Intruder alarm system for new home

dhokes

I'm moving in to a new, and my first, house soon and I'm looking into getting an alarm system. Before approaching firms to get quotes, I want to identify what I need/want and a rough cost.

It's a 2 bedroom, semi-detached house in Leicestershire with 'wiring only for future intruder alarm for keypad, control panel and bell box'.

What I think I need/want:
- wireless
- telephone a specified number if there's an intruder
- no monthly contract

Do I go for a independent company's own branded alarm or something like Yale, Honeywell, Scantronic, Texecom etc.?

Anything I should consider before buying one?

madwayne

Personally I would avoid the basic Yale alarms.

I would recommend you visit an alarm forum, diynot have such a forum where you can get very good advice on various systems available in the market place.

When considering alarms, any good installer should suggest.

Hardwired/Hybrid/Wireless

Pets/Conservatories/Garages may require specific detectors but be aware that pet tolerant sensors don't usually detect anything under 1.2M tall as a rough guide.

Don't tell the insurance you have an alarm system unless they force you to have one and in that case have it installed by SSAIB or NSI registered firm Always check with SSAIB and NSI that the company is still/ actually registered with them.


This way if the alarm is not set and your burgled you are still covered, its unlikely you will save any money by saying you have one unless it has police response and that's not guaranteed, it will cost you more for the monitoring and service contract that you must have with a police monitored system than you will save on he insurance unless commercial premises.

Ant555

Don't tell the insurance you have an alarm system ... This way if the alarm is not set and your burgled you are still covered,

Agreed, I had to claim for a break in and after ALL of the questions they did a kind of Columbo ".. oh just one more thing, why wasnt the alarm set?" I could have said it DID go off and everyone ignored it but it caught me off guard.

They paid but deducted an amount because of this.

ever since then I have clicked No alarm even though there is.

neilmcl

madwayne wrote: »

Don't tell the insurance you have an alarm system unless they force you to have one and in that case have it installed by SSAIB or NSI registered firm Always check with SSAIB and NSI that the company is still/ actually registered with them.

I think you should rephrase that to "don't tell your insurer you have an alarm if you're not going to use it". Of course they'll get funny if you get burgled and your alarm was off, they have every right to.

neilmcl

dhokes wrote: »

I'm moving in to a new, and my first, house soon and I'm looking into getting an alarm system. Before approaching firms to get quotes, I want to identify what I need/want and a rough cost.

It's a 2 bedroom, semi-detached house in Leicestershire with 'wiring only for future intruder alarm for keypad, control panel and bell box'.

What I think I need/want:
- wireless
- telephone a specified number if there's an intruder
- no monthly contract

Do I go for a independent company's own branded alarm or something like Yale, Honeywell, Scantronic, Texecom etc.?

Anything I should consider before buying one?

You best bet is to get a few of your local independents around to discuss your needs and give you some quotes. Have a look at your neighbours systems to see who they are using.

longwalks1

We spent about £400 on a Visonic Powermax complete alarm, with pet friendly PIR's, extra sensors and door sensors for our 2 sheds outside, everything is wireless and the batteries just been changed after 3 years. You can set it to call a number of phones in order, either by plugging in to your telephone socket, or with a sim card in it so no need to route cables from phone socket to alarm box. Hugely impressed with it, DIY installed it with a colleague (we are both in a technical role though, so you may need help or someone to fit it)


Highly recommend it, can set different zones too so at night, upstairs isnt armed so we can nip to the bathroom, but the whole ground floor, front and back doors, sheds and all windows are armed etc


Can also set it to tell you if a specific sensor is triggered even when itsa not armed, so ours tells us if the sheds are opened even in the daytime if we are home as the are down the side of the house