Wouldn't it be nice if you could turn off a smoke alarm for half an hour?

When a smoke alarm goes off, most of the time it's benign. Usually you've burned the brussels sprouts. You might be having a party with lots of smokers. It's not an emergency.

So you yank the battery from the smoke alarm, to stop that horrendous noise. And you forget to replace the battery. If you're having a party with smokers, and the alarms are wired in -- then someone who has had a few beers rips the smoke alarm off the ceiling (this happens... I'm a landlord). Either way, you're vulnerable when a real fire happens.

And/or you're opening the windows and doors in mid-winter, fanning smoke and energy outside to stop the noise. That's not desirable either.

Smoke alarms should have a timer, that lets you turn it off for (picking a number) 30 minutes. Dinner burns, and the shrieking begins, so push the timer button -- and silence ensues, for the next 30 minutes. At the party, someone tall can reach up and push the button every 30 minutes -- and you can go around pointing at the "No smoking" signs because really it's not safe with that many people at the party. Perhaps multiple presses turn off the alarm for multiple half-hours, up to two hours, for example.

It should be a simple off-switch that talks directly to the microprocessor, not a mechanical timer that could fail. It should have a visual indicator that the timer is in effect -- so you can visually confirm that the 30 minutes has passed and the smoke alarm is operative again. Maybe it would suffice if the traditional red light went off for the 30 minutes.

The result would be less annoyance and greater safety -- the latter because no one would need to remove the battery or rip the smoke alarm away from its wiring. It would save some energy, too, if you're dangerous with brussels sprouts and routinely have to fan smoke out of the house.

What do you think of this idea or comment?
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