Planning For A Home Alarm System:

Before you install an Alarm System, you need to do some detailed planning. Among the things you need to plan are the following...

This section of our Website is designed to help answer some of these questions.

An alarm system, properly installed and used - meaning that you leave it armed, even while you are home - can give you those extra seconds, especially useful in the case of a home invasion robbery.

Many people don't understand that alarm systems can be used even while they are home.

Most systems allow the user to bypass the interior sensors - including motion detectors - while leaving the outer perimeter [outside-leading doors and windows] armed.

The most obvious way to automate facility security is through the use of an electronic security alarm system. There are many different types of alarm systems, installation techniques, and monitoring methods, each with it’s own advantages and problems. There are also local police jurisdiction requirements and responses to worry about.

When I talk with someone about installing an alarm system, the main question I like to ask is "What do you want to happen when the alarm is triggered?". This is really why people install an alarm system. They want something to happen when the alarm perimiter is breached. Ideally, they want the intruder to run off and not continue to try and enter the facility. This is also where monitoring and police response really come into play. If you want the police to respond when your alarm is triggered, you will need to have it monitored by an alarm monitoring company. It is not legal to have your alarm call 911, or any other voice-type emergency response number. If it does you can be fined or jailed. You need to go through an alarm monitoring company for this kind of response.

Alarm monitoring companies have special receivers that accept calls from professional-type electronic alarm panels. When you establish an account with a monitoring company, they will program their systems and your alarm to communicate with each other. When your alarm calls them, it transmits an identification code and a series of informational codes. These codes tell the alarm monitoring station which alarm is calling them and why it is calling them, including specific information on the zone or zones that were breached.

Most professional alarm panels can trigger on burglary, panic, and fire [using the appropriate types of sensors] and can call the monitoring company for any of these situations. The alarm monitoring company then responds by calling the police or fire department and informing them that have received an automated alarm call. Some monitoring companies also have their own response personnel who can go out to the site of the problem and seal the building, reset the alarm, and perform any other temporary repairs if the owner is away. Some also offer armed security response, but be prepared to pay big-time for this service.

The major problem with alarm monitoring is that some police departments will not even respond to a call when an alarm goes off. I checked with several different jurisdictions in my area and in others. With increases in personal and family violence and other crimes, police have limited availability to respond to alarm calls. In Los Angeles, CA don’t even hope for a response from the police to an alarm call. In Portland, Oregon, the police will respond to the call, but will do so at a lower priority than a call from an individual to 911. In Washington County, Oregon, the Sheriff’s Department will also respond to the call. They respond to a panic alarm at a higher priority than an normal burglary call, but their response to both is relatively fast. They do have an alarm permit fee of $16.00 per year, as do many other locations. In Utah, many cities won't respond directly to an alarm. They want the monitoring company to send someone out first.

If you will have your alarm monitored, you need to have a permit if it is required in your area. Some police departments won't respond unless you do. Some jurisdictions also charge a fee if they respond to a call that was a false alarm or to an alarm that has no permit.

I am in favor of having your alarm monitored, but be aware that your local police may or may not respond. Sometimes they will respond faster to a neighbor calling to report an audible alarm than they will to a monitoring company [a nuisance call may get a higher priority than an alarm!].

I am not in favor of police charging fees for alarm permits, but there isn't much you can do about that.

With this information, it starts to become clear that an alarm system is best used to make noise and attract the attention of those immediately surrounding the facility it is protecting. Burglars don't want to stick around when a bunch of people are staring at them. The alarm should call as much attention to the facility as possible.

You also want it to make plenty of noise on the inside of the facility. If an intruder on the inside can not hear what is going on outside, he/she will be less likely to stick around and run the risk of getting trapped by the police or by an armed facility owner. The best answer to the question "What do I want to happen when my alarm is triggered?" is "I want the intruder to flee the area as fast as they can without any successful theft or cause of harm to family/employees.".

If you really want to be secure, you need a real alarm. I’m not talking about the Radio Shack, K-Mart, and X-10-brand systems that you see Consumer Reports writing about. (In general, these systems are far too false-alarm prone and a professional can bypass them easily). I’m talking about the real alarm systems that you can only buy from a professional alarm distributor or installer. These can be installed by an alarm installer, or you can do it yourself. All you need to know to install one is how to plan what to put together, how to mount magnetic contacts, how to run low-voltage wire in your attic/crawlspace/basement/walls, and how to connect wire. It isn't rocket science, but it sometimes isn't easy. Professional alarm systems offer numerous advantages. They...

Companies like Brinks, ADT, and others that often advertise on television advertise systems that on the surface look like a great deal. They offer the alarm system at a "reduced" rate, sometimes even for free now, but they get you for a lengthy monitoring contract which is often for a period of several years. Systems like these are not all they are cracked up to be. They install an elementary alarm panel, put magnetic sensors on your front [and sometimes] back doors, install a motion detector or two, and call your home protected. While this will deter inexperienced criminals, the experienced ones can defeat these systems quickly.

One fundamental problem with systems installed by these companies is that they rely FAR too much on the motion detectors. Remember, if an intruder comes in through an outside-leading door or window that does NOT have a magnetic contact on it, that intruder will not trigger the alarm until they are well inside your facility and are seen by the motion detector. This means that they breached the physical security layer, and are now a real threat to the safety and well-being of those inside the facility.

You are also often at the mercy of a response center that is located in another state. This itself presents a couple of problems.

Some police respond to calls from out-of-state alarm monitoring companies at an even slower pace than an alarm monitored by a local company. This is partially because the systems monitored by these companies tend to be more prone to false alarms. These centers also handle an incredible number of calls, again with many of them being false alarms. If your alarm can’t get through or is is too far down in the queue, any response you would have received may be far too late.

This can be an even more critical problem when an earthquake hits a state like California. You can figure that most of the alarms these companies install will false-alarm during an earthquake. If they do, they call out to the monitoring company station. Your call, to that same station from your state when you have a real alarm, may never get through because of the calls from the impacted area.

I recommend that you find a good, local alarm monitoring company if you want to go that route. Make sure that you find out if they just monitor alarms or offer other services. Some paging and answering services also offer alarm monitoring services. Stay away from these. If your alarm calls, and an emergency call comes in for a doctor, that call takes priority and your call may go unanswered for quite some time.

A good, local monitoring company can also work with you to determine a response plan. You can tell them when you will be gone so that they call police immediately. If you are going to be home, you can have them call you first. If you are being held up, a good monitoring company asks the right yes/no questions to determine that. This can reduce false alarms and in some cases may be a good idea. Most monitoring companies also offer installation of alarms, and some will even sell high-end alarm components to you so that you can do-it-yourself. Local companies will also be familiar with the local police jurisdictions and will know how to interact with them.

One thing you will need to keep in mind is that some alarm monitoring companies want to lock out your ability to program your own alarm system. They like to keep their phone numbers and communications options a secret. This means that if you sign up with a company that does this, they will change the dealer and user programming codes on your alarm. You will be at their mercy if you wish to make any changes. This is a question to ask of any monitoring company.

Before you opt to have your alarm monitored, give your local law enforcement alarm department office a call to see if they respond to alarms and at what priority level. Some of them even keep statistics on false alarms other difficulties with alarm monitoring companies that can help you make a decision on what company to use. The Portland Police Department gave me a comprehensive listing on the companies in that city.

Also, make sure to ask if any alarm permits are needed and what the associated fees are. I don’t personally agree with alarm permit fees (you are telling the police exactly where a crime is happening so that they can respond, yet you pay extra for that on top of the taxes that you pay.. in effect you are paying extra to get the protection you already pay for) but they do exist in some areas.

I recommend that you setup your system to make a thief as nervous as possible. With that in mind, set up your alarm system to make as much noise as possible, both inside and outside of the facility. I recommend two horns for a single-story residence, one inside and one or more outside, and three for a two-story residence, one on each floor and at least one outside. In a business, you want to make sure the alarm is loud in all interior locations, and that there are horns on each outside wall..

The inside horn alerts anyone inside the facility of the emergency, and also makes it almost impossible to hear what is going on outside of the facility. If an intruder can not hear well enough to determine if sirens are approaching, he/she is not going to want to stay inside. Place the inside horn in a main hallway, high up on the wall or ceiling. Aim it to an open area so that you get the best sound coverage out of it. This is especially important if you want to use the alarm for Fire/Smoke warning as well as burglary.

Your outside horn should be placed so that it is high up to reach a large area, and is preferably out of sight. Behind an attic air vent is a great place for it. It will block some of the vent, but the sound is well worth it. If you can, get two for outside and aim one to the street, the other toward the nearest neighbor.

Another trick that works well is to mount to 12V strobe lights, connected to your alarm system, underneath the eaves over the garage (in a home) or near the front door (in a business). Get one red strobe and one blue strobe and hook them up to the alarm. When it goes off, the strobes will help emergency response personnel identify the structure. They will also be visible, as reflections, from inside of your facility. An intruder will see that and will have to wonder if the police are not already on their way. They will want to get away even faster.

You will also want to make sure that you can control the alarm from several locations in your home/business. Most professional alarms use a keypad mounted on the wall for arming, disarming, panic, and other functions. Put one by each entry/exit door, one in a main hallway, and one in the master bedroom and/or office. This way you are never far from a panic or shutoff button. Most keypads use 2-pair or 4-pair wire. Run this to each location where a keypad is desired.

Make sure that you put hard-wired magnetic contacts on each outside-leading door and window. This way there are no totally weak links in the chain of protection. If someone opens any door or window, they will have tripped the alarm. Some people worry that they look bad and don’t want a lot of wire visible. A good installer (or a homeowner with some sense) can make a good looking installation. There are designer contacts that come in colors to match the frame or door, and with appropriate drilling, wire placement, and wire color, the inch or two of exposed wire can be made to match as well. You can even get contacts that are buried into the door and frame so that they can not be seen at all. Even a professional won’t know they are there.

Magnetic contacts are usually connected to the alarm using 2 wires. You can get creative and wire all of the windows/doors in individual rooms or areas in series as what are called ZONES. This lets you group logical areas together.

I’d also recommend that you booby-trap some inside doors with the recessed magnetic contacts, and create a separate zone for these that can be armed when you are away, or turned off when you are home, leaving the other zones on. Booby-trap doors to bedrooms or offices. Once someone is inside (if they did get past the first (physical) and outer-second (electronic) layers to even enter the facility) they will trigger one of these for sure.

There are many manufacturers of magnetic alarm contacts. I currently recommend Sentrol as I have had VERY good luck with their products. There is a link at the bottom of the page showing one of their products.

As for motion detectors, I recommend that you think carefully. There was a time when I did not recommend any of these because they are usually prone to false alarms from drapes moving over an air vent or things falling over in an earthquake. Most of them still are. Some companies, however, are now using a dual technology system that looks for both heat and motion before they see the situation as a trigger. Napco makes a sensor that takes this one step further yet, and changes what it is looking for before considering the situation to be a trigger.

The Napco Advanced Adaptive C-100ST PIR/Microwave Dual Technology Sensor uses a system that I first experienced at a Northwest Security Conference back in the late 90's. I have since tested the unit myself and found it to make my list of recommended components.

The PIR portion of the unit looks for changes in the heat signature of an area. This part could be fooled by heating or AC which is why many false alarms happen. But when it is triggered it activates the microwave portion of the unit. This looks for motion. This piece could be triggered by movement of curtains, or even by strong vibrations such as from an earthquake, again a major cause of false alarms. But with this unit, both pieces must be triggered at the same time in order for the unit to see a problem and trigger to the alarm panel. In addition, a built-in CPU adds some further intelligence. It changes the number of zones that motion must pass through if there is any question as to the motion being an intruder or just a curtain blowing. If only one zone is triggered, it just sits and keeps looking. If the motion shows the type of motion a moving body would make and passes through the second zone, an alarm is triggered. The sensor does this in a fraction of a second, so it isn’t really foolable. It is a neat little piece of hardware. These wire to the panel with 4 wires. They can be surface mounted on the wall, or recessed using a special cut in box that Napco makes. The latter makes a slick looking installation.

You will also want to get some smoke and/or heat detectors. The alarm panel that I found to be the best, as well as most other professional panels, can handle smoke/fire warnings. These are also available from many companies, and connect to the alarm via 2 or 4 wires, and this is usually special fire-type wire rather than standard twisted-pair. We will be evaluating different models in the near future.

As you can see, there is some wiring involved in setting up an alarm system. You can have a professional do it for you, or you can do it yourself. You need to be aware that you will need to use attic crawlspaces or go under the house. If you are afraid of confined spaces, bugs, or wasps, you may want to hire a professional.

If you do want to do it yourself, you will need a drill, drill bits [long, flexible bits such as the Greenlee DiversiBit for pulling wire], fish tapes, wallboard saw, extension cords, electrical tape, wire nuts/ScotchLoks, screwdrivers, and a lot of patience.

You will also want to know as much as possible about the construction of your home. If you have any photos of the structure as it was going up, these will help you plan where you can and can’t drill. Alarm systems use all low-voltage wire so that is not too much of a concern.

These are some of the things that you will need to consider if you will be installing an alarm in your home or business. Make sure that you adhere to all of the appropriate rules and regulations as you do so. Don’t cut any corners. Remember that the property, and even more importantly, the lives you save, are those of yourself and your family or co-workers.

We recommend Napco panels and components. They are easy to install, easy to program, and offer features which cost extra in just about every other brand of alarm panel. They are reliable and they work!

Based on personal experience, and from those for whom I have installed them, alarm systems are WELL worth the money and time involved. If you don’t think so, wait until the next time you come home and think there might be someone in your home A properly installed, professional quality system will let you know with one look at the keypad (just put it by your door!). And of course, the odds are that they either left when it was triggered, or they didn’t even try in the first place. You may never know how effective the alarm really was, even as a deterrent.

-- James Bell, Jr. -JeepGunner / ATVGunner / HondaGunner