House Alaram : Advice Please

Indigoflower23

Hi All....would you mind giving us some advice. We live in Kilkenny City in a three bedroom house that is not prewired for a house alarm. We don't have a house phone line. We are looking to get a house alarm and honestly don't know what we should be asking for - or the price? There are 11 windows, a front door and a patio door in the house.

How much should we be paying for the alarm installation and what should we be looking for? Really want something secure. Thanks in advance for your help. Very much appreciated.

KoolKid

Ring around and get 3 company's to come out to do a proper survey & give you a detailed system design proposal & quotation. (This is what they are supposed to do anyway). Do not accept a quotation from someone not willing to come out and look at the property. This will only lead to surprise extras down the line.
Decide on the system you wan't and ask them to quote you for that. Remember , you are looking for a system that suits your needs not the installers.
Make sure you are comparing like with like.
As a minimum your system should have contact & shock sensor protection on all downstairs and accessible windows and internally a couple of PiRs (These can be adjusted for pets needs if you have any).
Don't accept quotations for a few internal PiRs only, these are installers looking for cheap, quick installations. On these systems someone has to have gained entry to your property before the alarm activates. By then the damage is done.
If your looking at maintenance & monitoring ask for that included in the quotation & what calls are covered. Some company's limit annual calls to 2.
You will have 1 service call at least , so that leaves you with 1 call annually.
Ask for a quotation covering all call outs. Many company's will do this at no extra cost.After all it is annual maintenance.
Re monitoring, UPC lines etc will work fine. Don't mind those who tell you it wont. They are just trying to sell you a dearer ,less secure, GSM.

Indigoflower23

Thanks so much for your quick reply Koolkid. You have made me feel better about getting three quotes..my friend thought I was being a bit over cautions doing that. Do you mind me asking what are Pirs? I know I phoned one place today and he seemed to mention that that each window is priced individually and he wouldn't recommend getting all the top ones done? I imagine they all should be connected, should they? apologies I know so very little about this. Thanks again for all your help.

KoolKid

PiRs are internal motion detectors.
I would only be alarming upstairs windows if they are easily accessible. ie over an extension or garage roof etc...

Indigoflower23

Thanks for that...at least now I have a bit more of an idea of what I am looking for..from looking around price seems to vary from 650 to 950 before monitoring ...hopefully now since bit more informed will make right decision all around. Thanks

KoolKid

The €650 sounds a bit cheap to be honest.

Indigoflower23

You think so? will do like you recommended and get them all to write up what providing and then see...thanks again

KoolKid

No problem, come back and let us know how you get on before making any decisions .

Indigoflower23

Will do Thanks again