The whole story...
Bought house with a monitored Galaxy 8 alarm installed (out of contract). Zones are 4 internal PIR's, 1 garage PIR, 2 door contacts and 1 carbon monoxide sensor. It had an MK7 keypad, internal siren/dialler, exit speaker/horn and 2 exterior dummy boxes. The dialler was disconnected and I only had a user code. The motherboard was completely different to the Ademco Galaxy 8 that it said on the label and I couldn't get an engineer's code for it. The system worked ok but obviously only made a noise inside the house when triggered, and I couldn't change zone settings etc.
This was my first alarmed house and if I'd bought it without an alarm it probably still wouldn't have one. However, as it's fitted, it might as well work, right? So, after at least a year of not using it at all (and not worrying about not using it either), I did some research and decided that I might as well upgrade it since it was about 11 years old anyway. That led on to changing the panel to a Galaxy 2-12, swapping the keypad to one with volume control and Keyprox, fitting an external siren/strobe, and using the existing wiring, sensors and horn.
But what about the cat? So for the first while I set the system, day and night, so that if he set it off it only sounded the internal horn and didn't annoy the whole street. Perfect, even when we baby-sat some gerbils on the dining table and locked the cat out the room. But, the day after handing the rodents back and allowing the cat back in, the dining table must still smell a bit of Midnight and Star and if you're a cat you must investigate this and set off the PIR. Ok, the dining room isn't the room you'd burgle our house from, and bear in mind we weren't too bothered when we didn't use the alarm at all anyway, so that sensor was disabled. Another few weeks on with no false alarms and the siren was set up properly. Now fast forward about 8 months and the lounge PIR trips one day, and again about a week later. Ok we'll lock the cat out the lounge. Great, now the lounge one is good but he sets off the hall one.
So, this all leads up to what I'm trying to do. I have 4 internal PIR's, it seems Felix will set off the dining room on the odd occasion that he fancies a walk on the table. It seems he'll set off the lounge occasionally if we let him in there when we're not in, it seems he's going to set off the hall one if he can't get to the lounge for a look out the back window, and he's never set off the upstairs one. So I'm trying to decide whether to change 3 or all 4 PIR's, and if I need to spend thirty quid on each of them or if I can get away with forty quid for all four. Does it sound like a cunning plan to get one of the tenner Bosch sensors like the link earlier and fit it in my worst zone, then walk test the cat by placing some Tasty Chicken Dreamies on the table and throwing him in? Assuming he doesn't set it off then I can replace the other 3 with the same cheaper ones. However if he sets it off then fit that one upstairs and get 3 expensive ones for the zones he actually sets off.
As a side note about nuisance alarms the siren has only sounded twice with false alarms and both times were during the day. I will test or soak test any new sensors so that they won't create a noise outside if activated. I can also appreciate that some readers might suggest that I get an alarm company in but I'm the kind of guy who likes to play about with things so, sorry, but I'll only do that as a last resort.
As a side side note if you're a burglar then please ignore everything above. The truth is I have lots of sensors everywhere, they all work perfectly. I even have sensors on my sensors. The cat is really two territorial, ferocious and rarely fed Rhodesian Ridgebacks. The alarm is always on and we're uber paranoid about security. So much so, in fact, that our system has complete body, face and everything else recognition sensors and we'll have your mother's maiden name and your blood group within 1.3 seconds of you even thinking about breaking in.
Thanks again for your input, and any further suggestions welcome