Home burglar alarms

Count'd

I have a DIY (my son installed it) burglar alarm and it is excellent.

It is a Yale HSA 3500 and it is a wireless alarm based on PIR's and door/window contacts.

The consul needs to be connected to a power supply but everything else, including the alarm box is cordless.

I have a PIR in every room with contacts on the front and rear door. A smoke detector is also connected into the system

If you are burgled or if the smoke alarm detects smoke, the alarm goes off. At the same time a recorded message is sent to both my and Mrs's Micks mobiles and also to our 3 sons via their landline.

The system is still running on 18 month old batteries and no false alarms yet.

I cannot remember the price, but I bought the basic kit ( consul, wall alarm, 2xPIR & 1 x Contant) for around £100 at Homebase. The additional PIR's and smoke detectors are around £30 each.

They have a customer help phoneline and I can recommend it.

Regards

Mick

A word of warning regarding any wireless controls you may be considering purchasing;
I quite recently purchased a wireless router for home use, and once it was all plugged in and up and running, then in what seemed like no time at all our C/HTG started playing up for no apparent reason, it started turning itself on and off at spurious times.
Now me being a Heating Engineer and having installed modern wireless heating controls in our house – I then went on to falsely accusing my other half of fiddling with stuff she knows nowt about. I eventually traced it to the wireless electronic controls cross talking. This was confirmed eventually by me telephoning the manufacturer of the router.

In other words these wireless controls operate on the same frequency band; this band is quite narrow and congested, so make sure you check they’re not operating on the same frequency. This advice goes for wireless CCTV systems, wireless baby alarms, wireless broadband equipment and wireless burglar alarms etc.

Beano

if you want to have proper security (and looking at the value of some of Naim's stuff, people on here should!) have a burglar alarm company come and install a wired alarm connected to the police and fire brigade. It's not that expensive and the wires are invisible (dependent on whether you find a suitable installer).

My alarm company told me not to go for their expensive wireless system as it can be set off... interference etc.

Thats just my opinion, I had a burglary earlier in the year...
J

Three years ago our insurance company insisted on having an alarm fitted. (On that particular policy if house contents exceeded £50k). In order to comply with their requirements it had to be a wired system professionally installed. Seem to recall it was in the region of £300-400. Anual maintenance is £45. No wires visible although some are run in trunking outside the house as there was no internal route (very old house). Plus side was I have since used the trunking to run an ethernet backbone.
Worth looking at a premium reduction if a certified system is fitted.


Willy.

I have had a wireless system for over 5 years now and no problems at all, other than when we lock one of the cats in the front room when we go out. When they wake up they activate one of the PIR's.

The kit was purchased from B&Q and I fitted it all myself. PIR's in each room, detectors on each window, etc. Easy, and costs as per Mike above.

As the original manufacturer, Moss, does not seem to be around anymore I am considering replacing the system with one from Yale.

A couple of points: As each wireless switch/ device has its own battery, they need to be checked every 3 months or so to make sure they are still OK. This is particularly true of those on the main outside doors as these are used more than any of the others and therefore the switch gets activated more often. PIR's tend to be OK as they make strange noises to alert you when their batteries get weak.

Once you have the alarm, get a spare On/ Off/ Reset remote and give it to one of your neighbours as this will let them reset the alarm if it goes off whilst you are out. Also give them your mobile numbers so that they can call you when this happens.

Finally, make sure that the outside alarm box is set to only go off for a set number of minutes if the alarm is activated. I think the recommended time is 7 mins. In that way, it will not drive people mad if the alarm goes off when you are on holiday and your neighbour has decided to take a long weekend away somewhere.

Regards

Tim

Tim

The Yale system automatically lets you know when the bateeries are running low.

Regards

Mick

Mick

Given the age of my system, I think a new Yale set up will probably do lots mine doesn't; and the Battery warning is a good starting point.

Thanks

Tim

RE pets and setting off PIRs - with the type we have the Alarm company fitted a "PetClip" which enables the PIR to ignore cats and other smallish animals.

Derek

We have big, overfed, overweight, Persian cats. Do these filters work with cats bigger than some medium sized dogs!

I would lock them out of the house when we aren't there but the Wife has said I am first on any 'Out' list.

Our cats are in the 7kg range and often in the same room at the same time. I think that when the Alarm company described the Petclip they said that up to 2 stone - 28lbs - 12.7kg was ignored


Yet one of the neighbours using the same PIR but without the Petclip had a false alarm due to a spider's web being made in front of the sensor.

Thanks for all the replies.

I was initialy interested in the wireless method, because there's a huge range of them as easy fitting kits and they're around the £150-£250 mark.

I have since done research and chosen a wired system. I was advised that this is still the best method. I have included a phone & text dialler (to alert me to run back with a baseball bat), and more stable dual sensing PIR's.

Count.D

Have you had any quotes from any of the Security Alarm companies for an install and yearly service. This gets you a certificate that may have value with your insurance company and can get you off the hook with the police if you have any false alarms.

Also the installers that I have seen working are quite sharp at laying and hiding cable in houses.

Over the years I have seen the install cost go down as labour intensive cable and sensors at each siginificant door in a house are replaced with PIRS that cover large areas and many doors.

However YMMV

Derek,

I had a quote from an installer for approx £900. I have ordered all the pieces and it has come to £400, which gives me a higher spec system than the installer quoted for.

The discount from insurers is not that great and any money saved would be written off by having to have a NARCOS guy come round once a year to check it.

In regards to laying the cables, my house is in mid refurbishment and so not a problem.

I was going to mention that earlier count.d but got tied up out here at work....

We fitted a wired system not long after moving into our house and we asked the installer about house insurance discounts etc. He advised us NOT to inform our insurers as they would then expect the system to be maintained yearly. Plus, if for whatever reason you didn't have the alarm set and something happened your cover goes out the window......

But it is still the best deterrent I believe, legal one anyway.....

Cheers,
Ali

I have a monitored ADT system in place. Its also worth noting the stats re alarmed houses v non alarmed houses re burglaries...