In article ,
Huge wrote:
If you do your own, don't connect up the external sounder until
you have managed at least 3 months with no false alarms.
Otherwise, you will have blown all credibility in your alarm
by your neighbours, by the time you have it working properly,
and then it's worthless.

While this is true, I'd argue that all unmonitored alarms are worthless,
other than to annoy your neighbours.

My self installed one phones my mobile via an SDI unit. Or anyone else I
programme it to dial to.

I have wired reed switches on all accessible doors and windows, and PIRs
covering pretty well everywhere. Nothing wireless. It has never given a
false alarm. But would add no pets, etc.

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.

--
*Why is a boxing ring square?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Peter Parry wrote:

Before responding to a Type B alarm police will require some
indication that an offence is in progress

With some of the alarm receiving centre based ones, operators at the
centre can remotely connect to cameras within the PIRs once triggered,
and presumably that is sufficient level of "intruders on premises" to
interest plod?

On 24/09/2017 20:45, Tim Watts wrote:
On 24/09/17 16:34, F wrote:
On 24/09/2017 10:27, wrote:

I've not declared the alarm to the insurance company because I did
not want to find that the insurance company wriggled out of a claim
if we had an "incident" and had forgotten to set the alarm

Exactly what we have done. Even if we were tempted to declare it for
any discount, the discount would be minimal when compared with the
maintenance fee any company would want.

With the alarm, plus a small safe and CCTV I've installed, I reckon (I
hope!) I've done enough to put off all but the most determined piece
of excrement.


A safe is too obvious: story time...

Not where I've put ours...

--
F

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
Andrew Gabriel wrote:

If you do your own, don't connect up the external sounder until
you have managed at least 3 months with no false alarms.
Otherwise, you will have blown all credibility in your alarm
by your neighbours, by the time you have it working properly,
and then it's worthless.

I think the default position here is that alarms don't have any
credibility, just listening to the widespread cacophony whenever we have a
power blip says everything about how well maintained they are.

Dont get that here.

I certainly don't bother looking when they go off,

I do with all but the one that is notorious for false alarms which is
quite a bit further away and easily recognisable when it goes off.

unless it's a repeat nuisance, then I might wander out in my dressing gown
to be sure I know who to complain to.

I can always work out which one it is just by listening to
it unless its a new one which doesnt happen often at all.

Come to think if it, the house of one of my mates
who he sold to one of his mates when he moved to
the country capital, hasnt gone off since and it looks
like its now a rental. They must have disabled the alarm.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Huge wrote:
If you do your own, don't connect up the external sounder until
you have managed at least 3 months with no false alarms.
Otherwise, you will have blown all credibility in your alarm
by your neighbours, by the time you have it working properly,
and then it's worthless.

While this is true, I'd argue that all unmonitored alarms are worthless,
other than to annoy your neighbours.

My self installed one phones my mobile via an SDI unit. Or anyone else I
programme it to dial to.

I have wired reed switches on all accessible doors and windows, and PIRs
covering pretty well everywhere. Nothing wireless. It has never given a
false alarm. But would add no pets, etc.

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.

My next door neighbours was professionally installed,
entirely PIR based, and has almost always false alarmed.

My other neighbour's was self installed by someone
who did that sort of thing for a living and even that
did false alarm at times, but not very often at all.

Neither had pets.

One of the false alarms followed a party for the grandkids
which saw helium balloons ending up on the ceiling and
set off the alarm when the grandkids were being taken
home to another town hundreds of miles away, with
the balloons gradually running out of helium and
ending up on the floor.

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
Peter Parry wrote:

Before responding to a Type B alarm police will require some
indication that an offence is in progress

With some of the alarm receiving centre based ones, operators at the
centre can remotely connect to cameras within the PIRs once triggered, and
presumably that is sufficient level of "intruders on premises" to interest
plod?

But presumably there is nothing to stop some
perve in the center snooping with the cameras
whenever they feel like doing that.

On 25/09/2017 11:29, Huge wrote:
On 2017-09-25, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Tim Lamb wrote:
Has anyone come across a company installing burglar alarms but not
requiring a maintenance agreement?

Printer ink, electric toothbrush head.... marketing syndrome!

I feel competent to do an annual walk test and routine battery change
but doubt my ability to organise the initial set up.

So far, I have arranged multicore cabling to likely detector points and
door button sets but stalled on finding someone to supply the kit and
get it going.

You've already done all the hard work. It's not that complicated wiring in
the panel. I managed it OK. ;-)

If you do your own, don't connect up the external sounder until
you have managed at least 3 months with no false alarms.
Otherwise, you will have blown all credibility in your alarm
by your neighbours, by the time you have it working properly,
and then it's worthless.

While this is true, I'd argue that all unmonitored alarms are worthless,
other than to annoy your neighbours.

Not at all. If the alarm next door goes off, I'll investigate, but if
the one across the road does, I'll ignore it - the difference is that
the former almost never goes off, while the one over the road frequently
does. Similarly, I would hope that if ours went off, a neighbour would
take a look, as it never normally does.

SteveW

On 25/09/2017 15:32, F wrote:
On 24/09/2017 20:45, Tim Watts wrote:
On 24/09/17 16:34, F wrote:
On 24/09/2017 10:27, wrote:

I've not declared the alarm to the insurance company because I did
not want to find that the insurance company wriggled out of a claim
if we had an "incident" and had forgotten to set the alarm

Exactly what we have done. Even if we were tempted to declare it for
any discount, the discount would be minimal when compared with the
maintenance fee any company would want.

With the alarm, plus a small safe and CCTV I've installed, I reckon
(I hope!) I've done enough to put off all but the most determined
piece of excrement.


A safe is too obvious: story time...

Not where I've put ours...

A relative has a floor safe. As the house (other than kitchen and
bathroom) are fully carpetted, no burglar is going to spend the time to
search properly for one.

SteveW

On Mon, 25 Sep 2017 15:21:30 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

Peter Parry wrote:

Before responding to a Type B alarm police will require some
indication that an offence is in progress

With some of the alarm receiving centre based ones, operators at the
centre can remotely connect to cameras within the PIRs once triggered,
and presumably that is sufficient level of "intruders on premises" to
interest plod?

Only if it a registered Type A alarm. For Type B alarms the ARC are
not permitted to contact the police upon alarm activation.

About 95% of all alerts from Type B alarms are false alarms.

In article ,
Huge wrote:
Can you get the alarm to notify your mobile phone?

So you can sit on a beach in Spain knowing your house is being burgled?

Sigh. If you go off on holiday, you change it to phone the key holder.
Assuming you have a relative or friend you trust enough to be one.

--
*Marriage changes passion - suddenly you're in bed with a relative*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Huge wrote:
If you do your own, don't connect up the external sounder until
you have managed at least 3 months with no false alarms.
Otherwise, you will have blown all credibility in your alarm
by your neighbours, by the time you have it working properly,
and then it's worthless.

While this is true, I'd argue that all unmonitored alarms are worthless,
other than to annoy your neighbours.

My self installed one phones my mobile via an SDI unit. Or anyone else I
programme it to dial to.

I have wired reed switches on all accessible doors and windows, and PIRs
covering pretty well everywhere. Nothing wireless. It has never given a
false alarm. But would add no pets, etc.

Mine is hardwired too. I think wireless has probably become more
reliable now. It had a terrible reputation when mine was installed.

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.

We get the odd false alarm in mid summer from young bats getting in from
the loft. They can find the tinniest gaps and are warm blooded.

Spiders getting inside the PIR detectors is another. Their shadow might
be ambient temperature in the housing but if there is a sunny warm spot
in the room then that is sometimes enough to get a trigger.

I reckon spiders in the works is one of the most common false alarms.

Certain neighbours have particularly naff installations which always
trigger for a few seconds before they manage to reach the control panel.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
Spiders getting inside the PIR detectors is another. Their shadow might
be ambient temperature in the housing but if there is a sunny warm spot
in the room then that is sometimes enough to get a trigger.

Some BluTack over the cable etc entry? Although never had this problem
although plenty spiders here.

--
*Organized Crime Is Alive And Well; It's Called Auto Insurance.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.


Or a lack of maintenance. The backup battery in an alarm control box is
not fit and forget. The backup battery is trickle charged when mains is
present and intended to provide power when the mains drops out. After a
few years the battery cannot provide the instantaneous power to maintain
the control box when the mains fails, even for short glitches, and hence
the alarm is triggered. This can be easily tested by just turning of
the mains to the alarm at the consumer unit. A new battery every 2
couple of years stops false alarms caused by this.

I attach a label (brother tape) to the outside of my alarm control box
giving the date when the battery was changed - and the type number of
the battery. It sometimes surprises me when checking how long ago the
battery was fitted.


--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Monday, 25 September 2017 21:03:42 UTC+1, Steve Walker wrote:

A relative has a floor safe. As the house (other than kitchen and
bathroom) are fully carpetted, no burglar is going to spend the time to
search properly for one.

Unless they bring a metal detector, which is apparently quite common
in some areas where gold is often kept at home.

John

In article ,
alan_m wrote:
On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.


Or a lack of maintenance. The backup battery in an alarm control box is
not fit and forget. The backup battery is trickle charged when mains is
present and intended to provide power when the mains drops out. After a
few years the battery cannot provide the instantaneous power to maintain
the control box when the mains fails, even for short glitches, and hence
the alarm is triggered. This can be easily tested by just turning of
the mains to the alarm at the consumer unit. A new battery every 2
couple of years stops false alarms caused by this.

I attach a label (brother tape) to the outside of my alarm control box
giving the date when the battery was changed - and the type number of
the battery. It sometimes surprises me when checking how long ago the
battery was fitted.

I understand taht the BS for this requires battery replacement every 5
years at a minimum,

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

On 27/09/17 11:01, alan_m wrote:
On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.


In the same way that most car crashes are caused by bad driving?


--
€œSome people like to travel by train because it combines the slowness of
a car with the cramped public exposure of €¨an airplane.€�

Dennis Miller

In article ,
Martin Brown writes:
On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Huge wrote:
If you do your own, don't connect up the external sounder until
you have managed at least 3 months with no false alarms.
Otherwise, you will have blown all credibility in your alarm
by your neighbours, by the time you have it working properly,
and then it's worthless.

While this is true, I'd argue that all unmonitored alarms are worthless,
other than to annoy your neighbours.

My self installed one phones my mobile via an SDI unit. Or anyone else I
programme it to dial to.

I have wired reed switches on all accessible doors and windows, and PIRs
covering pretty well everywhere. Nothing wireless. It has never given a
false alarm. But would add no pets, etc.

Mine is hardwired too. I think wireless has probably become more
reliable now. It had a terrible reputation when mine was installed.

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.

We get the odd false alarm in mid summer from young bats getting in from
the loft. They can find the tinniest gaps and are warm blooded.

Spiders getting inside the PIR detectors is another. Their shadow might
be ambient temperature in the housing but if there is a sunny warm spot
in the room then that is sometimes enough to get a trigger.

I reckon spiders in the works is one of the most common false alarms.

The PIR detectors are designed to be insect-proof for this reason.
That does assume you drill the correct sized holes for screws and
cable.

Certain neighbours have particularly naff installations which always
trigger for a few seconds before they manage to reach the control panel.


--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
alan_m wrote:
Or a lack of maintenance. The backup battery in an alarm control box is
not fit and forget. The backup battery is trickle charged when mains is
present and intended to provide power when the mains drops out. After a
few years the battery cannot provide the instantaneous power to maintain
the control box when the mains fails, even for short glitches, and hence
the alarm is triggered. This can be easily tested by just turning of
the mains to the alarm at the consumer unit. A new battery every 2
couple of years stops false alarms caused by this.

I'd expect a quality SLA to last rather more than 2 years when run in a
float mode.

Don't have many mains glitches round here - or rather ones long enough to
upset things like clocks that don't have a backup battery, or to be
otherwise noticeable.

--
*If PROGRESS is for advancement, what does that make CONGRESS mean?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 27/09/17 11:01, alan_m wrote:
On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.


In the same way that most car crashes are caused by bad driving?

Is that how all your crashes have occured?

--
*Don't squat with your spurs on *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 27/09/2017 11:03, wrote:
On Monday, 25 September 2017 21:03:42 UTC+1, Steve Walker wrote:

A relative has a floor safe. As the house (other than kitchen and
bathroom) are fully carpetted, no burglar is going to spend the time to
search properly for one.

Unless they bring a metal detector, which is apparently quite common
in some areas where gold is often kept at home.


Especially useful for finding all the other metal in ones home such as
the nails and screws holding the building and fittings together, pipes,
electrical wires, radiators, foil backed insulation, the kitchen sink
etc. etc.



--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 27/09/2017 10:29, Huge wrote:
On 2017-09-27, Martin Brown wrote:
On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.

We get the odd false alarm in mid summer from young bats getting in from
the loft. They can find the tinniest gaps and are warm blooded.

The alarm man who came to check out said the bat problem is worst in the
autumn, caused by them looking for somewhere to hibernate.

Depends on the bat - ours are a maternity roost in summer at peak insect
availability so lots of youngsters. You can hear them crashing about in
the loft for a couple of days a year first learning to fly. They vanish
about now going off to a much cooler winter roost to hibernate. Bat
conservation come and do a count every now and then.

Spiders getting inside the PIR detectors is another. Their shadow might
be ambient temperature in the housing but if there is a sunny warm spot
in the room then that is sometimes enough to get a trigger.

I reckon spiders in the works is one of the most common false alarms.

One advantage of wireless PIRs; no holes in the casing to let the wires
out and the spiders in.

Vaseline on any identified weak spots seems to be a preferred field
engineering solution. Its the small spiders that get in.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
charles writes:
In article ,
alan_m wrote:
On 25/09/2017 14:56, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Most false alarms are caused by sloppy installation.


Or a lack of maintenance. The backup battery in an alarm control box is
not fit and forget. The backup battery is trickle charged when mains is
present and intended to provide power when the mains drops out. After a
few years the battery cannot provide the instantaneous power to maintain
the control box when the mains fails, even for short glitches, and hence
the alarm is triggered. This can be easily tested by just turning of
the mains to the alarm at the consumer unit. A new battery every 2
couple of years stops false alarms caused by this.

I attach a label (brother tape) to the outside of my alarm control box
giving the date when the battery was changed - and the type number of
the battery. It sometimes surprises me when checking how long ago the
battery was fitted.

I understand taht the BS for this requires battery replacement every 5
years at a minimum,

My system tests the batteries every day (it switches off the
power supply and checks it can run on the battery for a while,
cutting back to mains if the battery voltage sags too much,
and generates a dead battery alert). I've never got more than
5 years from the standard 7AH SLA batteries. The battery
probably has to drop to 1/20th or less of its new capacity
before it actually reports as dead, so even long before that,
you won't get full capacity from it (just like with a UPS).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]