20
Jan
2015
By Calvin at 14:49 GMT, 9 years ago
In the light of having a new alarm installed at the weekend and with my firm intention to increase the body of advice on this website I’ve added a new page of ‘frequently asked questions’ to the Burglar Alarm advice section. I’ve also updated the main page too.
Last Sunday, Ben’s friend came over to my house to install our new alarm. The guy is an experienced intruder and fire alarm engineer who has literally just started his own alarm installing company. In fact I’m customer number two and he’s got three more jobs to do after mine. He will be working hard to join the SSAIB and judging by the system he’s just installed to my house I don’t think he’s going to have too much difficulty meeting their strict requirements.
I elected to have the control panel installed in the hallway this time as the panel is quite small and its position will make for easy servicing. The old one (22 years old) had the main panel up in the loft with the key pad, to operate it, in the hall. The new control panel is only about 20% of the size of the old one, so things have certainly moved on!
There are three wireless PIRs positioned around the house and wireless contacts on the doors. I could have had more detection devices and can easily add them should I wish, but chose to keep the system as simple as possible. With a bell box out the front, a dummy box on the back wall and two fobs to operate it the kit alone came to about £450.
I can set and unset the system using the keypad or the fobs and the fobs also act as panic alarms. They’ll work outside the house too, which means I can leave the house, lock it up and then set the alarm saving all that hassle with setting it and then making sure you get out of the house in time!
Interestingly you can’t tell if the system is monitored or not and I’ll keep that little detail to myself! I have two neighbours acting as keyholders and will be contacting the local authority this week to register the alarm. I’m doing this in case the alarm goes off and for whatever reason my neighbours cannot respond.
I probably won’t be letting the insurance company know about the alarm, because they will insist that it is set every time I leave the house. Whilst I have every intention of doing so, should I forget to do it in an emergency, or the system is faulty and I get burgled it is possible they won’t pay all or part of my claim.
So, I’ve started the New Year with a new alarm and I have a few other security improvements in mind too, so watch this space.
Frequently asked questions (Alarms) http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/burglar-alarms-advice/758/frequently-asked-questions-alarms/
