Alarms... /rant

connundrum

At 6.05am this morning I was rudely disturbed from a dream involving me winning various trophies for various fabulous activities by a house alarm. The alarm continued to blare out until 7.45am. This is the second time in 7 days where this alarm has gone off very early in the morning. If it goes off a 3rd time, I will be forced to take drastic action involving a crowbar or sumsuch item.

What is the point in having an alarm these days anyway? I know for a fact that if my neighbor's house alarm were to go off I would not be going over to see if there was a burgaler inside - because there is a 90% chance that it's a false alarm. So I believe that all house alarms should be silent and should be monitored by either a security company or the Eircom Phonewatch thingy.

Car alarms are nearly worse, another neighbor has a new X5 and the alarm has gone off 20-30 times in the last week... which is great.

What constitutes noise pollution these days anyway? I think all these bleedin alarms should be put into the offending category.

I remember once when the couple next door went away for the weekend, and their alarm went off for 2 days solid. Of course they hadn't left contact details with anyone so we had to simply put up with it.

Down with this sort of thing.

/end rant.

ShiverinEskimo

Tell me about it. I live across from a factory and the alarm goes off constantly at the weekends - late at night and early in the morning.

Trouble is there's no law against it. It is "recommended" that the alarm cease after 15 minutes but many alarms are now programmed to do that only to begin again a minute later. We've tried talking to the people inthe factory and they apologise but are not willing to do anything about it. I wouldn't mind - but I'm just pissed off because of the sleep i'm losing - other people in my area are trying to raise babies.

HelterSkelter

I read a good solution to this before. Leave a brick on their doorstep with a note attached to it. The note should read "Next time your alarm goes off this brick goes through your window"!! They should get the message after seeing this!!

ThrownAway

Yeah they're terrible when you're trying to sleep.
But if we didn't have alarms there'd be a hell lot more robberies. They're vital for any business. I work in a library and set the alarm on my way out every evening if I didn't some scumbag could come along smash a window and rob all the computers without getting caught because there's an area in the back that has no cctv footage.

Ph3n0m

I live in an apartment block and the worst case was the neightbours had gone away for the weekend and ...yup the alarm went off on the Saturday and did not stop until Monday - when they got back.

Needless to say they are off my Christmas list, as I had some seriously abusive words for them when they came back - I literally was unable to sleep for 2 days straight and I was not pleasing to the eye in such a state.

Subsequently I found out that if the alarm is prolonged, you can actually call the Gardai to come and investigate it.

ThrownAway

HelterSkelter wrote:

I read a good solution to this before. Leave a brick on their doorstep with a note attached to it. The note should read "Next time your alarm goes off this brick goes through your window"!! They should get the message after seeing this!!

That's hilarious

Wait a minute... but if you give them that brick how are you going to get it back from them to throw it through their window

'' Next time your alarm goes off, a brick very similar to this one is going through your window''

Cutie18Ireland

ever since 2 houses in my cul de sac (including mine) where broken into we always check when an alarm goes off... ours went off christmas eve well christmas morning at 5am and it was someone trying to get in...

and we all have the phone watch ones

_Kaiser_

Last week the ESB went off in the area about half 3 in the morning with the result that it tripped everyone's house alarm (including ours!!). This went on for an hour because they started turning the power on and off while they were working on it... I was knackered that day!

Pigman II

connundrum wrote:

At 6.05am this morning I was rudely disturbed from a dream involving me winning various trophies for various fabulous activities by a house alarm.

What sort of guy dreams about 'winning trophies'? The achievement itself is the point. The trophy is just window-dressing. While we're at it what sort of guy uses the word 'fabulous'? Actually, don't answer that!

What is the point in having an alarm these days anyway? I know for a fact that if my neighbor's house alarm were to go off I would not be going over to see if there was a burgaler inside

You don't sound like you'd be much use anyway. The point (as I see it) is not to inform ones neighbours that one is being robbed but instead is to 'alarm' the burglar and perhaps get them to bugger-off in a hurry (with any luck without any of your valuable property). At the very least make the job of robbing ones home less convenient.

me and the biz

There was a problem with my next door neighbours alarm, kept going off at all hours two weeks ago... she goes away for a week saying it'll be fixed when she comes back... arrrrgghh result is me going in a few times to turn it off and reset. so annoying on a sunday morning, hungover having to get dressed and go to turn it off.

connundrum

Pigman II wrote:

What sort of guy dreams about 'winning trophies'? The achievement itself is the point. The trophy is just window-dressing. While we're at it what sort of guy uses the word 'fabulous'? Actually, don't answer that!

Thank you for making me feel like less of a man, I may run home and stick on my housecoat.. never to see the outside world again

Pigman II wrote:

You don't sound like you'd be much use anyway.

At what point did I volunteer my service? The last time I went to check on a neighbor's alarm, I was told in no uncertain terms to 'Get the fcuk off the property'. If a neighbor came to me at the start of a weekend, and said they'd be away for a coupla of days - 'would I mind throwing an eye over their house' - then I'd have no problem.

Pigman II wrote:

The point (as I see it) is not to inform ones neighbours that one is being robbed but instead is to 'alarm' the burglar and perhaps get them to bugger-off in a hurry (with any luck without any of your valuable property). At the very least make the job of robbing ones home less convenient.

Yes, I see the point of alarms. I also see that alarms are very flawed and are very feckin annoying when a cat bumps into a window - causing the entire neighborhood to be kept awake for an hour.

Pigman II

connundrum wrote:

Thank you for making me feel like less of a man

I wouldn't have thought that was possible? You are welcome however.

At what point did I volunteer my service?

You didn't. I never said you did and I'm pointing out that it was probably be for the best.

Yes, I see the point of alarms.

Then why ask 'What is the point in having an alarm these days anyway?' if you see their point?

connundrum

Pigman II wrote:

I wouldn't have thought that was possible? You are welcome however.


You didn't. I never said you did and I'm pointing out that it was probably be for the best.


Then why ask 'What is the point in having an alarm these days anyway?' if you see their point?

:rolleyes: Who's a bit of a moaning michael today then.

ShiverinEskimo

How did a rant about alarms turn into an argument over one's manliness. Boards never ceases to amaze me.

Aye - there is a complaints procedure through the courts for persistent alarms but you have to shown yourself to have approached the offending party and attempted to negotiate a solution first. We are going through this procedure ourselves and getting the other residents to include themselves - they have massive extractor fans going from 6 each morning which don't require planning permission but are almost impossible to sleep through. Then when you finally get to the weekend and look forward to a lie in their alarm goes off from 5 o clock in the morning.

I've been keeping a full log of times/dates and stuff for the record. It really is affecting our lives on a pretty big level as this is not every once in a while - this is every other day. The alarm sounds during insocial hours on average 4 times a week.

If anyone ever needs to steal some factory equipment give me a shout because the alarm goes for about 3 hours unnoticed and at this stage the residents would applaud anyone who burgles the place.

What else is killer is that we live in a listed building and so are not allowed by law to install double-glazing.

Lone Wolf

I was asleep on the couch at my folk house on saturday night, fell alseep half way through watching a film. At 3am I was woken up by my dads car alarm going off. It never goes off so was concerned, ran out to the back of the house looking round thinking somebody was going to be about so I grabbed a hurley from the back door, its the culchie thing to do And ran round looking for any sign of people but there was nothing.

Well it turns out that it was my little sisters R plates falling from the front windscreen setting off the motion sensors, felt like a tit when I figured it out.

But its damn annoying getting woken up like that and then trying to get back to sleep is a pain too.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Ph3n0m wrote:

Subsequently I found out that if the alarm is prolonged, you can actually call the Gardai to come and investigate it.

From Oasis

http://oasis.gov.ie/environment/noise_regulations.html wrote:

A European standard for external intruder alarms replaced all current national standards in September, 2003. The new standard incorporates stricter controls regarding minimum and maximum duration for the sounding of alarms. The new limits are 90 seconds minimum and 15 minutes maximum. However, the new controls only apply to alarms fitted from September, 2003.

Also includes more details on how/where to complain about noise

Pigman II

connundrum wrote:

:rolleyes: Who's a bit of a moaning michael today then.

Clearly you are. I didn't start this thread.

connundrum

Lone Wolf wrote:

I was asleep on the couch at my folk house on saturday night, fell alseep half way through watching a film. At 3am I was woken up by my dads car alarm going off. It never goes off so was concerned, ran out to the back of the house looking round thinking somebody was going to be about so I grabbed a hurley from the back door, its the culchie thing to do And ran round looking for any sign of people but there was nothing.

Well it turns out that it was my little sisters R plates falling from the front windscreen setting off the motion sensors, felt like a tit when I figured it out.

But its damn annoying getting woken up like that and then trying to get back to sleep is a pain too.

This post opitimizes my thinking..

Yes, if someone had been breaking into the car - the alarm would have served it's purpose and hopefully the thief would have fecked off. But the thing is that for a huge proportion of the time, the alarm will go off for a silly reason. And the alarm doesn't just affect the owner of the vehicle, I'm sure that it woke up everyone in the near vicinity... this is my gripe

ShiverinEskimo

Car alarms should be able to call the owner's mobile and/or house phone these days. Do away with loud alarms that people ignore these days.