Design Your Home’s Alarm System

The security of your home is often overlooked but it should be one of your most important considerations. After all, it is probably the most costly investment you will make and what is the sense in spending much money and time on furnishing and decorating it if it can easily be broken into, your property damaged and your possessions stolen?

Research shows that burglars are less willing to risk breaking into a property that is fitted with a burglar alarm so it makes sense to have a security system fitted to deter intruders and protect your property and valuables. 

It is wise to get a local reputable security installer to give you a quotation for an intruder alarm and in the UK you should always choose an NSI NACOSS Gold Medal accredited installer. This article does not replace the advice of a Security professional but it will arm you with the information you need for a dialogue with such a company, and will help you understand what you need from a security system by giving an overview of the sort of protection you should consider for your home.


A strategy called ‘trap protection’ is the best way to protect a residential property. Trap protection means planning how to protect a property without fitting sensors or movement detectors (also known as PIRs) in every single room.

Statistics prove that burglars rarely break in through the front of a house so there is less reason to fit sensors in front rooms. And as a rule, there is little point in putting a PIR in a kitchen either. In the first case, there are rarely items of value in a kitchen and in the second, the hard surfaces and the boiler, fridge, oven, washing machine etc are heat sources which can cause the sensors to behave in an unstable way. Nor is a dual technology detector recommended for kitchens because the microwave motion sensor can detect movement through glass or thin walls and it has been known to be triggered by water running in pipes.


So it is best to fit sensors in rooms at the back to cover the likely entry point and also in the hallway or passage because wherever he gets in, a burglar is unlikely to stay in that one room. Even if he goes into the front rooms which are not fitted with a PIR, he will have to go via the hall and the sensor there will pick up his movement. Door contacts will also alert the control panel to unauthorised activity.



Trap protection not only saves you money (good quality sensors are not cheap so the fewer you use, the lower the cost of the installation), it also limits the potential for false alarms - the more detectors a property has, the greater the chance of a the false alarm. It is a fact that all detectors (even top of the range ones) sometimes false alarm.