Can consumer electronic devices interfere with fire alarm systems?

Strange question, but I was looking at manuals for random things, and found something odd in the manual for a laptop PC.


Source: https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/2/1/c/1/5c293935bdbb9bbb51ea345e2a6046757586.pdf (page 5)
Is this actually an issue or is it just an overzealous warning?

1 Like

Huh, never seen anything like that before. Not sure if it truly is an issue or not, but I believe most electronics put out EMI (electromagnetic interference) of some kind, which can interfere with other nearby electronic devices.

I guess that laptop must not be a good choice for fire alarm technicians given that warning.

Carson’s right. Most likely there’s an insignificantly low risk that the WiFi or Bluetooth chipset on the laptop could cause interference on an entirely-wireless home smoke alarm system. More likely than not it is just included in the documentation for liability purposes, and you’d be hard pressed to find a way to cause interference under normal operating conditions.

1 Like

what kind of pc was it cuz l have not seen that before