Got a text from my neighbour. House alarm is continually going off. I’m at work 200 miles away (back home tomorrow night). Mrs North is 50 miles away and due back some time later. It will be the loudest sound in the village….

So, given that I can control my heating remotely (Nest thermostat), it seems sensible that (when we do a load of work to the house next year) the alarm is upgraded to something a bit more intelligent.

But what? Any hints or tips to “smarten” up my security gratefully received! (Or, if not, could you drop some earplugs round for my neighbours?).

Thanks!

So, given that I can control my heating remotely (Nest thermostat), it seems sensible that (when we do a load of work to the house next year) the alarm is upgraded to something a bit more intelligent.

If you can disable it remotely, so it can be done by someone else. Whether that’s going to happen, I am not sure. But it’s possible. If you end up going that route, at least get a CCTV or something that you can watch in real time so that you know what’s going on.

I grew up in Lithuania and the alarm systems are being installed by security companies that also have security staff. If the alarm is triggered, they respond and arrive within a certain time limit. I am not sure if that’s available in the UK, but that might be the best option.

The alarm should reset after 30 mins or its a noise nuisance IIRC. If I was your neighbour I would remove the siren from the box if it doesn’t reset. I have done this with alarms in my stairwell. ( can you believe fitting a alarm siren in a stairwell?)

Probably other stuff on the market but my employer has started fitting RISCO stuff that can be remote set via a cloud app, you get notification of alarm events, set and unset etc. Can also link in pir triggered Web cams etc so if it goes off you can check the property remotely.

Do you not have a neighbour or friend with a spare key?

You get intelligent alarms that connect to your phone. Several on amazon.

( can you believe fitting a alarm siren in a stairwell?)

An old friend of mine was a live-in caretaker at an office complex. The complex owners decided the best place to put the alarm sirens – one for each of the tenants- on the wall above his bed. 🙂

The alarm should reset after 30 mins or its a noise nuisance IIRC.

In practice it just starts again and repeats for days until someone turns it off or drills a hole through the sounder….

I can enable/disable my house alarm via txt message or dialling in to it.

Lots of alarm systems have this capability now.

No help on the alarm but I’ve just installed a Nest Cam for my brother – nice piece of kit with movement notifications and loads of other features.

Just wrote a very long winded reply of advice then lost it when closed phone.
So, in summary, get a professional company in to give you advice.
Most systems nowadays have apps, some good, some bad, none of them will turn off a faulty external siren.

Do you know whether your alarm is going off, or whether you’ve been burgled?

Don’t worry – we resolved the annoying false alarm.

It got me thinking – yes, no good having remote control if we’re being burgled!

Any makes/features you can all recommend?

Thanks!

A texecom panel with com-gsm modulle will provide some control via sms. You get a text stating “alarm” if a single sensor has gone off and a “confirmed alarm” if multiple sensors have been triggered.

The COM-IP module also lets you run a keypad emulator on your phone if you open a port through your router to access it.

Thanks zzrmatt