Electrical Connection Autumn 2017

82 / 116

82 E L EC TR I C AL CONNEC T I ON AU T UMN 20 1 7
RULING THE ROOST
I t’s a home owner’s nightmare to be
woken up at 2am by a smoke alarm
telling them, through an obnoxious and
repetitive beep, that they need to change
the battery in their smoke detector.
Now, a Californian start-up called Roost
has released a 9V battery that will send a
push notification to a home owner’s phone
before that dreaded alarm goes off.
It will also send a notification to the
home owner if the alarm sounds.
It’s no surprise that there are smart
smoke detectors on the market like the
Nest Protect but incorporating the smart
technology into a battery is providing
the market with a considerably cheaper
alternative to completely upgrading an
old smoke detector system.
“The Roost Smart Battery is the only
smart 9V battery that is patented and
upgrades a normal smoke alarm into a
‘smart smoke alarm’,” says Roost head of
marketing David Henry.
Not to mention that the upgrade
requires only a simple battery swap,
a much easier task than re-wiring and
installing a new system.
So how does it work?
Inside the smart battery is a
primary lithium battery, a WiFi chip, a
microprocessor and a piezoelectric sensor.
When the alarm sounds, it wakes up the
sensor which communicates via WiFi to
the Roost Cloud which will in turn send a
notification to the user’s smart phone via
the Roost app.
To be fair, Roost doesn’t offer the same
functionality as the Nest Protect, which
offers IFTTT integration. But it can carve
out its own section of the market for
home owners who want a cheap yet basic
smart upgrade for their smoke detectors.
In the US a Roost battery costs about
$US35, compared to a Nest Protect at
$US99. Roost is now available in Australia
but as we went to print, no pricing
information was available.
Like any standard 9V battery, the Roost
battery will die after a few years but the
user only needs to replace the chemical
battery section of the unit, which is priced
at $15 and reattach it to the part of the
battery with the smart technology built-
in. That cost is comparable to a standard
9V battery which is typically around $10.
The Roost app can show you if your
battery levels are good, low or critical and
if you have multiple batteries installed
around the house, if set off, the app can
show you which alarm has been activated.
“We started shipping the smart battery
in the US almost a year ago,” David says.
“Since then we have shipped thousands
of batteries via retail, online and through
insurance companies in the US.”
But they haven’t come to Australia yet.
The manufacturer is looking to increase
its presence in the smart home protection
market by launching solutions for carbon
monoxide and flooding protection.
The RSA-400 is a smoke, fire,
carbon monoxide and natural gas
detection device and comes with the
Roost smart battery.
Then there is the water and freeze
detector. The idea is a home owner can
place water sensors in appropriate places
around the house, such as next to tap or
shower fixtures or next to the toilet and
when the sensor detects water leakage,
it will send an alert to the home owner so
they can stop a leak turning into flood .
It doesn’t offer the same functionality
as the Water Cop Pro, which shuts off the
main valve automatically when a leak is
detected, but again this solution can carve
out its own part of the market where
homeowners want a cheap and basic
smart upgrade.
> Roost
UPGRADING ‘REGULAR’ DEVICES
TO SMART ALTERNATIVES CAN
BE AN EXPENSIVE CAPER BUT
WHAT IF ALL IT TOOK WAS
REPLACING THE BATTERY? JOE
YOUNG REPORTS.
Now available in Australia, Roost is a 9V battery that will send a push notification to
your smart phone before your alarm goes off in the event of a flat battery.
SMART BATTERIES