Temporarily Disable Smoke Detectors on ELK-M1G

[hgupta1]

Our smoke detectors on Zone 16 work great, but occasionally cooking sets them off. We can usually tell when they are about to be set off, and my wife will ask me to turn of the alarm system if I am home. (we have a lot of automation rules that get triggered in addition to the sirens and call from the alarm company). So far, that means physically opening the alarm panel and switching the power off.

Is there a good way of temporarily "blinding" the smoke detectors? I was hoping for a rule that could be launched by a keypad press.

 

[pipeman]

I don't know if anything you do would be considered safe, but I agree with the need.
Are you using 2-wire or 4-wire smokes?

 

[icellama21]

Put a battery smoke detector by your bedroom as a back-up for safety and wire the power supply for the smokes via a relay(if they are 4-wire).

Make sure to use the NC side of the relay, the M1 can crash and reboot and leave all of your outputs in the "off" state. This ensures power to the smoke detectors if the output is turned off. I'd also write a rule to automatically turn the output off(something like: whenever output turns on --> turn output on for 1 hr)

 

[hgupta1]

Put a battery smoke detector by your bedroom as a back-up for safety and wire the power supply for the smokes via a relay(if they are 4-wire).

Make sure to use the NC side of the relay, the M1 can crash and reboot and leave all of your outputs in the "off" state. This ensures power to the smoke detectors if the output is turned off. I'd also write a rule to automatically turn the output off(something like: whenever output turns on --> turn output on for 1 hr)

Good idea on the battery smoke detectors.

After my post, I found in ElkRP where you can bypass an input zone, including a smoke detector (you can't do that from the keypad).
I wrote a rule to bypass zone 16 when we press F5 on the keypad. I wanted it to "wait 20 minutes" then unbypass, but unfortunately that isn't an option under the rules.. So I had to add a step that turns on output 17 for 20 minutes.


I setup a second rule where when output 17 turns off, then the zone is unbypassed. Hopefully this will work.

-hg

 

[pete_c]

Have you considered moving the smoke detector?

I have two "near" and downwind from the kitchen that would be triggered should a kitchen fire start (hopefully) and they haven't accidently triggered.

In another home with 9 foot ceilings and the kitchen as part of the "great room" I have two smokes one being about 15-20 feet from the stove on the ceiling and that one has triggered about 2 times in 8 years from cooking on the stove. This home has smokes in every room (except bathrooms) in the home.

I can disable my new panel connected smokes but would tend to maybe forget to turn the smokes back on and would most likely worry if I automated these functions.

 

[icellama21]

This will stop the alarm and sirens, but it will not silence the smoke detector if it has a sounder. But you will still have some notification if you forget to unbypass the zone. Have you considered moving the smoke detector away from the cooking area and replacing it with a heat detector?

 

[hgupta1]

This will stop the alarm and sirens, but it will not silence the smoke detector if it has a sounder. But you will still have some notification if you forget to unbypass the zone. Have you considered moving the smoke detector away from the cooking area and replacing it with a heat detector?

I am not sure if it has a sounder on its own. I don't think that it does. I don't want to move or swap out the smoke detector if I can avoid it.

I think my rules are working, but when I look at the status under Elk RP, it doesn't show that zone 16 is bypassed. Is this zone unbypassable?

It looks like I have to burn some toast tonight if I want to test this.

 

[sic0048]

+1 for moving the detector and/or replacing it with a heat rise detector.