Jordan O'BrienRoost may not be a company that is big in the home automation space, but the company invented one of the most useful gadgets of the past decade – a smart battery for a smoke detector, which can ping a smartphone when it’s running low or if the alarm goes off while the homeowner is away.
Now the company is taking that knowledge and competing with one of the most recognisable names in the industry – Nest.
Roost’s smart smoke detector is designed to offer much of the functionality that Nest boasts in its offering, but this time around it won’t cost the user a significant premium. In fact, pricing in the US stands at around $79.99 for a device that detects smoke, fire, carbon monoxide and natural gas, while one designed solely for just smoke and fire detection will set the homeowner back just $59.99.
Those prices are for the hard-wired editions of the smoke detector, which when compared to the hard wired version of the Nest Protect, which retails at around $99 and is incapable of detecting natural gas, it’s a significant saving.
While the Nest Protect is a fully fledged smart home product however, the Roost smart smoke detector still relies on that Internet-connected battery for most of its smarts. Despite that, Roost says the hardware is equally as impressive thanks to its faster fire detection when compared to a traditional smoke detector.
The alarms are using Universal Smoke Sensing Technology, which relies on a microprocessor to quickly detect ‘fast flaming’ fire – the company says the technology makes it 87% faster than the current smoke alarm standards.
Unfortunately for now the Roost smart smoke detector is only available in the US, but the company has got its eyes on an international expansion. Earlier this year the company’s founder says that it hopes to launch its smart battery in the UK in the second half of 2016, with the smart smoke detector likely to follow.
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