Andrew McKay wrote:

On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 09:42:54 +0100, "Neil"
wrote:


Heard good things about the Maplin ones - have to install yourself though.


A few years ago I bought and installed a Maplin alarm, and was very
pleased with it. As I recall it had 6 zones and it worked like it said
on the box.

However self-installed alarms do nothing to reduce your home
insurance. You need to get a professionally installed (and
maintained?) alarm for that. Plus if the alarm keeps going off
accidentally the police could get a bit anxious - I think they can
start charging after a certain number of false call outs.



Actually, even those don't do a lot.

I talked to tehinsurance company, and they said that ubnless I was
prepared to set it every night before going to betd, fasten all ground
floor windows etc etc, they would offer o premium reductiobn.

I pointed out that in the unlikely event of anyone coming near the
house, the sound of the car and/or the crunching of gravel would
undoubtedly wake me up, since out here its as quiet as the grave from
11pm onwards. This however cut no ice as they say.

I think a distinction needs tobe made about burglar alarms. They hav as
far as I can tell several functions

(i) Reducing insurance premiums. Its like those stupid window locks you
can break with one hand. They are completely useless except to reduce
our premium. AS LONG AS YOU MAKE SUE YOU GO ROUNFD AND LOCK THEM ALL
BEFOTRE YOU CALL THE POLICE. This is very important. Never mind that
they jemmied open the window anyway, just as long as the locks were in
place...

(ii) Deterring burglars. Here its more a question of having somethibg
that looks like it moght caise someone to take the number of the car
parked in the drive if it went off. A big false bell unit on te outside
is enough to do this mostly.

(iii) slowing burglars down. This has been identified ss teh single most
effective way of reducing theft - make it hard and time consuming to get
at teh valuables. I.e. bolt down your compuyer, put expensive stuiff in
locked steel carese - anything that takes an exta minute to open will
add protection.

Burgalr alarms do nothing here.

(iv) Catching burglars. Here alarms are totally ineffective: They will
be gone before anyone takes note of yet another 3 a.m alarm vbekll, if
indeed anyone bothers. Likewise call outs to police etc are always far
too late to be of any value in anything. MUCH nbetter to have a security
camnm system, and online internet connection, and stream videos snaps to
a remorte server.

I'd say the presence of a cam - dummy or otherwise - is a far greater
deterrent than a conventional alarm system as well....






Also, have you noticed how neighbours tend to ignore the alarms when
they go off? It tends to be met with "oh s**t, there's that damned
alarm again", instead of "ooh! maybe there's a burglar - I'd better go
check!". I noticed that most neighbours don't even poke their head out
the door when an alarm goes off, so I guess Burglar Bill isn't so
phased by them.

Andrew

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