I’ve been wanting to get a fire alarm system for my house, with a feature that seems totally obvious to me: if one fire alarm goes off, all the fire alarms in the house go off. Is this too much to ask?
Haven’t seen any product like this in any Home Depot - Lowes’ -type place. Does it exist? (It must, surely, for commercial use.) Can I get one for my own little house?
Many new homes have such a system integrated with the security system. Just do a little google and you’ll find what you want.
Peace,
mangeorge
Actually, our home has it, and we don’t have a security system at all. There was an extra wire that went into the back of the smoke detector that wires the ones upstairs to the ones downstairs, and vice versa.
We discovered that this feature worked a couple of summers ago when our washing machine overflowed. The water made its way downstairs, and the path of least resistance happened to be through the smoke detector. The water set it off, causing an ear-splitting racket on both floors. At least we know the feature works!
Close to the bottom, on the (http://www.firstalert.com/home_safety/smoke_alarms/features.htm)
You’re welcome. No charge. 
No, no. Your other left.
Sorry. That’s why there’s no charge. 
The First Alert website indicates that they have a couple of models that can do this. There are also a couple available on Home Depot’s website. All of the ones with this feature seem to be AC powered, which may be how they interconnect.
Seems to me this is a bad idea. If all the alarms are going off, you could waste valuable time identifying just where the fire actually is.
It would have been funnier if you’d have said “No, no. My left.” 
You have two basic options. Line voltage (120 VAC) smoke detectors are supplied with a 3 wire connector. The third wire, usually yellow or orange is the interconnection lead which becomes energized by the head sensing the smoke, and in turn activating all others within the dwelling. Detectors typically have one or more status indicators so determining which device triggered an alarm is fairly straightforward. Available with and without battery backup, if you don’t see what you like at the big box store, try an electrical supply house.
The alternate is a low voltage system which is connected to a control panel. It can be standalone fire, or part of a combination fire/burglary system. The panel provides a secondary power source (backup battery) and drives a siren/bell or voice recording when a device activates. Central station monitoring is not required by most authorities.
You can also have a hybrid system with line voltage detectors, and using an interface relay, attach them to a low voltage control. NFPA 72-The National Fire Alarm Code and NFPA 70-The National Electrical Code are the primary documents of reference for placement and installation of devices and systems.
I believe that Firefighters advise that you should be getting the hell out of the burning building, not spending time looking to see where the fire is.
I agree with that. In fact, I was going to say the same thing. After you ensure that the kids, etc are out you may want to have a careful look, with extinguisher in hand.
BTW; it’s firefighters, no caps needed. Unless you confuse them with god. I mean God.
Thanks. As far as not knowing which unit detected the fire, I don’t care as long as I know there IS a fire. The situation I want to prevent is, the fire starts in the attic; the alarm up there goes off, but I’m downstairs sound asleep with the A/C blasting, hear nothing. If the units are interconnected, the alarm in my bedroom goes off before smoke even reaches it. Maybe I’ll even get enterprising and put a unit out in the garage.
I have not seen anything of the sort in any of the Big Box stores; I guess I’ll dig around and start calling manufacturers. Thanks for the info.
I was at HD today. I looked because of your question. They have what you want, but you have to look closely. That they cost more is one clue. I think the brand was Firex., but they had more than one brand.
Let me know when you get here and I’ll buy you a good cappuccino. 
Firefighters deserve the capitol ‘F’
Well if you’re going to use it as a mark of honor, maybe you should use all caps.
Here is one report. I’ve had great results with the products made by this company for AC applications. These folks are another good choice.
To capitalize or not? If you’d like to honor the firefighters in this country, take a proactive stance for fire safety in your own home and workplace. That would be one giant step towards reducing the number of names we put on plaques of bronze at the Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmittsburg, MD every year.