Home Security Facts

Every home security system should have an interior siren.

When a burglar breaks in, you want them afraid to proceed with their burglary. One of the things that scares them the most is the siren going off.

Most sirens are close to 100 decibels, and they will surely hear it. It tells the burglar two things: 1) these people actually have a security system, and 2) there is shortly going to be someone calling the police.

Common sense tells the crook, “Get yourself outta here!”, and you know what? They almost always do when the siren goes off.

Of course, the siren also alerts you, if you’re home and there’s a break-in. It’s scary, but better that you should know than have the burglar entering your home secretly.

Sidenote: Exterior (outdoor) sirens are not very popular anymore, for obvious reasons. Most time a siren goes off, it’s the homeowner accidentally setting off the alarm. Maybe we forgot it was armed and opened the door in the morning to let the dog or cat out. If a loud alarm blasted to the neighbors every time that happened, the neighbors wouldn’t be too happy. And they probably wouldn’t pay much attention to it anyway, as you’ll often see in the case of car alarms.

But the Interior Siren is a vital part of your burglar alarm. Don’t leave home without it. In fact, don’t STAY home without it, either

You will definitely want door contacts included in your home security system. Most burglar alarm kits automatically include them.

There are two main kinds of door contacts, “hard-wired” and “wireless”. In this article we will deal with the wireless.

There are two advantages to wireless door contacts:

1. They are very easy to install, in most cases.
2. They can be place on virtually any door, even those which cannot be accessed for hard-wired contacts.

Examples of places where a hard-wired contact cannot be installed would be in a home with a cement slab on the main floor, or a bi-level home with a cement slab, since the installer can’t get under the floor to drill into the door casing from below.

In any case, wireless contacts of the disadvantage of requiring individual batteries, although they can be expected to last for two or three years or more.

The wireless contact typically consists of two pieces, one attached to the door itself, and one attached to the frame of the door. Most are rectangular box-shaped pieces, but some are recessed into the door and door frame, similarly to a hard-wired contact.

The two pieces are placed directly facing each other, but not touching. They are “connected” by waves traveling through the small air space between them. In this way, when the door is opened, the “connection” between them is broken, and the alarm is set off.

Simple, even primitive as modern technology goes, but very effective, and crucial to your home security system, because doors are the most popular entry point for burglars.