In alt.home.repair, on Thu, 5 Jul 2018 12:15:55 -0700, Bob F
wrote:

On 7/4/2018 9:03 AM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 4 Jul 2018 08:44:29 -0700 (PDT), John G
wrote:

On Wednesday, July 4, 2018 at 9:54:40 AM UTC-4, micky wrote:
How do I get my home's smoke alarm to not send a signal to the
monitoring company right away?

Even though the system is grounded through a 6' copper rod, there was a
lightning strike that set off the smoke alarm which called the
monitoring company.

A week later, I was broiling something and I left the oven on in case I
needed to put the food in for more time, and though I didn't smell
anything, the smoke alarm went off and it started dialing the monitoring
company within about 2 minutes. I called them and cancelled, but now
I'm afraid to cook anything except by boiling.

What key words should I look for to buy something new?

I would contact the alarm company for guidance. Maybe they can do something at their end.

It's a long story but for good reasons I hate to bother them.

A 6' ground rod is not to code. 8' is the minimum required length and burial depth. Even though you have a ground rod, if the connections to the ground rod and at the service are not good, the rod will not be as effective as it can be.

Maybe it was 8 feet. It's been a while. But lightning** is not what
I'm worried about. It's my cooking. In the past I've set the smoke
alarm off maybe 10 times in the last 15 years, so I expect to do it
again. However in the past, I had no monitoring, just the smoke alarm,
so if it buzzed, I'd go upstairs and wave a magazine undeneath it until
it stopped. And that was the end of it for a year or two.

What do other people do?

I have a 9v powered smoke detector with a silence button I set on top of
the fridge. Cooking sets it off quick, I reset it and ventilate.

That's' a good idea, but that means it's not connected to the house
alarm and won't call the monitoring who calls the fire department if
there's a fire. I have one like that too except no silence button. I
put it in the fridge until it stops beeping. ;-)