Additional siren on house - where is best?

britishboy7 · 5 Mar 2017

We've had a visonic powermax alarm fitted to our house (4 bed semi) with an external alarm box on the front of the house (alarm panel in hallway also sounds when triggered). Our main bedroom is at the back of the house so we'd like an additional sounder, but can't decide over an internal one on the landing near our bedroom door, or another bell box on back of the house. What would be better?

Been told the high volume of an internal sounder would make someone leave the house sharpish, but I think an external bell box on rear of the house would be better?

Opinions people?

honda · 5 Mar 2017

Personally I would put it on the back of the house where it would provide a visual deterrent should anyone decide to break in that way particularly if it has an led to show that it is a working sounder. If you decide to put it on your landing near your bedroom door and it goes off in the early hours I would sincerely hope that you and your family have strong constitutions.

PaulUszak · 9 Mar 2017

Never go for an internal sounder in preference to an external one. You want to deter the intruder the moment the perimeter is penetrated. That means making as much noise as possible at that very moment, rather than waiting for them to get into the bedroom where your goldfish are. Only add an internal sounder if you have external sounders and (daylight viewable) strobes on both sides of your house.

I don't wish to scare you but (there's always a but), 40% of domestic burglaries occur during daylight hours (Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics, 2016). That means those girls' LEDs on most bell boxes are totally useless and can't be seen. In fact you can rarely see them on an overcast moonless night with all the street lights out. If at all possible and your installers are any good, try to get them to add something like:-

to the front of the bell box. They're called industrial pilot lights and operate from 12V. This one goes though a standard 22 mm hole. I have a couple and they're daylight viewable indicating that at least your burglar alarm is powered up and in working order.

sparkymarka · 10 Mar 2017

Load of rubbish ...most burglaries happen because they know your routine and know you don't have a alarm , that's why they happen in the daytime .....

bernardgreen · 10 Mar 2017

PaulUszak said:
I have a couple and they're daylight viewable indicating that at least your burglar alarm is powered up and in working order.

Something similar with the flash rate changing when the external perimeter is breached ( gate opened ) may deter the criminal from attempting entry. This avoids setting off the main alarm and sends the criminal away before any damage has been done to doors or windows.

Twenty Four · 10 Mar 2017

Yes, agree totally with independently sourced bell box light particularly if a property is out of the way. I'm not a fan of most modern bell boxes either.

bernardgreen said:
Something similar with the flash rate changing when the external perimeter is breached ( gate opened ) may deter the criminal from attempting entry. This avoids setting off the main alarm and sends the criminal away before any damage has been done to doors or windows.

I also have my gates on entry/exit as the alarm would sound before they even reached the home, though somebody is more likely to try and climb them than attempt to break the locking system by pushing.

bernardgreen · 10 Mar 2017

My perimeter gates are not locked but a break beam detector covers the approach to the properties so the pre-arm indication works even if the gates are not opened.

Twenty Four · 10 Mar 2017

bernardgreen said:
My perimeter gates are not locked but a break beam detector covers the approach to the properties so the pre-arm indication works even if the gates are not opened.

I also have the external driveway covered by GJD which indicates in the home and a still image is emailed to me on trigger if I'm out and about. That however wouldn't be common knowledge to an intruder whereas many decibels sounding if the gates were broken open would, well before the buildings are breached.

PaulUszak · 10 Mar 2017

sparkymarka said:
Load of rubbish... and know you don't have a alarm , that's why they happen in the daytime .....

Approximately 30% of all burglaries occur in properties with burglar alarms (Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics, 2016). Since ostensibly the crime survey is a score card for how well you do your job and peddle your wares, I would have thought that you'd be more familiar with it

sparkymarka · 10 Mar 2017

And this comes from a person who can't even install some trunking ! ......really ....

PaulUszak · 10 Mar 2017

Touché. Are you stalking me? You're not going to steal underwear from my clothes line are you?

I admit that I have some minor issues with ****ing damn pieces of **** ******* plastic ***rt*** Screwf*** trunking that's ruined my sodd*** wall, but facts are facts. Makes sobering reading eh, knowing that your burglar alarm reduces the chance of being burgled by only a pitiful 55%? Isn't this borne out by the insurance companies' quotations? A self installed burglar alarm from B&Q carries no discount, and a professionally maintained one only carries a minimal (£10s) discount. They appreciate these statistics.

Europlex · 10 Mar 2017

External lights as part of a security system, waste of time and money.
The only good lights do is to light the way for the crooks when doing the break-in at 03:00.
There is no one around looking at their security(?) lights at that time of the morning, too busy with other business in bed, sleeping. What did you think I meant?

Security chains, who knows how to use them correctly? Or for that matter what they are for? I bet no one here.

Double glazing, waste of time for security.

Window locks, there are some/many that don't have them fitted.

Deadlocks hardly get fitted to the light weight back door.

Burglar alarm, many more premises don't have alarms than do, so go there, a lot less hassle.

Indoor lights/tv/radio left on, ring the door bell first, and have a sensible reason for doing so if answered.

Bars and grills, on your house who does that?

Get the idea.

unclebob1 · 13 Mar 2017

sparkymarka said:
Load of rubbish ...most burglaries happen because they know your routine and know you don't have a alarm , that's why they happen in the daytime .....

In my case, broke in during the day, while alarm was active, at a time when no one was due to be out of the house (but happened to go out on this day for 15 min), and still went through 2 bedrooms, while alarm was ringing, and neighbor was shouting...
Some times its just sods law.

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Additional siren on house - where is best?

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