How do I get my home's smoke alarm to not send a signal to the monitoring company right away?
Even though the system is grounded through a 6' copper rod, there was a lightning strike that set off the smoke alarm which called the monitoring company.
A week later, I was broiling something and I left the oven on in case I needed to put the food in for more time, and though I didn't smell anything, the smoke alarm went off and it started dialing the monitoring company within about 2 minutes. I called them and cancelled, but now I'm afraid to cook anything except by boiling.
What key words should I look for to buy something new?
I would contact the alarm company for guidance. Maybe they can do something at their end.
A 6' ground rod is not to code. 8' is the minimum required length and burial depth. Even though you have a ground rod, if the connections to the ground rod and at the service are not good, the rod will not be as effective as it can be.
It's a long story but for good reasons I hate to bother them.
Maybe it was 8 feet. It's been a while. But lightning** is not what I'm worried about. It's my cooking. In the past I've set the smoke alarm off maybe 10 times in the last 15 years, so I expect to do it again. However in the past, I had no monitoring, just the smoke alarm, so if it buzzed, I'd go upstairs and wave a magazine undeneath it until it stopped. And that was the end of it for a year or two.
What do other people do?
Wade, it's a 110 volt smoke alarm. I forget what that says about it.
**That was interesting, actually. I was on the phone when the lightning struck, not my house but nearby. The siren went off and I started downstairs to stop it, but it stopped on its own maybe 60 or 90 seconds later for some reason. I went back to the phone call and in a couple minutes heard touch tones. I didn't know what they were but my friend on the other end of the line did. After about 5 attempts at one or two minute intervals to call with touch tone, it switched to pulse, about 5 times at one or two minute intervals. Eventually it stopped and I thought I was done.
Went to sleep early. Next day go downstairs and find the alarm control panel squealing. Disarmed the alarm (even though I had not armed it) and I thought I was done. Five or 10 minutes later the police show up. It seems that disarming the alarm must have restarted its attempt to call the monitoring station, and when they called me to verify, I'd left the cordless phone upstairs so I didn't hear it. Police said they'd gotten loads of alarm calls because of the lighting. Then a couple days later a guy from my alarm company called me. So everyone was involved. The second time, I cancelled so only the monitoring compnay was involved, not the police or the alarm company, but I expect somehow the next time, everyone will be involved ag again.
I tried to find something like this, but I think I need a keyword that means "stop for 10 minutes" (until the smoke goes away anyhow.)
I did hunt through some alarm documents and I found that there already is a 30-second delay.
Unless I can find a better smoke alarm, I need about a 5 minute delay, to give myself time to go upstairs and use a magazine to blow away the smoke. It's very hard to understand the alarm manual, and I haven't even found the right pdf file or the right setting, so it will probably take 2 hours at least.
One pdf file says "Operates the same as the standard Fire zone, except the alarm memory and transmission by the communicator is delayed by 30 seconds. If the alarm is acknowledged by pressing any key within 30 seconds, the bells will silence and the transmission will be aborted. If the alarm has been acknowledged, and the smoke detector has not been restored to normal, the bell output will activate after 90 seconds. The user then has another 30 second delay before the bell output latches and communications is activated. A code is then required to silence the bell output."
One should have both. The 110 volt ones work differently from the battery operated ones, and one is better at smouldering fires and the other is better at the other kind. But even with an electrical fire, it usually takes longer to cut the power to the house than it takes for the smoke alarm to go off. Just like even when your car goes into the lake and under the water, you can still probalby open the power windows if you act quickly.
Modern alarm system panels are highly programmable and the delay for variou s trips before it sends an alarm can be set. Find the installation manual f or your. If you bought it from an alarm monitoring company you won't have t he install code ti change it though. But they can change it, probably for t he cost of a trip, even though modern ones can be reconfigured remotely.
In a previous home we had our builder install 110V smoke detectors that were linked to each other so that if one went off they all went off. Eah detector also had battery backup.
I have the install code but it seems the delay is not adjustable. Lots of other things are, but not that. My friend who owns the alarm company uses newer boards now but I don't want to bother him.
I was hoping there were smoke detectors that themselves had the delay, that squealed locally at the first notice of smoke, but didn't alert the monitoring company until some later time. 30 seconds just isn't enough.
While you and I think it makes sense, someone will sue the alarm company because there was a 60 second delay in response and their cat died in the fire.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.