House alarm problems

HighamKneeDee

Hi all.
Had a frantic call from my girlfriend last night telling me her house alarm is going off at the bell box and she cannot stop it. So I drove over to see if I could help.
In the 3 years I have known her she has not set the alarm when going out and has never seemed bothered about it. She tells me that her house insurance company are told she does not have an alarm and her premiums reflect this. In addition whilst her community is remote she is the 3rd house at the end of a long 'one way in single private drive' and the neighbours log everything. So if she is happy the security part is taken care of then who am I to argue.

She said the panel had been showing a series of ******** across both control panels and each was on a continuous constant bleep. I was told this had been the case repeating throughout yesterday but she was able to press escape on each panel and the noise stopped, however just temporarily. However on the occasion when she called, the outside alarm had been sounding for an hour and it would not stop but the inside panels had stopped going off.

I could not get the alarms to stop so I first went to her consumer unit and one of the individual switches was for the alarm. I disarmed this, no power, still the alarm sounded. I knew there were two circuit boxes in her downstairs toilet so I opened both of those and there were 2 batteries, I disconnected both. Still the alarm sounded.

Finally, after turning all electrics off, in pitch black and rain I went up a ladder and opened the alarm box to see if there was a way I could stop the bell going off. I noted there was a black 'stick out' button (I have highlighted yellow on my picture) , I pressed this and the alarm stopped. However, of course, the default position was to sound so as I allowed it to extend out again, I had stopped pressing it, the alarm continued. In desperation I got some gaffer tape from my van and taped that button heavily holding it in hence it never sounded. The fact that the alarm continued after all power had been turned off suggested that too must have a battery and it was not one of the batteries I had already disconnected in the circuit boxes. My solution worked overnight and as I type the alarm is not sounding, all power has been restored to the house.

This morning I went up the ladder again and took this picture of the circuitry in the box. My simple (I think) question is, can I safely disconnect any of those wires , I'll end them off, to ensure if the gaffer tape works loose the alarm will not sound. Girlfriend is not bothered about the alarm, plus she has active cctv that feeds to her phone and a hard disk, she simply does not want it sounding off. We are away for Christmas in a few days and she is very worried.

The alarm was put in place as a new build 10 years ago, she is the 3rd owner but was left no instructions except the code to arm and disarm which she has forgotten. We have tried calling the company that installed it but they cannot come out until we had gone away. Other alarm companies are stating the same.

Does anybody have any knowledge whatsoever of these. All I Know is the circuitry shows it is a Honeywell system. These are the pictures I have taken.

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Thank you, Dennis.

chrisw

it's a bit strange that you have 2 separate alarm panels - maybe 1 controls an outbuilding or other part of the house?

The bell box itself will have an internal rechargeable battery, so it will be safe to disconnect the wires as they will be 12v but the alarm will still sound if the tape comes off the tamper switch until that battery goes flat. You should be able to disconnect that battery in the bell box somewhere.

I had a similar fault and it was due to the large internal battery failing. They only really last a couple of years or so but yours are dated 2006 and 2009. Mine worked ok again when I replaced the battery.

HighamKneeDee

chrisw wrote: »

it's a bit strange that you have 2 separate alarm panels - maybe 1 controls an outbuilding or other part of the house?

The bell box itself will have an internal rechargeable battery, so it will be safe to disconnect the wires as they will be 12v but the alarm will still sound if the tape comes off the tamper switch until that battery goes flat. You should be able to disconnect that battery in the bell box somewhere.

I had a similar fault and it was due to the large internal battery failing. They only really last a couple of years or so but yours are dated 2006 and 2009. Mine worked ok again when I replaced the battery.

Hi ChrisW , Thank you for your response.I am waiting for the return of my girlfriend and I'll go back up the ladder.

I think the black wire connection to the terminal marked battery will be my first thing to disconnect and tape off then based on your advice that there would be an internal battery in the bell box. That is a relief as such as I feared the main circuit the bell box is on might differ to the actual control panels circuit. I say this because the bell went off when all the electrics were shut down. But if it has a battery then that will be why.

I really don't know why there are two lots of circuitry, It's a 4 bed with a garage but by no means a large house.

Thanks again. Dennis.

Ant555

Both times my alarm system was twitchy with false alarms it turned out to be the internal battery - as already suggested, those batteries in your girlfriends alarm system have been in there a long time and probably need replacing. I think I paid around £15 from Amazon.

As you have found out - the bell box has its own battery so if this is disconnected along with all the other wires there is simply no way it can go off.

If you have no requirements for an alarm system over Christmas then doing the above with the bell box, disconnecting the internal batteries onside the panels and isolating the mains (there looks to be a fuse you can ping out in that white box to isolate the alarm) - then you will definitely be fine.

As to the question 'why the two boxes' - One possibility is that an alarm installer did this as a foreigner on a weekend and used bits of commercial alarm systems that he had left over in his van.
Also, it looks like there is a link to a phone line so it was probably a monitored system at some point in the past.

hope this helps

HighamKneeDee

Ant555 wrote: »

Both times my alarm system was twitchy with false alarms it turned out to be the internal battery - as already suggested, those batteries in your girlfriends alarm system have been in there a long time and probably need replacing. I think I paid around £15 from Amazon.

As you have found out - the bell box has its own battery so if this is disconnected along with all the other wires there is simply no way it can go off.

If you have no requirements for an alarm system over Christmas then doing the above with the bell box, disconnecting the internal batteries onside the panels and isolating the mains (there looks to be a fuse you can ping out in that white box to isolate the alarm) - then you will definitely be fine.

As to the question 'why the two boxes' - One possibility is that an alarm installer did this as a foreigner on a weekend and used bits of commercial alarm systems that he had left over in his van.
Also, it looks like there is a link to a phone line so it was probably a monitored system at some point in the past.

hope this helps

Hi Ant555
Thank you very much for your response.

That is useful knowing the batteries are readily available. I will suggest getting 2 once we return.

Yesterday I disconnected the wire going into the battery terminal and taped it up, it all still appears to be fine. I did notice the fuse too and have removed this also.

I do believe you are right about it once being a monitored system. Within the area where there are 2 control boxes I found a couple of service entries but last completed in 2010, 2 owners back and 2 changes of phone number. It certainly is not monitored now.

Thanks again, can sleep without worry for the time being.
Dennis.