Home Alarm Systems

This includes 2 storey homes (because there’s no roof access on the ground floor), apartments, townhouses,some split-level homes, single storey homes with a flat (non-pitched) roof.

Of course if you’re building a home, the alarm system cabling can be installed during the frame stage of construction including those home types mentioned above

I also recommend wireless systems if you  have decorative cornices such as illustrated below.

A small hole needs to be drilled in the  lip of the cornice in order to install a hardwired motion sensor. Now, despite careful planning it is still possible that the cornice can be damaged during this process.

I have seen it happen and it can be very difficult to fix.

Modern wireless systems are extremely good, with performance equal to a hardwired system.

The problems that ‘old technology’ wireless systems suffered from (poor battery life, large ugly sensors, unreliable signalling to the control panel) have been  overcome.

The battery life in the Bosch sensors for example is 5 years and the system tests the battery and the communication to the panel several times a day.

And the wireless version of the Bosch Gen 2 PIRs looks identical to the hardwired version.

 This means you can MIX AND MATCH hardwired and wireless sensors in the same system if necessary.

 The term ‘Wireless System” is actually a bit misleading.

The alarm sensors (PIRs, reed switches, vibration sensors etc) are certainly wireless however cables still need to be installed for the codepad, internal and external sirens and power.

If you choose a monitoring options, a phone line or ethernet cable may also have to be installed, depending on the method you select

 This is not a problem in most homes and the installer will spend some time determining the best place for the control panel so that the cables can all be installed discretely.

So we know  that any home alarm system will detect intruders and activate the sirens and provide an off-site notification function. But to get some extra features or nice-to-haves we need to choose a system that has a codepad with the features we are looking for.

Basic Codepad: The early codepads were pretty awful. They were sort of chunky boxy things with too many lights and buttons and just didnt look good in a home.Thankfully things have changed tremendously and even the basic codepads are discreet, stylish and very easy to use.

As well as using the codepad to arm and disarm the system you’ll also use it when you want to add or delete a user code, check on fault conditions and change the telephone number that the system uses to alert you of an alarm. This is where you’ll notice the main difference in codepads. The basic codepad doesnt give you any visual feedback when you want to do these other functions such as change codes, read the event history or change the phone numbers for self-monitoring – it uses beeps to indicate a succesful operation such as a code change.

Information regarding the current status of the system (armed, disarmed, low battery etc) is displayed on the screen using icons or numbers. The information is quite clear easy to understand.

Information regarding the current status of the system (armed, disarmed, low battery etc) is displayed on the screen using icons or numbers. The information is quite clear easy to understand.

But remember 99 percent of the time you’ll just be using the codepad to arm and disarm the system and even the most basic modern codepad does this very well. The Bosch 880 codepad, for example has a back-lit LCD displayand buttons making it easy to use in lowlight conditions and has a built in panic button.

The Bosch 880 has a Basic codepad but a brand new Touchscreen has just been released which I am testing – more on this soon.

 

The next step up from the Basic Codepad is what I will call the Intermediate codepad.

These codepads generally display more detailed information about the status of the system.

You don’t need to interpret what a flashing icon means – all the information is displayed using plain English which definitely makes the system more usable and allows you to operate the system with confidence.

Adding and deleting codes, checking on the alarm history and changing the phone numbers for mobile phone monitoring are all straight forward and can be done quickly.

 

The third type are the latest Advanced codepads and touchscreens These type of codepad will display a greeting on the display when you enter your code and provide prompts for any of the operations your code has permissions for – not essential but it’s a nice touch. It provides step-by-step instructions on the display to make things like changing codes, telephone numbers (for self-monitoring) and reading the event history very easy – you really never need to refer to the manual. The Bosch Solution 6000 uses an Advanced codepad and has an option to use a contactless swipe tag to arm and disarm the system so you never even need to enter a code.The Bosch 6000 also displays the room temperature.