Alarm system advice

[EddyP]

I’m looking to install an alarm system on my house.
It’s a 3 bed property, lounge, kitchen, conservatory, utility room, large garage with roller doors each end, and then a workshop out building.
I’d like everything alarmed, and a separate keypad in both the workshop and garage so that these areas can be constantly alarmed assuming they’re unoccupied.
I’ve looked into which rooms are potentially more of a security risk and decided to put a PIR in these rooms.
I think I need:
Standard PIRs:
One in lounge
One in hallway
One in back bedroom
Dual Tech PIRs:
One in garage
One in workshop
One in conservatory
Roller Door contacts x 2
Personal garage door into utility room contact
Contact on UPVC Conservatory door
Contact on UPVC front door

Then obviously will need a bell box on the front of the house.

I’d like to have SMS sending capability, and also the possibility of linking in the smoke detectors, and a heat detector in the garage/workshop. I’ve read some alarms will support this under a separate zone, and then you can have internal sounders to react from that zone.

The systems I’ve looked at initially, following reading other threads on here, are the Scantronic 9651and the Texecom Veritas Excel, the Scantronic appears to be slightly cheaper, although I’ve only been looking at the actual panel and RKPs so far.

Are there any recommendations over which would be best for this application?
Also I’ve seen some Honeywell standard PIRs are quite cheap, as little as £8, which normally I wouldn’t consider, but I doubt Honeywell would put their name on rubbish kit, so are these ok sensors?

Thanks for any advice

 

[Atilla]

but I doubt Honeywell would put their name on rubbish kit,

Don't you beleive it. Big name don't always mean quality

 

[breezer]

have to agree with Atilla could also say look at JCB tools, not plant.

Back to reality

1) Why contact both garage doors.

its raining, you have to go indoors switch alarm off then come back out to open the garage to put car in garage

2) depending on panel, you may have to unset whole alarm to se additional area. eg, w shop on, you want to set house, turn w shop off, then both on.

why not buy some smaller alarm just for the workshop?

3) put pir on landing not in back bedroom.

doesnt matter which oom gets broken into, they will go onto the anding sooner or later

4) see alarm sticky for what a duel tech is. (although you have the right idea)

 

[EddyP]

have to agree with Atilla could also say look at JCB tools, not plant.

Back to reality

1) Why contact both garage doors.

its raining, you have to go indoors switch alarm off then come back out to open the garage to put car in garage

2) depending on panel, you may have to unset whole alarm to se additional area. eg, w shop on, you want to set house, turn w shop off, then both on.

why not buy some smaller alarm just for the workshop?

3) put pir on landing not in back bedroom.

doesnt matter which oom gets broken into, they will go onto the anding sooner or later

4) see alarm sticky for what a duel tech is. (although you have the right idea)

Thanks for the info.

1) The plan with the garage doors was to have a long enough entry time on that zone, that it would give time for the door to open, me to drive in, then turn alarm off when I get out the car, 30 seconds should be ok.
Plus the only car that will be kept in there is the kit car i've built, not an everyday car, main reason for wanting decent security is i've a lot of expensive tools that will be in there and the workshop.

2) I'll make sure I choose a panel which doesnt have this floor then, a friend has a system which has a seperate panel on each garage he has and he can turn on/off each zone whenever he wants, without having to reset any others.
Any ideas which panels are ok with what I want to do?
I'd rather have a single integrated system than two seperate systems.

3)
Only reason I thought it an idea to have a PIR in this room is its the one thats most at risk, as access to its window would be fairly easy.
However I completly agree with your thoughts on the landing.

4)
My main reason behind the areas I chose dual techs, was down to areas that may have spiders etc..
As I won't have many PIRs might be worth going dual tech throughout ?

 

[breezer]

1, bet it isnt. and also a thief has 30 seconds, if you must protect it put a duel tech in there, doesnt matter which door get opened then

2) wait for RF Lighting to post, as the texecom may do that, or ask your friend what he has or spend loads and get a galaxy.

two are better than 1. if 1 fails / has a problem at least the other is still ok

4) spider can set a dule tech off, not supposed to but they can, but it is less often than just with a pir

other thing i forgot to mention

outbuilding / workshop

if it has its own system, no cable to main system to be cut damaged

my shed has its own alarm

another advantage, shed own alarm if it has a false alarm neighboiurs know its not the house, since it has its own bell too, your way if shed / outbuilding goes off everyone will assume its the house

 

[RF Lighting]

Here's my 2p's worth.

I'm a bit limited for what different brands can do, as I stick with what I know, and only install texecom alarms.

The Texecom veritas excel will not do what you want. It is a single area panel, and would mean you have to arm / disarm the entire system together.

The panel you want to be reading up on is the Texecom Premier.

I have a similar setup to yours at home using this panel.

I have the system on the house, garage and shed. Each area can be armed / disarmed individually, so normally during the day the house would be disarmed, but the shed and garage remain armed, as like you I have a lot of tools and expensive kit out there.
I have a seperate keypad in each area.

I have the main panel located in the house, and then I have a few zone expanders connected to the network.

These allow you to take one four core cable from the panel which loops round the keypads, zone expanders and other various things. You can then connect an additional eight individually monitored zones, keypads, bell boxes, aux relays (to switch lights on and off etc), and a whole manner of other things to each expander. I have an expander next to the main panel, one downstairs, one in the garage and one in the shed.

I personally have gone for dual tecs throughout the house, as they are not that much more than a standard passive, and much less prone to false alarms.

Mine has an SMS dialler mounted in the panel, which not only tells you the alarm has gone off, but what time, which area and which zone(s).

You can link smoke alarms into the panel, and any zone can be programmed as a smoke detector zone, and causes the panel to react differently to an alarm condition.

One point to note, my garage and shed are quite far away from the house, and used to suffer problems with excess volts drop from the panel to the network expander in the garage. This can be cured by installing a power supply for that part of the network connected to the mains in the garage for example.


Hope that helps. Ask away if you have any more questions.

 

[breezer]

see, i told you RF Lighting would say more about texecom.

 

[EddyP]

Brilliant info guys !!

I've already put underground ducts in from the garage out to the workshop, these take my mains SWA cable, and a 3/4" hose for the compressor, also a couple of runs of cat5 and a couple of runs of 8 core screened alarm cable, as I got it for nothing.
The workshop is only about 15m away from the garage where the panel will be located so shouldnt be a major problem.

Breezer - With the garage/entry zone issue, surely a PIR would trigger as soon as I enter or drive in anyway, so give the same issue as the contacts?
What the normal practice for fitting alarms on garages with motorised doors?

I'll start working on a list of texecom parts to run by you if thats ok?
I assume I can get away with a premier 24 panel?

My main other query is how do you usually get the cable to the bell box? as with the way this house is constructed theres a bedroom on the other side of where the bell box should go, rather than a loft, I guess it could go offset and then run the cable up into the loft from inside the built in wardrobe.

All this advice is much appreciated

 

[breezer]

if a garage door is forced open it can be bent in one corner, it will be the opposite corner than where the contact is. or the contact will be at the top.

a detector covers the whole area.


depends which way is less trouble to get to the bell. either way the box should cover where the cable exists the wall. you can get ali conduit, but it looks naff

ask RF Lighting about anything you want to know about Texecom, not me