How to Make Your Smoke Detector Smarter

If you have ever seen where a controllable fire incidence brings down a house, then you will know the importance of fire alarms. One type of fire alarm system is the smoke detector, a standard safety device that should be in every home. Unlike the heat detector which relies on heat to reach a defined threshold before triggering the alarm, smoke detectors rely on the smoke to turn off the signal.

It is no news that many fires in the home start with smoldering smoke. This puts smoke detectors at the forefront of fire alarm systems. The traditional smoke detector relies on an acoustic alarm to raise a signal, so it defeats the purpose of smoke detectors if the homeowners are not around. It is important to note that full-fledged smart smoke detectors exist. However, they are quite expensive. Check out four inexpensive ways to make your smoke detector smart: 

Use a Wyze Cam

One way to make smoke detectors smarter is by using the Wyze Cam. This device is a trendy budget-friendly surveillance camera used in the house. This surveillance camera comes packed with a lot of features. Two useful features this camera comes with are the smoke and CO alarm monitoring. This device serves as both a surveillance camera and a safety gadget. 

The way this device works is simple. It listens to the sound produced in the room waiting for any that matches the smoke alarm pattern. When the device detects such sounds, it gets triggered and pushes a notification to your device.

Roost Smart Battery

Just like the Wyze Cam, the Roost Smart Battery also listens to sound around. If the smart battery picks any sound with a pattern like that of a smoke alarm, it gets triggered and sends a push notification to your device.

How this differs from the Wyze Cam is in the place where positioned. Unlike the Wyze Cam, this battery serves as a replacement of the smoke detector battery and lives inside the smoke detector making it more reliable. It, however, does not have other functionality and unlike the Wyze Cam where a single battery will be sufficient, you need one battery per detector. 

Install the Amazon Alexa Guard

The Amazon Alexa Guard is a device still in the making. This device, according to Alexa, listens and upon picking any suspicious sound like smoke alarm sounds and glass breaking, sends a push notification to your device.

DIY Approach

The Do-It-Yourself is for the tech-savvy readers who have experience with micro-controllers and Arduino. There are different ways to do this yourself. You can find the procedures on YouTube.

Having a full-fledged smart smoke detector in your home is important. However, if you have a little budget, you can follow the steps above to turn your smoke detectors into smart ones that send a push notification to your phone even when you are away from home.