Texacom - Extending house - what to do with alarm?

[skyhawker]

Hi, we have an Elite 24

We are looking at building a rear extension.

Is it possible to just extend the alarm cables to reach the new windows? Should we be looking rather at ricochet?
Any recommendations for reasonable london based installer?

 

[secureiam]

firstly, how many zones currently taken up?

whats the construction/ location of the panel and its it 24-W or 24 metal/ polymer?

 

[skyhawker]

Not sure what to check for on the hardware end but please see attached the Wintex screengrab.

Panel is located in under stairs cupboard and is metal.

 

[secureiam]

okay you can remove the image if you wish.

I can see that the panel zones are utilised and that 2 keypad zones have been used, you can add one external 8XP-W.

This does tell me you have a polyer or metal Elite 24 but no built in wireless as you have 8 hardwired zones at the panel end.

Yes you can extend the wires, just want make sure they are joined properly and that the overall distance isn't long and used good quality alarm cable.

wireless has its own issues and that is primarily batteries and signal strength, also signal jamming, so certainly wouldn't advise wireless replacements if you can indeed utilise the hardwired connections.

 

[skyhawker]

Thanks so much.

Pre extension we currently have a 1x PIR, 3 x window contacts and 2 x backdoor. Extension is going to have a bifold door and skyroof window.

So I could just extend the PIR to position better. That leaves with 5 available wires. 1 I would use for the roof window and how many would a bifold door need? Any ideas for the rest?

Also how does one extend the alarm cable? An electrical terminal block?

And finally the extension will be open plan with the room being something like 6m x 6m would 1 PIR do the job?

 

[DIWhat]

I'm not a security installer...

There are alarm junction boxes, which you can use to help extend the cable.

If you're using magnetic surface contacts then you just need two wires per contact, but that depends on how you have your tamper set up. Are you using the global tamper loop or resistors for tamper?

If the bifold isn't a normal entry point for you then do you really need a sensor specifically for it if it's covered by a PIR? Same for the skyroof window.

 

[Alarm Engineer]

Extend all wires and match each colour, take new cables to new locations then post back again here.

If using a movement sensor and the room is likey to generate alot of heat in the summer then your need a Dual-Technology sensor.

 

[secureiam]

there are lots of different methods for extending cables, if the cables need to remain hidden for example, then it will depend on where you join them as to what options are best for your install.