Burglar alarms - any tips

[solongandthanksfor]

I'm thinking of getting a burglar alarm. It's more for peace of mind rather than any perceived risk. I'd like to get one that has a circuit I could put on downstairs so that when we're upstairs sleeping we'd be alerted to any potential break-in.

Dh seems to be away for work quite a bit at the moment and the nights he's away I seem to find it increasingly hard to sleep.

Sorry, forgot to say - any pitfalls, any advice about reputable companies?

Oooh you posted just what I was going to post for the same reasons, DH's travels a lot and I am getting worse at sleeping, convinced the children will be taken in the night and will sleep through it all etc etc, so will watch this thread with interest.....thanks!

We got one for just those reasons and have recently had it replaced so now have updated version.

Modern ones seem to work on movement sensors wheas the old one had door contacts so you had to make sure all doors were properly shut. Now the only door alarmed is the front door. Having said that, if you have pets you may have to have some contacts as the animals may set it off otherwise

We have a keypad downstairs and another in the master bedroom, you can set the alarm fully or downstairs only. Make sure they set the upstairs one so it doesn't whine for a 30 second countdown to setting - you need that to get out and lock up downstairs but upstairs it just wakes everybody up!

We also had our smoke detectors wired into it so the internal alarms sound if the smoke detector activates.

Mine is like AimingForSerenity's, with a night-time setting for downstairs, plus sensors on the bedroom windows that are above flat/climbable roofs. These allow the top half of the sash window to be open, but will sound if the bottom window is opened.

You will need a plan for what to do if the alarm goes off at night/ Hopefully this will be a false alarm - spiders walking on the sensors - but it's useful to know what you are going to do.

Insurance companies will give you a discount if the alarm meets a certain British Standard and is regularly serviced.

Get in touch with your police crime prevention officer. they will come out and give you a free home security survey and advise you if any other aspects of your home security need addressing. A burglar alarm may give you peace of mind but it helps to take a good look at your home and garden to make sure you're not attracting burglars iykwim.

We have an ADT alarm/fire detector and I was very impressed with the hassle-free installation - and they gave us a good discount, as we were dithering, mind you, this was 7 year ago.

We set it at night, except on weekend mornings when the DCs get up to go and watch telly in the morning. Ours is monitored, so if we're not around, things are checked, and we have three keyholders who each have a separate code to turn it on and off. Monitored alarms have to be checked every six months. We only have one keypad downstairs, and have the usual sensors, and a panic button on the top two levels, which are silent and one on the ground floor which is audible.

It makes very little difference to your insurance cost these days unfortunately, but for us is worth every penny for peace of mind.

Brilliant, thanks for lots of useful advice there. I have been thinking I'm a bit of a wuss for not sleeping when dh is away, but as caracaro says, it's more because I'm worrying about being responsible for the dc.

Anything else I should know before I launch into this? Do you generally have to pay a yearly amount for maintenance of the system?

Ooh, very useful thread, been thinking about this myself.

Are the systems wireless these days, or do they need to lay cable everywhere?

What sort of cost would it be for an average-sized house?

The firm I use recommends a cabled system as being more reliable. Cables aren't visible, as they come down through the floor above to install the sensors.

Think I paid about £1200 about 5 years ago, and maintenance is about £80pa.

we have a wireless Yale alarm with sensors. It's not connected to a service but we've got panic buttons to set it off if someone were in the house. (we don't turn it on when we sleep, though we could.)
We also bought some separate window sensors that are armed at all times, to sound an alarm if they are opened.
Those two things were very cheap, less than 100 quid, and hopefully the alarm itself on the front of the house might be a deterrent.

There are so many different systems about & houses are so different that it is probably best to get a few companies round to give a quote. I will attempt to give an explanation of different systems:
Monitored / Non-monitored - monitored ones will cost additional charge per month / year (£10+ per month) and can automatically contact yourself / police etc.
Wired / Wireless, most tend to be wireless (battery operated) but not much difference in price
Sensors / Door contacts - most systems will fit both but depends on house.
Keypad / Remote control - remotes very useful too.
Zones - it is possible to set zones ie excluding upstairs when sleeping, or certain rooms (pets),
We live in a 3 bed semi and were quoted £600 for a wireless monitored system recently with 2 sensors & 2 door contacts, (nothing upstairs). We currently have a 11 year old wireless system that is starting to be temperamental and spare parts are no longer available.

The "downstairs" set mode for an alarm at night is programmable. It is called a "part" set on ours and you tell the alarm which ones you want armed so for night time it is all the downstairs ones. Plus you tell it which ones to just set off immediately (lounge/dining room) or the one you want to beep when you trigger the zone (when you need to walk to the keypad)

We have both sensors and door contacts, and a panic button in the master bedroom.

You can even set it so that you alarm the whole house and then "omit" a zone which we did when we were having our garage converted and our alarm sensor was hanging down swinging freely.

I don't understand anyone having an alarm but they don't set it at night or use it when they go out. We lived in an area where the police posted leaflets through our doors telling us to lock them as people were just walking straight into houses and nicking stuff with you somewhere inside. We lived in a nice area, that is the reason it was targeted

On Radio 4 they recently interviewed jailed burglars to find out what they targeted. They said 2-3 bed homes, as they have just as much good stuff as the bigger homes, they are smaller so they can be in and out quicker as less rooms to search through and the security is usually less than a bigger house. Interesting.

Thanks all, very useful.

We have a bungalow with the DCs downstairs (but in a "wing" at the front of the house) and us upstairs, so we'd have to think about how to do it all.

It's on my to do list (along with new wardrobes, new fence, new windows.......sigh.....).

I don't sell or install the things, so have no interest in spamming, but I see they are on special offer this weekend at £132 in, which is pretty good if you happen to need one with the dial-out on alarm feature. I think when I bought one for my old mum it was about £250 in Homebase.

oops, sorry, I have dug up an old thread by mistake

Thought someone might be interested though.

Lots of other good tips.
You want a NACCOSS (sp?) Approved installer to qualify for money off your insurance policy, plus an annual service.
You can get wireless systems that are reliable and ask for pet friendly sensors to avoid false alarms

very true. I have an approved system in my own house, and the maintenance and monitoring charges are more each year than it cost to buy the whole Yale system for my old mum.