There are 3 primary components of basic burglar alarms that you need to be aware of if you are considering installing any of these alarms in order to prevent a burglar from breaking into your home and stealing your valuables. These include:
- the central control panel
- additional detection devices
- a siren or sounding device
Your central control panel is the brains of your burglar alarms as it processes critical information that is sent to it by the detection devices integrated in your system in order to decide what action it should take when the alarms are triggered. Depending on how you have programmed your system, the siren can be triggered to go off immediately or it can be placed on a time-delayed set up.
Conversely, if your system is connected to a 24-hour monitoring service, there may be no need for a siren at all as this will not be a necessary component. You can also use your central control panel for arming or disarming your burglar alarms by using the keypad or by using a remote device. You can also program it to include or omit different zones within the home or around your property if you want.
There are hard-wired and wireless burglar alarms and the central control panel on the hard-wired systems is typically larger than those on the wireless systems. Regardless, all of these detection devices must be wired to the central control panel, hence the need for them to be larger than the control panels that are used for wireless alarms. These require minimal wiring and a smaller area to mount them in.
Basic applications
There are two basic applications for all burglar alarms – indoor or outdoor. Indoor burglar alarms usually operate using up to six different types of different detectors:
- ultrasonic
- photo-electric beams
- passive infrared
- microwave
- glass-break
- carbon monoxide, heat, and smoke
Different types of detectors used with outdoor burglar alarms include:
- taut wire fence systems
- passive magnetic field detection
- microwave barriers
- microphonic systems
- inertia or shaker (vibration) sensors
- fiber optic cable
- E-field or H-field detectors
Additional considerations
Remember that any time you are shopping for indoor or outdoor burglar alarms, whether hard-wired or wireless, you want to be sure and do your research on everyone that you consider so you get the one that best suits you and your family’s needs.
