Nest protect Gen 2 kitchen

[Guest Aimee]

We have purchased the near protect gen 2 smoke and CO alarms for our house. We plan to have an extension so need these to be compliant with building regs. I’ve seen that it detects heat - can I use the nest protect in the kitchen as it seems to have a smoke, heat and CO2 in built or does this have to be purely a heat detector to pass building regs?

[green-foam]

First of all I should point out that in the first instance you were right, carbon monoxide is written as CO, not as you went on to say CO2. There is a major difference in that carbon monoxide is lethal in small doses, CO2 is in short what makes fizzy drinks fizzy (That's just for starters) always be careful when writing its chemical formula.

Back to your question. The Nest protect 2nd generation does have a heat sensor, however, the heat sensor does not create an alarm condition, it is there to tell the "Brain" of the detector that it is getting hot, and to adjust the sensitivity of the smoke sensor. This function means that it does not comply with building regulations for a kitchen. If you are wondering what heat detector is compatible with a nest protect (Like most folk) the answer is, I am sorry to say that Nest uses a closed protocol and there is not a compatible heat detector, and there are no plans to make one for the foreseeable future. So to comply with building regulations, you will have to change all your nest protects to a brand which does have a heat alarm and smoke alarm and be inter-linkable, to be honest it is not such a bad thing as I should point out a little known fact.

On the 10th anniversary from manufacture (Not from installation) the nest protect will stop working It will notify you prior to this (at least a week) once this has happened there is nothing you can do. (You can not reset the timer, neither is there a "hidden code" to override it for a month or two) It does this as the sensors become unreliable, other brands of smoke alarm also have the same problem (Sensors expire) but unlike the nest they will continue to operate which will allow you more time to replace them.  Click here  to listen to what your nest protect will say (Example for the hall. Link is from nest website)

[Guest Aimee]

Thank you so much, I’ve hunted on the internet and not been able to get a definitive answer on this. We had already decided we probably needed to switch but thought we’d had one last check. Any experience of the fire angel system which offers both and that interlink? 

[green-foam]

The brand of smoke alarm is your choice. If it were me, I would buy Aico smoke alarms, good detectors, an easy to connect to base, and excellent customer service.