Newbie questions

If you have this outlook why are you installing a system anyway? There must be a reason you are spending $500.00. Safety, Security, Early warning, Evan a door chime so you know when the wife left the dog out.

Oh the insurance discounts. Maybe the smoke detector that went off at 3 AM and called the fire dept while you were sleeping. It's worth it to have it monitored because you have no clue.

Thanks for the response. However, I am not sure I understand you. I am concerned about the effectiveness of the burglar alarms from what I read, so I raised the questions. May be most burglars don't cut phone lines before they entered houses? May be many systems have a built-in battery that will power the siren and not easily taken on etc. Actually, I am not planing to spend $500, more like $200-$300 for one of those wireless system from online site. I am not going to count on window/door sensors, but rather on motion detector for protection while nobody is home (the main situation for protection). Actually, I have one more question regarding those motion detector:

(3) Those pet immune motion detectors: are these thermal based detector such that they only detect living things with thermal radiation, such that the motion of a non-living object won't trigger them (such as a curtain blown by wind thru a window etc.)?

Thanks again.

Monitoring has several benefits... a)- Peace of mind. Go on vacation and never worry about your house while you're gone. b)- Remote assistance. Someone hears burglar break in when alarm is off- pushes panic button to scare away intruder and initiate police call instantly. c)- Homeowner's insurance discount possible with some insurance. Most require a monitored intrusion AND fire detection system to be eligible.

As far as phone lines are concerned- Yes, most burglar are smart enough to cut the phone line before breaking in. So, let's use that little piece of knowledge to our advantage. Cell backup, 2-way radio backup, or phone line hardening are the answer. Phone line hardening is my favorite- the actual phone line is brought into the premises through a hole in the foundation hidden underground. Then a "dummy" phone line is run exposed where a phone line usually runs, but is hooked up to a 24 hr silent "tamper" zone to initiate a police call when the lowlife burglar cuts what he THINKS is the phone line. Good chance of catching them in the act this way.

It is not easy to defeat the alarm from dialing the central station if it is engineered properly. The control should be semi-hidden, and difficult to pry open. Even if locked, screws at each corner of the control make it difficult to gain access, and ensure extra time is required to disable the system.

In a non-monitored system, it would take extra time to find and disable the sirens in a properly engineered system, but it is possible. Neighbors should be notified when your system is installed that your have an alarm, and to call police if they hear the siren, even briefly. The siren sound, however brief, will cause attention to be focused on the residence by neighbors...something the crook really doesn't want. That said, it is foolish to assume someone will always hear the siren, or will always react to it.

Need 2 levels of protection for an effective system- perimeter (doors/windows) and interior. (motions, tampered drawers or cabinets, etc) There is a significant advantage to catching a burglar BEFORE or WHILE he's breaking in, instead of after he's already in. Layers of protection increase your level of protection, and provide a form of "verification", since an intruder moving through a premises will trip mutiple zones of protection.

Some are Passive Infrared, some are both PIR and Microwave. Motion of anything will trip a detector, since curtains or other objects do not have precisely the same Infrared light (heat) signature as background objects. A blowing curtain, helium balloons, and many other things will trip a motion detector. Proper engineering and setup is vital to false alarm elimination and proper catch performance.

Balloons are so much fun. Milars are the worst. One call center with a 16 foot ceiling was quite a challenge. Everytime they had a party for somebody they would have balloons loose in the building. The holidays were particularly fun. Finally I walked in one day with an air rifle and put a few holes in their ceiling tiles. I don't recall having the problem since then.

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In my home it was not possible to harden the phone wires so I put an alarm loop in the phone cable. If someone cuts the phone cable, a 120 db siren on the roof will sound, and a flashing strobe is activated. At that point I expect a thief would probably leave very quickly, although I understand that nothing except my Smith & Wesson will stop a determined would be thief. As was said, layers of protection. An alarm is a good first layer of defense because the other method can be messy and incur possible legal problems depending on thieves' rights.

Bob

Hahahahahahahaha! The wild wild west. I love it. ROFL js

Wow... a whole 200-300 bucks to protect your family? I bet your refrigerator cost 1500 to protect 100 bucks worth of food.

| > Oh the insurance discounts. Maybe the smoke detector that went off at 3 AM | > and called the fire dept while you were sleeping. It's worth it to have it | > monitored because you have no clue. | | Thanks for the response. However, I am not sure I understand you. I | am concerned about the effectiveness of the burglar alarms from what I | read, so I raised the questions. May be most burglars don't cut phone | lines before they entered houses? May be many systems have a built-in | battery that will power the siren and not easily taken on etc. | Actually, I am not planing to spend $500, more like $200-$300 for one | of those wireless system from online site. I am not going to count on | window/door sensors, but rather on motion detector for protection while | nobody is home (the main situation for protection). | Actually, I have one more question regarding those motion detector: | | (3) Those pet immune motion detectors: are these thermal based detector | such that they only detect living things with thermal radiation, such | that the motion of a non-living object won't trigger them (such as a | curtain blown by wind thru a window etc.)? | | Thanks again. |

Most panels have phone line monitoring if it is lost ,cut the horn and keypads will tell you.

Most burglars who break into your average home are idiots. Watch America's Dumbest Criminals to get an idea. They don't know how to cut phone lines or disconnect batteries. If they did, they would probably have a job and not need to be breaking into your house!

The "pros" will break into somewhere where it is worth their effort, not a home unless they know there is a lot of cash, jewelry, etc. there.

I think the best thing is to just place burglar alarm stickers around your house. They will go next door where there are no stickers. Get them here...

The next level of security would be a local alarm (not monitored) with a siren. If they do break in, they will make their visit short.

Monitoring is good for medical alert, personal attack, or robbery. If the police take 30 minutes to get there, burglars will be long gone. If there is a private guard service in your area to respond, this would be better. Don't sign any monitoring contracts until you read *every* word. Beware! They will try to lock you in for many years. Canceling can be difficult. Read the fine print. Here is inexpensive monitoring...

Then the best security is physical. Bars on windows, doors, etc.

I hope Bill was being facetious toward an earlier post because if not, Bill takes this years more moronic poster award. He or a loved one is not, as of yet, a statistic. Read today's Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel news article about the 24 year old pregnant lady, that two weeks away from delivery, was found stabbed to death in her home, the baby also died. After that, then come back and tell us about window stickers and backroom monitoring boiler rooms, you idiot. Unfortunately, the victim was a friend of mine's daughter.

Someone already mentioned a phone-line tamper module, so I digress on that point. Yes, the thief will leave, but there is always the risk that someone could "feel out" your monitoring company's or police dept.'s response by triggering a false alarm several times, until they suspend response to it. Anything that can be triggered on the outside should be silent, monitored, and have a backup.

There are very few places where it isn't at all possible to harden, or at least vastly improve, the security of the phone service line-

Concrete slab- Drill inside at a 45 degree angle through the slab to outside approx 6-8" deep. Go slowly and let the pneumatic hammer drill do the work so as not to crack a piece off of your slab.

Aerial drop- Get identical phone service cable (or some that looks very close) and run the existing wire into the attic at the service loop. Bring the "dummy line out through the same hole. Use electrical tape to bind these

2 together, so that it looks like some bozo phone technician did a cheap fix, and gives you a bigger "knot" with which to hide the wire entry hole. Send the dummy phone line down into a dummy demarc and you're set. Don't forget the 24 hr silent tamper zone.

Or you can always place donuts on a neighbor's doorstep which will cause the crook to follow his appetite rather than rob your home.

Stanley Barthfarkle wrote:

How tragic. So sorry for your loss, Bob. Makes you wonder what kind of monsters roam this planet.

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I should clarify the definition of "silent" in this case- Not sounding a siren would be silent... keypad annunciation would be o.k., since the crook probably couldn't hear it inside.

Wow, thank you very very much for all the valuable information. I didn't expect to get so much useful knowledge about security system. Feel really sorry for the unlucky lady. I guess I was looking at those relatively inexpensively wireless system that has the base controller designed to be sitting on a desk, with battery compartment easily accessible by burglars.

addition to motion detector. However, I still not sure if I will want to get monitoring service, as I don't think it's that easy to hide my phone line (not a handyman myself). I like one feature of some security systems that I looked at online: a remote that allow me to disarm the alarm from (outside the house?) and warn me that the alarm has been triggered. So I can look around the house before deciding what action to take.

The only problem with your post is that it sounds just plausable enough to appear knowledgable to someone who doens't know any better.

You're a dangerous person to be posting advice to novices. You need to be in this business for a few years and expericence the results of your kind of thinking.

Such as that most troubling event, the drop in RMR.