Wireless smoke detectors

Ursus Minor

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
The property management has just announced the installation of smoke alarms in our apartment building - at very short notice.
I have done my best to dig up information on the fumonic radio net gadget but it was only the usual customer information stuff.

Living in a small flat I would have to accept two of these detectors, one of them in the bedroom. Now my bedroom is definitely the last place where I would want to have unnecessary wireless stuff.

All I could find out was that these two gadgets are not interconnected (if true), so they're not exchanging wireless information on a regular basis. They are said to be sending status information to the company once a month (which should be pretty ok) but what I find pretty unnerving, they have a red LED blinking day and night every 48 seconds!

Just the thought of being disturbed by a red LED blinking 24/7 is already making me cringe.

I usually have a hard time falling asleep anyway and this gadget would probably drive me crazy.

I have done all I could. I have sent four mails to the management and I have written a two-sided pamphlet with health info on this subject to all the 40 households in the neighborhood waiting to be equipped with this gadgetry. I went for legal counseling.

The law in Germany determines that all bedrooms must be equipped with smoke detectors but it doesn't demand any wireless smoke detectors.

What are your experiences with wireless smoke alarms? Do you consider them unhealthy?
 
The property management has just announced the installation of smoke alarms in our apartment building - at very short notice.
I have done my best to dig up information on the fumonic radio net gadget but it was only the usual customer information stuff.

Living in a small flat I would have to accept two of these detectors, one of them in the bedroom. Now my bedroom is definitely the last place where I would want to have unnecessary wireless stuff.

All I could find out was that these two gadgets are not interconnected (if true), so they're not exchanging wireless information on a regular basis. They are said to be sending status information to the company once a month (which should be pretty ok) but what I find pretty unnerving, they have a red LED blinking day and night every 48 seconds!

Just the thought of being disturbed by a red LED blinking 24/7 is already making me cringe.

I usually have a hard time falling asleep anyway and this gadget would probably drive me crazy.

I have done all I could. I have sent four mails to the management and I have written a two-sided pamphlet with health info on this subject to all the 40 households in the neighborhood waiting to be equipped with this gadgetry. I went for legal counseling.

The law in Germany determines that all bedrooms must be equipped with smoke detectors but it doesn't demand any wireless smoke detectors.

What are your experiences with wireless smoke alarms? Do you consider them unhealthy?

I don't have any experiences with wireless smoke alarms, but as far as the red LED light, could you just put a piece of masking tape (or any solid color tape) over it?
 
I don't have any experiences with wireless smoke alarms, but as far as the red LED light, could you just put a piece of masking tape (or any solid color tape) over it?

I have been thinking of that too. The technician will arrive with the gadgets and I'll have to convince him ($) of letting me put some tape on it before it is fixed to the bedroom ceiling which by my estimation could be 15 ft. high. ;-)
 
That should work. Usually the things will start to chirp when the battery is running low.
 
I have been thinking of that too. The technician will arrive with the gadgets and I'll have to convince him ($) of letting me put some tape on it before it is fixed to the bedroom ceiling which by my estimation could be 15 ft. high.
I use duct tape to cover whatever lights are on the devices. Sometimes it takes a couple of layers. (My devices have had green lights that are really quite bright for their size. I have never asked permission, I just do it. If questions are asked, which hasn't been the case yet (I've done this in two different apartments), I would just say it ruins my sleep so had to cover it. It has no effect on the functioning of the device.
 
That's a pain in the arse, UM :-( I would at least try to make it harder for the company, maybe measure radiation before installation (or turn it off for a while and then switch back on) and after and then it might be an interesting experience to ask them (or the house owner, city council) for written confirmation that their devices do not cause radiation exposure bad for humans, or something like that. A customer perhaps does not have much choice but you never know if you don't try.
 
There seems to be a concerted effort of several nanny states to make these smoke alarms mandatory. Recently, the Netherlands started a procedure to make installation of these devices obligatory in all houses per the 1st of July 2022. Up until now it was only mandated for newly built houses, i.e. since 2003, and also in case of renovations in existing buildings from that date onward.

Research by TNO [Organization for Applied Sciences Research] shows that such an obligation can reduce the number of deaths from house fires by thirteen each year. Between 2008 and 2017, an average of 31 people died each year in the Netherlands as a result of house fires. Minister Knops: "Most victims of fire fall as a result of breathing in smoke. So smoke detectors save lives. Last year's TNO study shows that smoke detectors in all homes reduce the risk of fatalities. That's why I want to amend the Buildings Decree on this point and make smoke detectors compulsory not only for new buildings but also for existing ones".

Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, is recently also busy to do something similar on the behest of several parliamentarians.

From what I could gather, there are different types of devices: some of them connected wireless with each other, and others installed as part of a wired circuitry.

Sources (Dutch only):

‘Rookmelders straks ook verplicht voor bestaande bouw’

Zijn rookmelders verplicht in mijn woning of huurwoning?

ad.nl/wonen/verplicht-een-rookmelder-op-elke-etage-ook-van-bestaande-huizen~af6e9332/?referrer=https://myprivacy.dpgmedia.net/

hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/rookmelders-vanaf-2020-in-alle-woningen-verplicht~a10fa0fd/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fmyprivacy.dpgmedia.be%2F&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=volghetnieuwsvanvandaaguitbelgi%C3%ABenhetbuitenlandopdevoetophlnbe&utm_source=dlvr.it
 
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