Appropriate power feed for burglar alarm

[Makeitgo]

Hi All, a couple of quick questions on burglar alarm feeds. We’re soon to be moving into a property where the BA power feed is on the lighting circuit. Without going into the obvious down side of this, I need to get it sorted properly. Would the ideal thing be to run it from a separate circuit from the consumer unit and at that, to use a fuse module rather than an MCB?

Anyone know what the regs now require for alarm system feeds?

Cheers

 

[Taylortwocities]

No real reason why you should not continue to power the BA from a lighting circuit. It is as likely to fail as any other circuit. Especially if your consumer unit is a dual RCD one - where you lose supply to half of the house if there's an earth fault on one of the other circuits.

You could have it run from a new dedicated circuit, but new circuits are NOTIFIABLE, so you are going into another level of cost if you go that route.

Or, you could add a spur to an existing socket circuit, and fit an UNSWITCHED fused connection unit adjacent to the BA.

 

[Makeitgo]

Thanks Taylor. It seems there's been a history of the lighting circuit MCB tripping when lamps have blown (an array of filament ones currently) so trying to get away from that nonsense. Also, for convenience we've just renewed the alarm support contract until I can make other arrangements supporting it myself. So whatever existing circuit the alarm is connected to, when we turn it off to work on it we'll have to disable it at the panel. I'm just trying to avoid this palava. So I guess having the BA on it's own circuit is a nicety rather than an IEEE requirement. Think I'll have to chew this over.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The BA is an accessory, so the (IET) wiring regulations aren’t interested.

 

[Makeitgo]

Huh, very useful info, thanks a lot.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Does it not have battery backup? Even my very cheap one bought from Maplin last century (scary) had a 12v nicad in it that would run the panel for 24 hrs no problem.
Advantage with having the thing on the lighting circuit- you know pretty quickly when the circuit loses power

 

[JohnW2]

Advantage with having the thing on the lighting circuit- you know pretty quickly when the circuit loses power

Quite - that's why I've never been much of a fan of the fashion of having things like burglar alarms, fire alarms, freezers or whatever on their own 'dedicated circuits' - far better, in my opinion, to have them on a circuit whose failure would rapidly be noticed - like a lighting circuit or the circuit serving one's TV (or one's teenage daughter's hair dryer )!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Taylortwocities]

My burglar alarm (maybe most) give an audible bleep from the keypad if the mains power fails.

 

[Makeitgo]

Thanks guys, I wasn’t really considering by what means I’d become aware that the alarm might be non-functional, (without power) but yeah, that’s a point. I’m not familiar with the house or the alarm properly yet and the alarm has had a dead BU backup battery since I’ve been working on it, so loss of power currently hasn’t made the bell box ring (which is a good thing while I’m working on it). I guess there might be a way on the panel to defeat the bell box ringer when I periodically kill the alarm circuit (lighting circuit). I just thought it being an a separate breaker would be good going forward. I feel kind of restricted at the moment as we've just taken out a year's maintenace for the alarm and I don't want to have them rush me a callout charge just for a panel config change if I somehow confuse it due to power up/downs. I'm just itching to grab the manual and take it on myself properly.

Taylor, it’s a decent alarm, so its panel will probably beep or something too. John, yeah maybe I should power the TV through a relay, in turn, powered from the lighting circuit in any case.

 

[sparkymarka]

It should have a unswitched fuse spur at the side of the control panel to allow isolation

 

[ericmark]

I have seen where BA have not been maintained and the valve regulated lead acid battery (VRLA) has failed that the alarm sounds with a power failure, as two batteries one in alarm and one in bell box, and loss of power causes bell to sound.

However in real terms unless connected to a call centre the alarm is next to useless, and if connected to a call centre it has to be on a contract and maintained.

My son for a time worked for an alarm company, if the alarm sounded the call centre would phone him, and he had to attend, he was to observe from outside, and if he thought there were intruders call the police, in the two years he worked for them, he never found an intruder, he didn't want to for good reason. And he was unlikely to arrive within 15 minutes, more like 30 minutes by which time well gone.

It seems if the alarm was designed with zones, and multi zones were activated police could be called, but the days of alarms connected direct to police stations are well gone, the call centre has to phone police, to stop nuisance calls.

However they do give some piece of mind when at home, that bump or bang down stairs you realise unlikely to be an intruder as alarm has not sounded, saves picking up some thing heavy and showing how brave you are to your wife.

But the power used by an intruder alarm is very small, and can come from any convenient point.

I have only ever had an extruder alarm, designed to tell us when mother had gone on walk about, so we could persuade her to return.

 

[Makeitgo]

Thanks Sparky.
Eric, thanks. Yes mine might be a 2 batt system too. I've not noticed if the panel goes out when the breaker's off. Appreciate what you've mentioned about responder time... interesting. Good point about the zones too. I've never had a house with an alarm, so it might be better on the bump in the night factor if I get it all set up right.

 

[flameport]

just renewed the alarm support contract

You need to find out what that actually is for, as replacing the batteries should be part of that.

Yes mine might be a 2 batt system too.

Battery in the panel and a separate one in the external sounder(s) has been standard for decades.
If neither are working, it suggests the system hasn't had any maintenance or inspection for many years.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It should have a unswitched fuse spur at the side of the control panel to allow isolation

Surely that doesn't really make sense.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Surely that doesn't really make sense.

Its what most BA companies install.