Keeping your family safe should be one of your highest priorities. Safety at home involves many things, but one of the most straightforward is correctly deploying smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Nest Protect provides smart smoke and CO alarms that speak and send alerts to your phone, allowing you to quickly hush false alarms (such as burned toast) while ensuring that you notice the problem right away.
So, why should you use one of these smart smoke and CO detectors? Read on.
Understanding the Need for Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
In just the first month of 2024, 270 people died in home fires. In fact, 70% of the people who die in fires die in residential buildings. This tells us that the place to start with fire safety is at home.
Additionally, every year, over 100,000 ER visits happen because of carbon monoxide poisoning. In 2022, 1,244 people died, of which 624 were accidents and the remainder suicides. Worse, the number of deaths is increasing, possibly connected to increased power outages leading to the increased use of portable generators.
Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors reduce your risk of dying in a fire or from carbon monoxide poisoning, and are an easy and affordable way to keep your family safe.
Smart home technology can make your detectors even better. For example, with connected detectors, all of your smoke detectors can go off if one detects smoke. In larger homes, this can make sure everyone hears the alarm. Smart detectors can also test themselves and some can even distinguish between smoke and steam, so they aren’t triggered by showers. You can also turn them off using your phone.
Introducing Nest Protect: A Smart Solution
Nest Protect is one of the best smart detectors and we recommend it highly. It is affordable, so you can purchase enough detectors for your home, and has the following features:
- Self-test and nightly promise. No more being woken up by low-battery chirps at 3 am.
- Pathlight – which acts as a motion-sensitive nightlight
- Heads-up mode. This is a milder reaction to a small amount of smoke and will let you know if you just burned dinner.
- Voice alarm telling you where the emergency is.
- Distinguishes between steam and smoke.
- Phone alerts for low batteries.
- Phone control to turn it off if you know it’s a false alarm
Nest Protect also has the best smoke and carbon monoxide detection technology out there! It can integrate with smart home technology…imagine the smart speaker in your bathroom telling you that there’s smoke in your kitchen.
Exploring Key Features of Nest Protect
The following key features really make Nest Protect stand out.
Self Testing
Nest Protect continuously monitors its own battery levels. Instead of chirping when nearly out, Nest Protect will just send you a phone notification saying it needs a new battery, and clearly indicating which detector is impacted. Check each night for the green light that indicates the battery is good.
It will also silently test its own alarm once a month using Sound Check. So you don’t have to periodically test your detectors (which is easily forgotten) and can just let them monitor themselves.
Heads Up
The only thing worse than burning dinner is also setting off the smoke alarm. For small amounts of smoke, such as burnt toast, Nest Protect will flicker yellow and tell you to check your kitchen in a friendly voice. You might even be able to rescue that pizza in time. But it doesn’t go straight to the full get-out-of-here alarm until it really needs it.
It can also tell steam from smoke so it won’t be set off when you have a hot shower then open the bathroom door. Heads Up can be easily disabled from your phone, telling the Nest to shut up until you are done cooking…so that stir fry won’t keep setting off the alarm.
Integration
Nest Protect integrates with other smarthome features including the Nest Hub, learning thermostats, audio package, etc. You can check your smoke and CO detectors from a central location or from your phone, along with everything else you care about.
Enhancing Home Safety With Nest Protect
Nest Protect makes sure you don’t think you’re protected by dead alarms. It also helps safety in a couple of other ways.
First of all, Nest Protect will tell you verbally where the smoke is so you can act accordingly. You can choose your evacuation route appropriately. You can also work out what the source of CO2 is…is it your stove? Your car? Your furnace? Nest will tell you which detector went off so you can make a good guess and call the right technician.
Pathlight helps safety too. When you get up to get a glass of water or use the bathroom, your Nest Protect detectors will light up when you need them, reducing your risk of tripping or stubbing a toe in the dark.
Installation and Setup Process
Place at least one smoke detector on each level of your home, including the basement, and in each sleeping area. Smoke detectors should be placed high on the wall or on the ceiling. Avoid installing near a window, door, or forced-air register, which can result in false negatives. Do not place smoke alarms within ten feet of your stove or shower, both of which can set them off. If you have a smoke alarm you have to disable every time you cook, move it. If somebody in your household is hearing impaired, get an alarm with a strobe light.
Carbon monoxide detectors should be positioned about five feet from the floor, with at least one on each level. They should be placed just outside sleeping areas, but if you have more detectors, put them in bedrooms. Put a detector in your basement and in any space over an attached garage. Do not put detectors within five feet of gas stoves or open fireplaces…you don’t want them going off every time you cook either. However, if you have a gas stove, put a detector in the kitchen…just not right up against it…as they are a common source of CO.
Setting up Nest Protect is easy and is done using your phone or tablet. A professional installer, however, can help you put the detectors right where you need them and give you advice on the best way to use your Nest Protect.
Addressing Common Concerns and FAQs
Here are some questions people often have about switching to Nest Protect:
Q: What is the battery life?
A: Some Nest Protect detectors are wired. Battery-powered detectors need their batteries changing every five years. Note that the wired detectors have backup batteries, which should be tested periodically.
Q: Is your Nest Protect spying on you?
A: Some people are worried that smart home technology can spy on you. The Nest Protect only detects smoke, CO, and movement. Nest in general has solid privacy protections, and Google promises to keep these readings from being used for ad personalization.
Q: Can you use Nest Protect with existing home setups?
Nest Protect is designed to integrate with the Nest Hub and does not integrate with other smart home setups. However, the Nest ecosystem can cover all of your needs. If you’re concerned about integrations, talk to us.
Smoke and CO detectors keep your family safe. Smart detectors keep them even safer and add convenience by allowing you to turn off false alarms, and by telling you where the problem is. Nest Protect is one of the best out there and can even act as a nightlight and give you a heads up about burned dinner. Consider adopting a smart solution like Nest Protect to prioritize your family’s safety.
To find out more and to schedule a professional Nest Protect installation, talk to Express Home Services today.
