Disconnecting ancient bell box safely

[olly330]

Hi all,

Going to disconnect an ancient old bell box tomorrow and mount a dummy box in the same place for now. No worries to damaging any wires as the next alarm will be done using new cables.

I did speak to an electrician about this and he said the wires inside the bell box should be thin white wires which are can just be pulled out and left without any worries. Does this sound about right?

Do I need to disconnect the mains at the consumer unit, and should I terminate them into a connector bloc or is electrical tape around each wire good enough?

 

[olly330]

Sorry forgot to add, the bell box still has power going to it as when the consumer unit is turned off it sounds for about 3 min before going dead

 

[flameport]

Those normally operate on 12 volts which will be supplied from the alarm panel.
If it is still powered, locate the old panel inside and disconnect the mains supply to that permanently. You can then remove it and the outside box.

 

[ericmark]

As said the bell box gets power from the alarm control box, however it also has a battery of it's own, so anyone trying to disconnect it will cause it to sound, no real way to stop it sounding there will be a tamper switch some where. One just has to do the job at a time of day which will not upset people.

 

[olly330]

Thanks for the replies.

Could I possibly not disconnect power at the control panel and still do the job..

With it being 12v and not mains powered is it safe to just cut off the wires that are going to the box without any risk of shock?

 

[RF Lighting]

Yes. Just cut each wire individually. No need to do anything to the ends of the wires.

 

[securespark]

As said the bell box gets power from the alarm control box, however it also has a battery of it's own,

In this case there must be a battery back-up to the box, but many that old just have a siren and a tamperswitch (and possibly strobe).

 

[333rocky333]

Personally i would cut them long and leave them in the dummy box for now.
The cable from the loft to the panel may need to be reused by the new alarm installer if its difficult or unsitely to run a new cable.
As said removing the cover may set it off, so dont fall off the ladder, have your cutters handy and cut the wire from the battery inside the bell box and it should stop.

 

[DaveHerns]

Get some ear protectors before you start.

 

[olly330]

Thanks all, I disconnected the power going into the control panel, one I did that the bellbox battery kicked in and it sounded for around 5 mins until it went flat. Going to go up in a day or 2 to take it off, will follow the advice and cut them long and leave inside new dummy bellbox

 

[sparkwright]

Why not get a new real alarm bell box?

If you don't want it working, remove the sounder, and just connect the power wires to the lights to make it look real.