Are you thinking of having security system put in place at home, and you're wondering what to expect from a home security alarm installation? Look no further: read our quick guide on how home security alarms are installed!
The first step of an alarm installation- or any security installation for that matter- is to assess your home. This assessment is only brief, and consists of having a little look around the inside and outside of your home. The engineer won't poke around your laundry room- unless you want your alarm installed in there, to keep your washing safe- they'll just look around enough to figure out how best to place and install your alarm.
The point of the site assessment is to pinpoint the ideal position for your security equipment. Installing security cameras is a good example: there's no point having a camera pointed at the wall! Through the site assessment, we make sure that that scenario could never happen: all cameras would be placed looking along hallways, for instance.
The same applies to installing a home security alarm. You want to make sure that it's close to to the main entry points of the house, where you'll be able to quickly and easily turn it on and off, and input your pass code. The site assessment will also take into account the task of where best to install the alarm in terms of the electrics: can the alarm be installed in a particular place with a minimum of wiring having to be installed?
Home security alarm installation: putting everything in place
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When you have your actual alarm installed, it actually doesn't take too long. The engineer has to do two things: install the wiring that's going to power the alarm (or alarms), and then fit the alarm itself. The part that takes the longest is doing the wiring. This depends on your house, more than anything. Some houses, particularly older ones, have erratic and unpredictable wiring; but no matter what kind of house you live in, the engineer will try and make sure they don't have to knock through any walls just to install your alarm.
Once the engineer finishes the wiring, they'll move on to fitting the alarm. It isn't too complicated. It basically involves plugging the alarm in through the back of the system. Afterwards, the engineer fixes the alarm to the wall. If you want more than one alarm, installing them will obviously take twice as long. So prepare to make a cup of coffee or two for your hard working electrician!
After we install your system, we have to configure it. To configure your alarm system, we have to ask you: what would you like it to do? Obviously, it's for keeping burglars out, but we don't mean that. What we mean is that we can configure the system to know when you'll be leaving in the morning, when you'll be coming home in the evening, and what days you work. That way, it can know when to expect you, and it won't call the police when you arrive home from work.
Configuring the system is something you can do yourself. But while we're there, we may as well do it for you! It won't take long, and all it involves is asking you a few questions about your schedule. If you're more of a private person, we can skip this step. It's up to you. Either way, we'll leave a manual for you after we finish installing your alarm. You can use the manual to figure out how to program the security alarm yourself. For anybody of a certain age, it will probably remind you of setting your VCR to record something after you go to bed!
The last thing we'll do before we leave is test your system for you. This, of course, is just to make sure that it works as intended, and as programmed. There's no reason why it shouldn't work at all; the only fault we're likely to find at this point is that the timing instructions might be a little off- in other words, which times to expect you and which times to suspect a burglar is breaking in.
The test is pretty simple. It's a case of pretending to break in and seeing if the alarm goes off! If you would like, you can jimmy your own window and sneak in to see if the security alarm detects you as it should. If you'd rather not, we can do it for you!
It is possible to install your own security system, and it will save you money on the initial installation fee. But we recommend having a professional install it for you, and here's why: