Old Burglar Alarm System

Redlander

When I moved into my current house fifteen years ago, there was a comprehensive burglar alarm system with motion sensors in almost every room. I decided to take the risk  of being un-alarmed, and have never re-activated this system. 

Now I am planning to insulate the loft and I find that up there is a veritable rats' nest of cables connected with the alarm system that really clutters the place up. I am quite inclined to get rid of all these cables as I cannot forsee myself reviving the alarms; but I wonder if a subsequent purchaser of the house might want them.

So my question is: if someone wanted an alarm system, would they find the current set-up (probably about 20 years old) useful, or woud they be more inclined to start again from scratch? Are there nowadays wireless alarm systems which might do the job better?

Bigphil1474

Our house has an alarm, but fortunately only 5 working sensors. We don't use it either. I actually broke one of the sensors a couple of months ago while redecorating, so just cut the wire off and stuffed it back into a hole and binned the sensor. It's a tricky one for us as well, as all the wiring is through or behind the walls. I'm not sure how much of a selling point it is more than the box on the wall outside. 

marcia_

 I don't use my alarm because it broke. Alarm went off and i couldn't stop it. The repair man said it couldn't be fixed so turned it off. An alarm wouldn't bother me if buying as not having a working one hasn't bothered me. 

Keep_pedalling

I am pretty sure no one would want an obsolete system that had been unused for 15 years, just rip out the cabling.

Cairnpapple

I was going to ask a similar question sometime, we turned off our 20 year old alarm system because we never used it and when we did need to type in the code after a power cut the keys were so stiff that I couldn't use them. I'm now keen to get rid of the sensors to decorate.  It does look like systems these days have more wireless components so all the wiring may not be required, but it would be good to hear from an expert. 

Newbie_John

You can get brand new ones for as low as £250 these days without any wires.
I would definitely get rid of it as I doubt a 20 years old adds any value..

silvercar

Anyone putting in a new system would go wireless nowadays.

Redlander

Thank you everybody. The response seems to be just about unanimous that I should rip out the cables.

Lorian

I wouldn't rip the wires out but I guess I'm old school. I like my wired system, no batteries or signal strength to worry about. 

Eldi_Dos

Redlander said:

Thank you everybody. The response seems to be just about unanimous that I should rip out the cables.

If there is ever the requirement to fit linked fire alarms, like there is in Scotland already, the wiring might be very handy.
Myself I would just bell them out and mark either end, may be just poking the ends in the rooms with no detectors up out of sight.

Cairnpapple

Eldi_Dos said:

Redlander said:

Thank you everybody. The response seems to be just about unanimous that I should rip out the cables.

If there is ever the requirment to fit linked fire alarms, like there is in Scotland already, the wiring might be very handy.
Myself I would just bell them out and mark either end, may be just poking the ends in the rooms with no detectors up out of sight.

You can get wireless interlinked alarms that are compliant with the Scottish regs.