We've had interconnected smoke alarms for years in our houses and it has been my experience that what's describe with the Nest happens with every brand of inter

We've had interconnected smoke alarms for years in our houses and it has been my experience that what's describe with the Nest happens with every brand of interconnected smoke detector I've ever had. In the last 20 years or so we've had at least a dozen alarm events, many at night and during the winter where all of them will go off. It turns out that there are two sensor types, optical and ionizing radiation. Both are susceptible to interference by bugs, specifically small spiders as well as their waste products and webs. Moths also can cause a problem if they get inside a unit and cause dust to be kicked up. I suspect false alarms happen more in the winter because spiders and other critters might seek out the additional warmth at night that the units provide. Typically when our alarms go off, I trace it back to the originating unit, pull it down, disconnect it from the mains and take the battery out. If it happens in the middle of the night I'll wait till morning to take it out to the shop to blow it out with an air-compressor. I won't buy any unit that doesn't allow me air-gap the power - that's why I walk right past the Nest units at the local hardware store. To mitigate this problem with my existing detectors, I've started lining the inside of the units with double-sided sticky tape when they have a false alarm event. My hope is that it will trap insects. It seems to work, but your mileage may vary.