I own a tenant-occupied, 2-story, 5 Bedroom, Colonial Style single family detached home with an attached 2-car garage and an unfinished basement. The home currently has individual battery powered smoke detectors and CO detectors, but none of the detectors are interconnected. That meets the current code for an existing single family home like this. So, under the current code, I don't need to do anything.
However, I am considering installing a 110-volt interconnected alarm system with battery backups so that if one detector alarm sounds, they all sound at the same time.
I have two sets of questions.
The first is about how to wire a 110-volt interconnected alarm system.
And, the second is about whether there is such a thing as a battery powered completely wireless interconnected alarm system that I could install so I would not have to physically run wires to interconnect the detectors in the new alarm system, but still have it function like an interconnected alarm system where if one alarm goes off, they all go off.
1) Questions about wiring a 110-volt interconnected alarm system that is NOT WIRELESS:I know that one way to do the wiring is to run 14/2.from the electrical panel to the first alarm, then 14/3 to the next alarm, then 14/3 to the next alarm, and so on -- meaning that the wiring loop goes from the first alarm, then to the next one, then the next one, until I get to the last one, in one continuous loop.
But, to do that, I think it would be difficult to fish the wires in a way so that one loop goes to all of them one after the other.
My question is, can I junction off of the first one, for example, and split that into two circuits -- one going to the alarms on the right side of the house and one going to the alarms on the left side of the house? I have been doing Google searches to see if I could find an example of this type of wiring diagram but I can't find one.
2) Questions about WIRELESS interconnected alarms:While researching this, I am seeing wireless smoke alarms that appear to be able to communicate with each other so that if one goes off they all go off. But, I can't quite tell if that means that it is possible to create a whole new interconnected wireless alarm system for the whole house without having to run any interconnecting wires through the walls and ceilings etc. That sounds too good to be true, but is that really an option? -- an all wireless interconnected alarm system?
Thanks for any help or suggestions.