (which room) might be useful in the middle if the night if you get wrenched from sleep by screaming alarms especially if it means you leave the house by a different route (anyone that’s ever been woken up by a fire Alarm from a deep sleep will know how disorientated you can be so I can see that it might help).
Easy to say its a gimmick sat looking at it wide awake in day light, it might be different in the middle if the night with smoke, flames and panic. Hopefully I’ll never find out and will just be safe in the knowledge I paid around three times what a co and smoke alarm would cost.
Set up etc was very simple so I look forward to seeing how it performs. Not having a screaming alarm when someone burns toast might be nice!.
[quote=“intveltr, post:9, topic:177266”]
However I’m not so sure that this smoke detector will similarly appeal to the masses. Smoke detectors are install-and-forget, the more out of sight the better, and we never interact with them.[/quote]
I had a similar thought when I read about these. If you’re constantly setting off your smoke alarm, then you’re doing something wrong in the kitchen and need to change your methods
