With 26/11 fresh in the mind and after reading about so many house break ins, we decided to enhance the peripheral security of our office premises. We have installed cameras hooked into a server monitoring the inside of our office. We looked for additional Burglar alarms for added safety.
Inspired by the article here: - https://targetwoman.com/articles/burglar-alarm-system.html, we decided to go with motion detecting PIR device based Alarm system to avoid false alarms and ease of use.
We looked around and found one - ZIRCOM Burglar alarm package which comes with :
Central Control Unit
Hooter or the Siren
Passive Infra red Motion Detectors 2
Handheld remote control to arm/disarm
Door Sensor
The primary advantage of this package is everything is connected to the main control unit through RF signals obviating the need for drawing wires. So installation was a breeze and the dealer installed the whole set up in a matter of a couple of hours.
It basically works like this - you arm the unit and it monitors the main door through the door sensor. It also monitors the inside of your business premises or your home through 2 strategically placed PIR(passive infrared sensors) motion detectors. If there is any activity inside or the door is opened, it sets off a ear piercing alarm - well almost. The siren is not loud enough to hear from outside. But it is enough to frighten the casual thief.
There are no wires connecting anything to anything and so tampering with the wires is not possible for the thief. Each unit is self contained with rechargeable Nicad batteries. Only the Control unit and the Hooter require external power supply to keep the batteries in a charged state.
Everytime you go out, you will have to arm the unit using the remote key (similar to the car remote controls) which is acknolwdged by the Hooter by a string of chirps. This is a bad idea as people around get to know that you are going out or coming in. It should be silenced.
Another major crib is the control unit can be programmed to accept any of the sensors units to be armed or disarmed at will - but you have to memorize a sequence in order to this. This can be a pain and you are not sure if you have done it correctly as there is no visual indication.
Despite these shortcomings, it serves the purpose adequately.
