How useless is the alarm on our new house?

Troy McClure

Am wondering are people aware of the following. Anyone who has built a new house over the last couple of years apparently is required by regulation to have a trip switch at the meter box. This regulation is apparently to make a cut off point where power enters the house in case someone drills through a cable within the house.
Whats to stop anyone from simply opening the meter box outside and turning off your power? I called the alarm company who said the back up battery should last at least 24house! covering most power cuts.
What if your away on holidays? Apparently someone can flip a switch then come back two days later to an unalarmed house! Alarm company says when battery is running out the alarm outside will go off for twenty minutes but there wont be enough power to sent out text alerts.
How can this be allowed to happen? How can regulations create this senario?

antiskeptic

Troy McClure wrote: »

Am wondering are people aware of the following. Anyone who has built a new house over the last couple of years apparently is required by regulation to have a trip switch at the meter box. This regulation is apparently to make a cut off point where power enters the house in case someone drills through a cable within the house.
Whats to stop anyone from simply opening the meter box outside and turning off your power? I called the alarm company who said the back up battery should last at least 24house! covering most power cuts.
What if your away on holidays? Apparently someone can flip a switch then come back two days later to an unalarmed house! Alarm company says when battery is running out the alarm outside will go off for twenty minutes but there wont be enough power to sent out text alerts.
How can this be allowed to happen? How can regulations create this senario?

I would have thought the backup battery in an alarm would last far longer than 20 minutes after the power is cut off. I can't think of any aspect of the system which would apply any significant load afterall.

Try it out and see..

fclauson

Have the system monitored - they will then tell you if it goes to back up battery or off line

Troy McClure

antiskeptic wrote: »

I would have thought the backup battery in an alarm would last far longer than 20 minutes after the power is cut off. I can't think of any aspect of the system which would apply any significant load afterall.

Try it out and see..

Battery lasts 24 hours

fclauson wrote: »

Have the system monitored - they will then tell you if it goes to back up battery or off line

We dont have the landline needed as there is no broadband in our area so its a waste of money, thus we have a text alert system when alarm is activated.

shanered

Should you not have landline?
Its not the build regs fault if you decide not to get one....

Troy McClure

shanered wrote: »

Should you not have landline?
Its not the build regs fault if you decide not to get one....

This hardly warrants an answer but I keep it simple.

1. Should we have to get a landline because of this regulation induced scenario. As it happens we have an IP landline which is not supported.
2. Should we be forced to pay for monitoring of our alarm because of same.

I can think of numerous solutions without knee jerking...

whizbang

Your alarm control panel should have enough battery to power it totally for a minimum of 24Hours. That means if it needs to send txts every hour, then the battery should be sufficient size to allow this to happen.

Test it yourself. Replace or upscale battery as needed.

battery is running out the alarm outside will go off for twenty minutes

Most likely the bell box has its own battery.

Edit: the alarm forum here has some very knowledgeable people on it.