Fire alarm in the garage?

mknox · Feb 26, 2014

Not that I'm particularly worried about it, but I was thinking that since I no longer have an ICE in the garage, a smoke detector may not be a bad idea. Aside from the car, there's probably lots of stuff to worry about catching fire out there. Problem is, all the ones I've looked at have a temperature band of something like 40 F to 110 F and seem as though they're intended for "indoor" use. My garage can get a whole lot colder than that in the winter, not to mention being outside of what are likely acceptable humidity limits too.

Anyone know of an "outdoor" rated smoke detector?

Krugerrand · Feb 26, 2014

You could turn your garage into a man-cave, add insulation and heat; problem solved. :biggrin:

jeff_adams · Feb 26, 2014

mknox said:
Not that I'm particularly worried about it, but I was thinking that since I no longer have an ICE in the garage, a smoke detector may not be a bad idea. Aside from the car, there's probably lots of stuff to worry about catching fire out there. Problem is, all the ones I've looked at have a temperature band of something like 40 F to 110 F and seem as though they're intended for "indoor" use. My garage can get a whole lot colder than that in the winter, not to mention being outside of what are likely acceptable humidity limits too.

Anyone know of an "outdoor" rated smoke detector?

Look into optical beam smoke detectors. Not real cheap, but they are designed to do what you are looking for.

jerry33 · Feb 26, 2014

mknox said:
Anyone know of an "outdoor" rated smoke detector?

This one ought to do it.

Securiton aspirating smoke detector

Ambient operating temperature–30 °C to +60 °C

Securiton aspirating smoke detector.

Kraken · Feb 26, 2014

Krugerrand said:
You could turn your garage into a man-cave, add insulation and heat; problem solved. :biggrin:

plug in the model s, roll the windows down and open the panoramic roof and it makes a good stereo system too.

yobigd20 · Feb 27, 2014

Krugerrand said:
You could turn your garage into a man-cave, add insulation and heat; problem solved. :biggrin:

I thought about doing this...

yobigd20 · Feb 27, 2014

Kraken said:
plug in the model s, roll the windows down and open the panoramic roof and it makes a good stereo system too.

Well I guess you could use it to heat the new man cave too.

mknox · Feb 27, 2014

Krugerrand said:
You could turn your garage into a man-cave, add insulation and heat; problem solved. :biggrin:

The thought has occurred! I think the wife may have her doubts. My house has a two level basement (what would have been a crawl space was fully excavated) and the lower level is my current man-cave with my plasma TV, sound system, computers and such. A second one in the garage might be too much.

Maybe my own Car Condo is the answer. :tongue:

- - - Updated - - -

jerry33 said:
This one ought to do it.

Securiton aspirating smoke detector

Ambient operating temperature–30 °C to +60 °C

Securiton aspirating smoke detector.

Didn't see any pricing on the web site, but they look EXPENSIVE.

ohmman · Feb 27, 2014

First Alert makes a Z-Wave smoke detector which is sold in the US at Lowe's locations. ZSMOKE is the model number. If you already run a Z-Wave network at home, you can pair it with the network and create alerts with your controller. I really like the idea of adding one to my garage. This way I'll get a text alert on my phone even if I'm away from home when this occurs.

FlasherZ · Feb 27, 2014

Unless your garage is heated, placing a smoke detector in the garage is a recipe for false alarms. Cold weather can generate false alarms, typically at the worst time of night, and the cold weather ones (like the Securiton mentioned above) are generally expensive. Most smoke detectors have an operating range of > 40 deg F / > 5 deg C.

I might suggest a slightly different approach - using a heat detector on the ceiling may prove to be better to detect a fire.

mknox · Feb 27, 2014

ohmman said:
First Alert makes a Z-Wave smoke detector which is sold in the US at Lowe's locations. ZSMOKE is the model number. If you already run a Z-Wave network at home, you can pair it with the network and create alerts with your controller. I really like the idea of adding one to my garage. This way I'll get a text alert on my phone even if I'm away from home when this occurs.

I currently have an Insteon based system. Good thought to check if there are any HA-enabled devices available... even one with a set of dry contacts that could be used to trigger an event. My big concern is the huge temperature and humidity swings I would get in the garage.

ohmman · Feb 27, 2014

mknox said:
I currently have an Insteon based system. Good thought to check if there are any HA-enabled devices available... even one with a set of dry contacts that could be used to trigger an event. My big concern is the huge temperature and humidity swings I would get in the garage.

I also use Insteon. If you have a Z-Stick, the First Alert Detectors will speak to it. Slightly off-topic, I'm planning to write an Insteon plugin for the Tesla. (Think presence-alerting, battery level triggers, etc.) Keep your eyes peeled.

@FlasherZ

In my area, the garage temperature very rarely goes below 40, so I am not terribly worried about it. But I do see where this could be an issue in other areas of the world.

Krugerrand · Feb 27, 2014

mknox said:
The thought has occurred! I think the wife may have her doubts. My house has a two level basement (what would have been a crawl space was fully excavated) and the lower level is my current man-cave with my plasma TV, sound system, computers and such. A second one in the garage might be too much.

A two-story man cave; you'd be the envy of the entire county. Could probably charge admission!

simonog · Feb 27, 2014

I use Homeseer as my HA system. Works on any PC and has built in interfaces for most available sensor types.

easy non technical user interfaces so good WAF (as I am told it's called and true in our case); easy event processor eg temperature is below xx so send an email, turn on heater etc.

pity is can't instruct the car to heat it's own battery if on charge as someone would have to write a Model S plugin for it first.

jerry33 · Feb 27, 2014

mknox said:
Didn't see any pricing on the web site [Securiton aspirating smoke detector], but they look EXPENSIVE.

The good stuff is always expensive.

Doug_G · Feb 27, 2014

mknox said:
Not that I'm particularly worried about it, but I was thinking that since I no longer have an ICE in the garage, a smoke detector may not be a bad idea.

I don't understand this statement. Getting rid of the ICE should reduce your fire risk substantially...

clea · Feb 28, 2014

Doug_G said:
I don't understand this statement. Getting rid of the ICE should reduce your fire risk substantially...

I believe what was meant was that having an ICE would prevent you from having a detector in the garage because it generates smoke as a matter of its normal operations.

mknox · Mar 1, 2014

clea said:
I believe what was meant was that having an ICE would prevent you from having a detector in the garage because it generates smoke as a matter of its normal operations.

That's exactly right. I was thinking that the one area of my house that's not protected is the garage for this very reason, and now I should be able to install one (temperature and humidity issues aside). Besides the very small risk of an electrical fire, I do have gas powered devices (snowblower, lawnmower, chainsaw) in the garage as well as an assortment of the typical flammables you might expect in to see.

markb1 · Mar 1, 2014

Will a properly functioning ICE really set off a smoke detector? A modern ICE shouldn't produce smoke.

woof · Mar 1, 2014

It'll set off a CO detector for sure.

Fire alarm in the garage?

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