Business alarm system

One system watches doors, movement and glass, and the things that have nothing to do with intruders — water on a floor, a room getting too warm. When the freezer fails at 2am, somebody finds out that night.

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The panel it all reports to, usually in a closet

Most of what goes wrong overnight is not a break-in

A pipe lets go over a weekend, a walk-in drifts up through the night, a server room’s cooling stops on Friday afternoon. None of it trips a burglar alarm.

They are the same shape of problem: something changed in an empty building and nobody found out until morning. The sensing differs; the alerting is identical.

So they belong on one system, rather than a burglar alarm plus a separate box for the freezer that somebody stops checking.

Everything arrives at the same place, which is why a freezer drifting overnight reaches somebody the same way a door does.

What you get

What the building can report overnight

Sensors are the cheap part and the wiring is the expensive part, so the useful question is what is worth hearing about.

Doors and windows opening

Contacts sit on the openings that matter and arm on a schedule, so a door at 3am is an alert and the same door at 8am is not.

Movement in an empty room

The motion sensing takes its hours from the same schedule as everything else, so it is not the alarm that gets switched off for crying wolf.

Glass breaking

The sensor listens for the sound instead of waiting for someone to cross a beam, which is the difference between catching entry and catching presence.

Water where it should not be

Sensors go under a sink, behind a heater, on a plant room floor. The water sensor is the cheapest on the system and the one that most often pays for the rest.

Temperature drifting

Walk-ins, server rooms and stock rooms are watched against a range, with the alert going while there is still time to act.

A log of what actually happened

Every trip recorded with a time, so a question about last Tuesday has an answer instead of a theory.

The equipment

The panel, the sensing and the thing that makes the noise

The sensors themselves are small white units that disappear into a door frame, which is the point of them. These are the three parts anybody would actually notice.

The panel it all reports to, usually in a closet

Watches water, temperature and humidity in one place

Outdoor horn, for when the response has to be heard

How it works

How the work runs

What the alerts should cover

The list is written down first, because the sensors fall out of it. Most people start with two or three things and add later.

A walk of the openings

The walk covers doors, windows and the rooms worth watching, plus where the panel goes and whether power and network already reach it.

Sensors placed and paired

Each sensor is fitted and paired to the panel, and the arming schedule is set against when the building is actually empty.

Tested by setting it off

Each sensor is tripped deliberately at handover, and the alert is confirmed arriving on the right phone.

Questions we get asked

Is this a monitored alarm?

Alerts go to whoever is nominated, on their phone, with a log behind them. Where a monitoring service is wanted that is a separate arrangement and the system supports it.

Can it watch a walk-in or a server room?

Yes, and it is one of the more common reasons to fit it. A range is set and the alert goes while there is still time to do something.

Do the sensors need wiring?

Most are wireless and battery powered, so an existing building does not get opened up. The panel needs power and network; the sensors mostly do not.

What happens if the internet is down?

The panel keeps its schedule and keeps recording locally. Getting the alert out is what needs the line, which is why a second path to the internet often sits alongside this.

Will it go off by accident?

Placement decides that. A motion sensor pointed at a vent or a drafty doorway is the usual cause, and it is a survey problem rather than an equipment one.

Two alerts are enough to start

The first version is sized around the two things that would ruin a weekend, not around the whole building.