Alarm Panel Main Components

• PIR - Passive Infra-red detector.  This is your stock standard motion detector.  Most now are pet friendly with mass adjustments from 15 to 25KG.  The LED can be turned off in bedrooms so as not to annoy occupants.  If you are intending on leaving pets inside, be aware that even a small animal if it is highly active can still cause an activation.  If you have an older animal, they are normally pretty relaxed and don't generally cause any problems.  PIRs come in various forms, wall mount ceiling mount, hardwired, wireless and even with microwave detection if the area is susceptible to airflow which can cause a normal PIR to think it is seeing a person, great for old garages.
  

• Glass Break Sensor - Used for detecting the sound of breaking glass.  Security wise people may request these but it is not standard.
  

• Contacts - Contact switches can be used on doors or windows to detect before a person has gained entry to the premises, a great add on.

• Keypad - A keypad can be used to arm and disarm the whole site or just a single area.  It can also be set up to activate panic alarms.  Keypads come in various shapes and sizes, some are esthetically pleasing, some are not!  We recommend LCD or Touch Screen Keypads.  When used with our Control4 system, a Keypad may not be required, this suits the situation well when building architectural designs that are minimalistic.

• Pendants - Keychain pendants are an extremely useful add on to an alarm system.  So long as you are within range, the alarm can be armed or disarmed with the press of one button.  Pendants normally have 4 buttons, we often program gates and garage doors to be opened with the spare buttons.

• Sirens - Sirens are used inside and outside to warn neighbours as well as scare off any potential threat.  The siren should only go for a maximum of 5 minutes and then reset.  An alarm that does not have a 5 minute timer is a source of noise pollution and tends to annoy neighbours and can even be ignored when it shouldn't be.

• Smoke Detectors - We recommend using hard-wire smoke detectors in houses as they never go flat and don't tend to give false alarms.  Linked to the alarm we can also monitor a fire activation.  We use at least 1 internal siren per floor so when the alarm goes off, no one will sleep through it!

• Monitoring - Alarm monitoring costs as little as $1 a day and gives extra piece of mind.  The client has their own code and lets say a duress alarm has been activated, the client can receive a call from a operator who will ask discretely if the police need to be called.  If you are on holiday, and your alarm goes off a Security Guard will be sent to the site to inspect the property, this can all help to decrease the risk of loosing your prized possessions.  The same applies for any workplace environment.