My mother is now getting old (89) and wobbly. She has just had one of those "carry this pendant about and press the red button if you fall over" type things fitted, much against her will. "That's for old people", she says.
Her existing smoke alarms are traditional things. Not sure what she would do if one went off, assuming she heard it at all. She has no CO alarm at all at present (oops).
So whilst we're doing this, I was wondering about some sort of smoke/co alarm that would tell other family members, in some clever manner, if the alarm went off.
She doesn't have and couldn't cope with broadband (probably not even turn it off and on again if it fails, that kind of routine broadbandy thing), so I Googled and found this, which worked by sending an SMS. Ideal!
www.safelincs.co.uk/firetext/
but it's discontinued and I've not found another. Anyone have or know of anything similar?
Obviously if did have broadband we could do all sorts of things, including cameras in the lounge/kitchen or something. But I was trying to keep it really simple.
|
Ok, think about the "why"
She can't hear a smoke detector? No good other people phoning her to find out of she is all right, she wont hear the phone.
Is anyone else going to get round there fast enough to save her life if its a real fire?
You can get linked ones, and she will be near enough to one to hear it unless she has total hearing loss.
If she wont know what to do, The real answer is a fully fitted home monitoring system.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 27 Apr 17 at 08:48
|
Thanks Zero - point taken. Not wishing to drip feed, my sister lives literally 30 seconds away over the road, so an alert could be followed by a very fast visit in most cases.
She would hear an alarm in the same/next room - she can hear and answer her phone if she's in the room.
I like the idea of a full monitoring system - she's at the "we need to either get the house as good/safe as possible for her or she'll have to move out" stage, and she really doesn't want to move if we can avoid it for a bit longer.
Can you clue me up enough to allow me to google about for a sensible monitoring system? No idea what I'm looking for or at what price point? Price isn't a particular constraint , but I don't want to put in thousands worth of stuff unnecessarily.
|
Best place to start is with Social Services or her doctors surgery will have someone (nurse) attached who has a brief to keep the elderly out of care homes. They will know all the systems.
They will also have a great handle on tricks, tips, and stuff to use and install round the home as mobility becomes a problem.
You'll need broadband installed, the person monitored has no need to interact with it.
I kind of went through all this last year, but my mother was deteriorating faster than I could get appropriate systems or support in place so I don't have specific recommendations.
You a ARE looking at thousands if you wont to progress beyond self installed web cams and wifi smoke detectors. The alternative is THOUSANDS PER month! its an easy trade off.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 27 Apr 17 at 09:17
|
|
A thousand per week in a care home near her, so yes, it's an easy one. Thanks for the hints.
|
Self installed video cameras - I just put in a £260 SWAN CCTV/DVR system - Not often do I enthusiastically praise a technology product but this did everything it said on the tin, and more!
Remote monitoring from desk, tablet or phone, with movement alerts by email. It just worked!
You can even get a Graded product for less than £200.
The only hassle maybe the internal wiring - although provided cables are 30m I think.
I guess that IP cameras will gradually takeover, but as a cost effective network accessible stand alone system it is very difficult to beat!
|
I wouldn't do that for my mum's situation, but for an idea for a play project that's brilliant, smokie, thank you. I've been trying to find something more interesting to do with a spare Raspberry Pi. Neat idea.
I have a Pi that acts effectively as a NAS talking to an old Apple-TV, with speech recognition for finding movies and so on, and that was all good fun one weekend.
|
Did you see the Pi Zero is now out? I got one under £10 and I think they will be even cheaper. So I now have 2 Pi's, and all kinds of sensors and bits. I made a motion controlled security camera, that was pretty easy and the Zero is currently blocking ads from ad servers on all machines in my home. I wish I could find something truly useful for them though...!!
|
|
If she now has one of those fall detector pendants then it's talking to a box that dials up a call centre to respond. Some of these have optional sensors that can be plugged in, one of which would be a smoke sensor.
|
|
Two Roberts and two great suggestions. Thanks Bobs.
|
|
I wonder if Stephen Hawking has a smoke detector...
Last edited by: BiggerBadderDave on Thu 27 Apr 17 at 13:57
|
|
It must have a SIM, but no mention in the advert. I'd ask more about it before laying our my hard-earned - what size SIM, for instance? You will also need to procure that, on a plan of some sort.
|
Smoke detector with SMS? - Zero
