Introduction To Burglar Alarm Systems For The Home
October 23, 2010 by Nicholas Halmond
Filed under Cameras
Home safety is a major concern for lots of folks these days. In many cases, there are blocks of time when no one is at home. The thought of break ins during the night can be a scary detriment to good sleep. Someone with either or both of these situations may want to consider one of the many burglar alarm systems available.
Burglar alarm systems have a number of sensors that are connected to a central control unit. The control unit can turn the sensors on or off. Sensors report possible problems such as intrusions to the control. If it determines that there is a good probability of a real threat, it may generate local alarms or messages to a security monitoring station.
A number of sensor types are available for the detection of motion indoors. Passive infrared detectors sense the body heat of a person. Ultrasonic and microwave detectors create emission fields that are disrupted by movement within the field being monitored. Photo electric beam detectors send a beam of light to a light sensor. If the beam is broken, the sensor will trigger.
Glass break detectors are indoor detectors that sense the sound of breaking glass. Some systems also have detectors for either smoke, heat, or carbon monoxide. While not directly related to burglary in most cases, these do help mitigate the risk of fire or carbon monoxide from either fire or a defective appliance.
Most home systems primarily use indoor sensors. A number of types of outdoor sensors are also available. Some of them are based on the technologies used for indoor systems. The usually sense efforts to go over or through a wall or a fence.
The sensors may be connected to the control unit with wires, or a wireless interface may be used. Wired connections can send power to the sensors. They are more work to set up initially, and are vulnerable to someone cutting the wire. The risk of cutting may be alleviated by doing frequent health checks between the control and the sensor. If the sensor stops replying, this may indicate a cut or other problem.
Wireless is easier initially, because there are no wires. It is generally harder to disrupt, depending on the wireless technology used. Power for the sensors can come from batteries for line power.
The control unit must inform someone via an alarm when there is a problem. A flashing light or a sound such as a siren, voice, or buzzer will do the job locally. There may be a private line to a security center, or the public phone network or a wireless interface may be used for the central alarm. The signal may go to an alarm company security center, or it may go to the police. Some areas have banned direct connection to a police station.
The user must have some facility for turning the system on and off and for modifying the configuration. It is common to have different scenarios for night time, day time with people home, and all people gone. To avoid false alarms, it must be easy to tell the system when the last person leaves or the first person arrives.
Those are some basics of burglar alarm systems. They can be a little complex, but they are often worth the investment needed to buy them, install them, and learn how to use them. Once they are running they should make you more secure with little or no impact on how you do things.
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