The estimated battery life is up to 10 years under normal usage. Of course, extreme usage and conditions may affect this.
Strips uses LiMnO2 battery cell designed as an integrated unit in Strips. Due to it being integrated into the Strip sensor, it is not rechargeable. If it had been rechargeable it would had to be charged inconveniently often.
It is important to keep in mind that a poor Z-Wave network has an impact on any battery driven device, so make sure you have a stable Z-Wave network once you install any battery driven device in the network. For indoor use the Strips sensor should ideally be placed within 40m from the gateway and with no metal in the close surrounding to Strips. If you need to extend the network (e.g. Outdoor use) you are able to use up to 3 extenders (Z-Wave Plus certified extenders) that increase the range up to 150 m.
When a battery-powered Z-Wave device wakes up and turns on its radio, it uses 10,000 times more battery power than when it’s asleep. So the entire trick to making batteries last is to minimize the amount of time the device is awake. Some devices naturally have other battery draining activities mostly involving motors to throw a deadbolt or raise a window shade. Obviously any motor will use a lot more battery power than the Z-Wave radio but the radio will play a significant role in battery life.
When a battery-powered device is added to a Z-Wave network the hub should do two things:
- Assign the Association Group 1 NodeID to the hub
- Set the Wake Up Interval to no more than once per hour and ideally only a few times per day.
Many sensors have other Association Groups or Configuration Parameters that will let you specify the frequency of sensor readings. Realize that the more often the sensors report in, the shorter the battery life.
Strips is listed as a device in most gateways however please check your settings for Strips as it may be included as a generic device. If yes, the wake up time has to be set to 24 hours and the polling has to be turned off. This is done manually in the gateway and a manual wake up has to be done on Strips to get the settings into the device. If this setting of Strips is not applied battery life may be compromised.
To sum up:
- Place Strips where normal usage of the door/window occurs
- A poor Z-Wave network has an impact on any battery driven device, so make sure you have a stable Z-Wave network
- The more often the sensors report in, the shorter the battery life
- The wake up time has to be set to 24 hours and the polling has to be turned off when setting up Strips with your gateway
For more information regarding Strips and support materials please visit our resource center.
