intruder alarm recommendations please

Myser

sparky1983 wrote: »

If you are to get it installed by a company make sure they are NSI approved or SSAIB approved. They both have to install to the same standards and are routinely inspected.

800L's were good 15 years ago but if thats what you want to put in your house then fine!

DONT get an electrician to fit it as generally you will get the cheapest kit available from your local electrical wholesaler and they will not fit it to regs. Half of the electrician installs we take over have no tampers and could be disabled within seconds by an intruder.

Yale wireless kits you might aswell advertise to a burglar that you dont give a monkeys about your house security. For a start half the boxes you see are dummies, a futher 25 % bought the kit and couldnt set it up so just have the box.

Best bet is get a professional surveyor in from 3 local companies and tell you where to put the wires etc because once youve finished your project you will limited to wireless and even then part of it should be wired like keypads and external bell or otherwise you will have to choose a crap wireless system where external bells run on batteries and can hardly be heard over a busy road.

The question about using an approved installer has already been asked - see earlier posts. The OP is going to purchase the alarm and the building company will install it. I wonder if they are NSI registered and if they will be able to setup multi zones/keypads correctly?

The Infinite Prime wireless system mentioned in another post does look very good. However, the OP has the option to put wires in for sensors since building work is being done which is a better option.

mchale

Myser wrote: »

In terms of sensors:

Contact sensors on the external doors.

I know if you have PIRs and the alarm goes off, the alarm will auto reset, but say someone breaks in and opens a door and alarm goes off, burglar runs off but door is still left open, will the alarm reset, as surely it will be a open circuit?

Myser

mchale wrote: »

I know if you have PIRs and the alarm goes off, the alarm will auto reset, but say someone breaks in and opens a door and alarm goes off, burglar runs off but door is still left open, will the alarm reset, as surely it will be a open circuit?

Depends how the alarm is configured. If it is the main door and the system is configured to arm when the main door is closed, the alarm bell will shut off but the system may not re-arm.

In any case, regulation stipulates that the bell box must turn off up to a maximum 20 minutes. The alarm panel and internal sounder may keep logging further triggers and sounding.

mchale

So you would be better off with just PIR sensors fitted, as the alarm will automatically reset with them.

Myser

No, it is a good idea to have door sensors too.

If you only have PIRs, they can still trigger due to wind blowing in from an open door causing fluctuations in temperature across the PIR.