Honeywell Accenta G4 false alarms

[Judgey99]

I recently had a wired Accenta G4 alarm system installed by my dad who is a qualified electrician but doesn't do the job for a living. He installed the same alarm system in my old house and in my brother's house and neither had any problems.
The problem I am having occurs in the early hours of the morning when a false alarm sets off the bellbox. I set the alarm using the one keypad I have which is downstairs by the front door when I go to bed, om itting the zone covering the landing. The alarm is usually activated about 2.30am with the zone which covers the hall (dog friendly PIR) and front door (contact) being at fault but no reason can be found for this happening.
I never have the problem during the day when the alarm is set with no zones omitted when I'm at work, just at night. Any ideas.....the neighbours must be as fed up with this nightly ritual as I am?

 

[alumni]

From what you've said, it would appear you have the hall pir and door contact on same zone. It would be best to get your dad to seperate them and have them on individual zones.
That on its own won't cure the FA, although carrying out the task 'may' show something.

Does it occur every night or just some nights?

 

[Judgey99]

It happens at least every other night but has been every night for the past couple of days.
I've been thinking whethewr it's worth having the door contact as if the door was to open, the PIR which is directly opposite would detect this anyway?
As we put the mortice lock on the door when out during the day, I'm wondering if I should try doing this of a night as well (leaving the key in the lock in case of a fire) in case the door is moving slightly and setting the sensor off. I doubt this is the problem as we have got porch doors as well to stop draughts but I'll give it a try.
It's just strange that it tends to be roughly the same time...maybe there is a spider that awakens at the same time every night!!!!

 

[alumni]

Spider??

Nah, You've got bogeymen living in the understairs cupboard.

 

[Judgey99]

When it first happened I did wonder whether the old lady who died here was paying us a visit!

 

[Alarm]

Is it programmed correctly for a start?
Are two devices on one zone?

What exactly do the logs say?
Have you any "high draw" items switching at night?

 

[Judgey99]

Yes there are two devices are on one zone (the zone which keeps setting the alarm off in the night). In that zone there is a door sensor contact and a pet friendly PIR which faces the front doo. Apparently I need to have the two in the same zone or the alarm would be activated as soon as I returned home and opened the front door, giving me no time to get to the keypad to input the code.
There are no high draw appliances which are turning on during the night and I'm sure it's been programmed properly as my dad knows I'm a pedantic woman when things aren't done properly and he's installed two of these alarms previously without such a problem occurring.
I tried to access the log today on the LED keypad but without success so I'm going to try again tomorrow in engineers mode.
My dad is at a loss to explain why it's only happening during the night and not when the alarm is set during the day. Do you think it might be connected to me omitting a zone at night?

 

[alumni]

You've been misinformed.
You need them two devices on seperate zones.
Example.
Z1 contact
Z2 Pir

Open front door when set, timer starts.
Z2 set to entry follow (or equiv) allows you to disarm system.

How do you think everyone else's systems are programmed??

 

[Judgey99]

I spoke to my dad earlier about this but he was adamant that they had to be on the same zone but I'll get him to put the door sensor and hall PIR on separate zones as you have suggested at the weekend.

In the meantime, I just need to try and get to the bottom of the night time false alarm before the neighbours lynch me!

 

[Alarm]

If the zones are done incorrectly then who knows what else is incorrect.
I am sorry to say your father is incorrect.
As has been pointed out.

Logs are a pain on the LED but can still be interpreted.
Get the LCD, stop skimping.

You could have a silent set running and as you go past the upstairs detector it ignores you, but detects as your in bed............a dog or cat moves about.

Without being there...............................

But sort out the wiring and programming and I think the issue will go away.

 

[Judgey99]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Another false alarm last night at 3.30am so it defo has to be sorted so all the wiring/programming will have to be looked at again. I've ruled out the omitting of the landing zone being the issue as last night the alarm was set as it would be when I'm going out during the day ie. no zones omitted and the front door mortice lock on.

I just don't understand how it only goes off in the middle of the night yet is fine when I'm out at work during the day.

I'm gona go into engineering mode to see if the last 8 activations have been logged. As you suggest, the LCD model would be much better for this type of thing than the LED but I just bought the keypad they brought out in the alarm shop, unaware that there was an LCD model. I also had the LED keypad in my last house with the Accenta and had no problems with it.

 

[Judgey99]

Update - I've got the event log details and they all point to zone 1 which is the hal PIR and front door sensor.

Whilst in engineering mode I checked the double knock and omit allow status of all the zones and found that the double knock was on for all and the omit allow was off for all. I have therefore turned the double knock off all zones as it's not recommended for zones with door contacts and turned the omit allow on for the upstairs landing zone. What are my chances of an undisturbed nights sleep now???? I'll let you know tomorrow

 

[Alarm]

It will probably go off again tonight.

 

[Judgey99]

You were right the alarm did go off again last night, at 3.20am to be precise!

I know there are issues with how the zones may have be set up but its a very basic set up with only 4 zones and nothing fancy has been programmed ie no multiple users etc so it's got to be something else causing these nightly false alarms. Its not a power surge caused by anything in my own house turning on in the early hours as I'm pedantic about unplugging stuff but could it be a power surge caused by something else in my road causing these false alarms?

It's really annoying now and I just hope that someone can shed some light on what is causing these regularly timed false alarms. I'd appreciate any advice on how to resolve this nightmare!

 

[Alarm]

Check the zones wiring, in the panel.
Is zone 1 actually Zone 2 wired into it and Zone 2 actually Zone 1 wired into that?

As before, "knowing" there are issues and not addressing them is not going to get it fixed.


And is the upstairs PIR looking into your bedroom?