Son has new 3 bed house and wants to fit a house alarm, being a new build a wireless system will be the easiest to fit.

Any other makes apart from Yale to look at?

I had a Yale one a few years back – used to randomly go off at stupid o’clock in the morning even when it wasn’t set.
I remember one time I was up a ladder at 3am ripping the siren box off the wall to get the batteries out as it wouldn’t silence. Strangely no one seemed to question a guy up ladder ripping an activated alarm off a wall at that time of the morning……

Wired for me.

No PIR’s – hard wired door contacts and window foil as well.

Too many false alarms from PIR’s.

texecom premier kit. proper reliable.

I have a DIY yale smart alarm, installed myself a year ago. Not a single false alarm so I’m happy with it. The separate IP camera in the garage pings me a lot with moths flying about and the like, but the PIR has not triggered (and yes it does work with me walking in there). Also have door sensors

Cheap and gives me peace of mind – if I hear noise at night (old house) it isn’t someone creeping about. If I come home and the alarm is going at least I am forewarned there may be a burglar in the house (unlike the time we were burgled and it was a massive shock)

I don’t think anyone actually bothers to respond to an alarm these days unless you spend a lot on a proper monitored system.

I don’t think anyone actually bothers to respond to an alarm these days unless you spend a lot on a proper monitored system.

Very much depends on your neighbours. Our little block of roads is a proper old fashioned neighbourhood where most people know everyone and still keep an eye out for each other.

Our alarm has gone off a couple of times when we’ve been having electrical work done and had a couple of neighbours around in minutes.

As for the alarm – agree wired is the way to go. Much more reliable and neat fitting can be achieved in pretty much any premises.

Have a look at Visonic.
I have mine so I can log on via the web and it sends me alert texts.

http://www.powermax-alarm.co.uk

Oh and these days CCTV is probably a) more of a deterrent and b) gives you more chance of catching the bastards than an alarm. Again a modest wired system should suffice for most situations.

+1 for Visonic.

I’ve had one installed for 12 years and other than occasionally changing batteries in the detectors it’s worked flawlessly.

Having had our garage done over while we were in bed we got one of the Yale smart alarms. Installed it myself and it all seems to work pretty well.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/yale-sr-330-yale-smart-home-alarm-view-kit/4271j

No false alarms, the app is a bit clunky but it works, everything was pre programmed and worked straight out of the box (which seemed to be the main complaint from the reviews).

It’s quite handy that we can remotely arm the system, we’re forever forgetting to do it as we herd 2 kids out of the house, also get an alert if the alarm goes off and we’re not around.

Had a Visonic but even with the pet-safe PIRs the cat would manage to trigger it.

Personally I reckon a fake alarm is just as effective as the real thing.