Burglar Alarm Guide

Burglar Alarm Guide

We all like to think the worst will not happen to us. Yet with The News becoming more and more about bad news sometimes we can get caught up in concerns for our own home. While most of us may have home insurance there are other measures which can be taken in protecting your home from intruders.

Protecting Your Home

The urge to hire a team of guards to patrol the lawns and man the look-out tower while you bar the windows and get a start on the fifteen foot high wall to go around your property may be strong in some of our more worried moments – but there are other options. For example fitting a burglar alarm is a good way to keep your worries under control, and, while it may not stop someone breaking in to your home it might make them leave quickly once they’ve set off the alarm. Most alarms attempt to do three things, wake you, scare the burglar and alert the police.

Alarms also offer the bonus of saving you some money on your home insurance – usually you will need to prove purchase as well as it being in full working order.

Alarm Options

There are various different kinds of alarm available with prices ranging from a few hundred or so up to a few thousand.

The best type of alarm to go for, if you want to install it yourself, is the wireless type – less wires means less work! Usually you will set up a central control unit and a couple of sensors (probably around the door or window) which will each have its own “zone” designated to it.  Some wireless systems offer the ability to call 3 or more phone numbers and play a recorded message – this should be used to alert the relevant authorities as well as anyone close to you who may be able to help. One thing to remember about wireless systems is that some run on batteries – this necessitates changing the battery reasonably regularly. This might be something to put you off the completely wireless option.

Wired alarms require a certain amount of knowledge regarding wiring and electronics, and may not be able to be installed by you alone. Having your alarm installed by a trained alarm fitter is always going to offer you a little more peace of mind. Bonuses of the wired system are cheaper sensors and the siren is usually louder and more intimidating.

Both these systems work on a system of magnets and electric currents. Once the current drops (because of a separation of magnets – i.e. a burglar opening the window) the alarm sounds.

Other Options

A motion detector can be a good way of covering a single large area, rather than having several independent sensors. The infrared beam, when broken, sets off the alarm. There are downsides to this – the most obvious being that the intruder has to be inside your house before the alarm goes off. A more mundane annoyance which may come about from the IR motion sensor is that of pets. Naturally your furry friends can be mistaken for a burglar - if you see this as a possible consistent reoccurrence then you may have to rethink your alarm options.

Another form of detector you could install is a glass-breaking detector which will detect any attempts as break-in – this is more of a supplementary system rather than a complete solution in itself.

Having a good alarm and security system is the best way to keep peace of mind in these troubled times.