Burglar alarm help

frankersBri

I bought my house 4 or so years ago and had no information about the alarm. So over this time we have obviously not used it, but it is definitely still connected to the mains (lights are on on the control panel and main unit, movement sensors downstairs light up too). 

The alarm system appears to be an ADE Accenta G3. I am obviously not paying anyone to manage it, don't know the codes to use it and in general have never given it a second thought until I'm now doing some decorating and the wires to the alarm on the outside of the house are in the way!

I am considering removing it, but I have no idea about how to go about doing that. Presumably if I cut the wires, the alarm will go off? Does anyone have any idea about what steps I should take to work out how to get the alarm disabled, so I can consider whether I want to keep it or not! Is this something an electrician could help me with? Do I get in touch with the alarm manufacturer?

Mutton_Geoff

As it's powered up and connected to PIRs, I would get an alarm engineer round to do a factory reset and get it set up again. You can DIY with help via the Security Installer forum although they generally have a dislike of DIYers over there.

No need to sign up to any monitoring service, just ask the engineer to fit an SMS alert unit.

Le_Kirk

My neighbour has one of these and I have helped him with it several times but it does help to have the alarm codes, which we do.  However (before) the first time I touched it, I downloaded the manual from here  <<<<===LINK and it proved very helpful.  Essentially @Mutton_Geoff is right, if you chop the power to the main control unit, the sounder/bell/klaxon will go off.  You need to find the cable for the internal sounder (normally installed right next to your ear!) and disconnect it, then find the back up battery for the sounder and disconnect that, then you can remove the power from the control unit.  Alternatively use the engineer code or if you don't have it, read through the manual.

neilmcl

If you're going to keep and reinstate it after your decorating then I'd advise getting a local alarm installer to come out and disable and remove it for you than come back in to refit and service it. Probably cost around £100.

Mutton_Geoff

Le_Kirk said:

My neighbour has one of these and I have helped him with it several times but it does help to have the alarm codes, which we do.  However (before) the first time I touched it, I downloaded the manual from here  <<<<===LINK and it proved very helpful.  Essentially @Mutton_Geoff is right, if you chop the power to the main control unit, the sounder/bell/klaxon will go off.  You need to find the cable for the internal sounder (normally installed right next to your ear!) and disconnect it, then find the back up battery for the sounder and disconnect that, then you can remove the power from the control unit.  Alternatively use the engineer code or if you don't have it, read through the manual.

I don't agree cutting mains power will sound the alarm, that is what the back up battery is for. (Replace that while you're doing any work on the alarm as they only last 5 years at most).

The alarm will sound if the cover is removed (tamper) and there is any power (battery and/or mains) although I've seen domestic installs that don't bother with a tamper loop.

The SAB will ring if all power is removed from the control box as it will lose it's hold off/charging power and will sound off it's own internal battery.

If you're handy with this sort of DIY, download the installers manual, find out where the SAB hold off/+12v is connected. Disconnect mains, take cover off, disconnect battery +ve lead but then reconnect the SAB hold off to the battery +ve then you can work at your leisure in resetting it, moving PIRs etc.

frankersBri

Thank you all for your advice, I really appreciate it. I think getting an alarm engineer out will be the way I go. DIY at the moment is minor so probably won't remove the whole thing, but another load of remodelling is in the nearish future so good to know that I could ask an alarm engineer to remove it and reinstall it another time. 
I'll go see if I can find some local contacts to get some quotes from.

Mutton_Geoff

Why remove it? You are going to increase your costs by a huge amount as these are fiddly things (ie time consuming) to wire up.

Lorian

There is a method of resetting the programmer's code to factory default (google), and you'll need to do that first if you decide you want to take control of this useful asset, and as someone already said the lead acid battery is quite likely to need replacing. Cheap from ebay (YUSA) if you decide to do it yourself. not there are two different size battery spade connectors, getting the right battery connectors makes life easier.

Le_Kirk

Lorian said:

There is a method of resetting the programmer's code to factory default (google), and you'll need to do that first if you decide you want to take control of this useful asset, 

It's in the manual - link already given above.