Need to get one fit.

We’ve had and extension done and the house renovated and at the same time. The electrician pre-wired 12 core alarm cable into the house to future proof for an alarm.

With all the wiring done can I just buy the bits?

What’s a half decent system?

No experience, sorry, but it made £2 difference to my annual insurance – are you sure it’s worth the effort?

It will anoy the neighbours and if it rings /sounds for more than 45 , the council can breakin and disable it, and you get billed.Quite heavily.

Get a qaulified tradesman to do the work.

Need to get one fit

Yeah, why? They’re pretty much universally ignored if they go off and make pi$$-all difference on insurance premiums.

I’d spend the money on beefy locks and stuff if it’s piece of mind that you’re after, stop the scrotes getting in in the first place.

What IHN said. I’ve disabled a number of ringing alarms over the years (parents, friends and my own). No one bats an eyelid if your up a ladder twatting the bell off the wall except to say thank you.

Late on a Sat evening after working all day lifting bricks and things I accidently triggered the alarm in the house I was renovating. With it ringing in the background I rang the number on the box ‘£400 mate for me to come out and sort it’- I hung up and ripped the lot out.

My insurance company had a discount for alarms but it required an alarm system that had an annual checkup/contract. Discount, ooh, £10, cost of yearly check £80. Bit of non-brainer especially since the insurance company required me to switch the alarm on overnight downstairs even if I was in the house (thus waking up family when I get up early for work switching it off).

Only experience of alarms going off is a tale my mate told me. Someone set off his alarm, police came round, nothing to see. Scrotes cam round 30 minutes later setting alarm off again but no-one batted an eyelid thinking it was still a false alarm as they cleared the place out.

Anybody know anything about house alarms?

Yes, nobody pays the slightest attention to them.

I’ll just starve the dog then

I’ll just starve the dog then

Make sure you keep the sharks/crocs in the moat hungry too.

The sharks have “Lasers!”

Well, contrary to all of the above, I would not be without a house alarm.
With young children in the house, I sleep much easier at night knowing the downstairs is alarmed. Know too many people that have been broken in to whilst they slept.
Put my alarm in myself in two houses, both wired systems bought from Alert Electrical. Very dependable systems, never had any false alarms in 8 years, and it is always set at night, and when house is empty.

http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/1555/texecom-excel-burglar-alarm-systemkit

The sharks have “Lasers!”

Ah, well, you’re laughing then. Sleep tight 🙂

Get a system installed with a “sound bomb”.
As said above, nobody pays any attention to the outside bell nowadays but I’ve stood inside a house whilst the sound bomb was being tested and it bloody hurt my ears and I mean really painful.
Think about a smoke cloak or similar to cover the downstairs only. I stood in a room at the security show I had to attend when it was demo’ed, within 5 seconds I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Couple that with a sound bomb and the intruder won’t be hanging around, I can guarantee that. Either that or you’ll find him unconscious on the floor after he’s ran into a door frame that he couldn’t see.
There’s a few vids on YouTube that show smoke cloaks being activated.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdQvA6ZBBvM&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

Get a combined burglar / fire alarm. Stick detectors and sounders upstairs and downstairs (heat only in the kitchen) and you’ve got a nice combination.

I’ve got a Yale Premium Alarm, which is wireless and rings you when its going off which is useful, and its insurance certified

Combined with CCTV it took my insurance down from 3.5K to 1K a year.

Might fit a sound bomb as well though, as I think I know how to set that up now.

We’ve got an ADT monitored alarm so they phone us when it goes off. Only gone off a couple of times in several years, both our fault… To be honest, we probably wouldn’t bother if it wasn’t a condition of our house insurance.

where do you people live???

I quite often forget to lock the front door…