Re: DIY is a rocky road.

[Robert L Bass <sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Welp, since I was talking about Vista 15/20P lets compare the same
> size/price panels. I use another brand for my large jobs which goes to 256
> zones and 8 partitions - which I'd never switch to another brand.

Napco doesn't have a 48-zone panel, but the closest match would
probably be the Ademco (Honeywell) Vista-20P.  Since most users
never reach 32 zones, let alone 48, I think that's a reasonable
comparison.

> So lets talk about Napco vs Ademco on the small stuff - and
> with commonly requested options.
>
> How many residential users acutally use scheduling?

A lot of that depends more on the installer than one might
imagine.  For example, because I'm so familiar with Napco's
capabilities, I tend to implement more of those features.  I used
scheduling on most of my installations.  When customers were on
vacation I would set their panels to auto-arm all partitions at a
certain time each day in case a caretaker should forget to arm.

I also routinely setup a maid's code for clients who employed
outside help.  The code was controlled by scheduling, allowing
the maid access only on her assigned work days.

You only asked about residential jobs, but I programmed almost
every commercial installation to auto-arm 30-60 minutes after the
normal quitting time.  On jobs where the office and warehouse or
factory maintained different schedules, I programmed different
auto-arm times each day for each partition.

> I have close to 3500 systems out there an I don't think
> 20 of them have scheduling being used.

Different strokes.  I used Napco's advanced features as a sales
tool.  Clients would often tell colleagues about the way their
new security system arms itself if they forget, turns on the
sprinklers if there's motion in the garden after dark (really),
etc.  I used to get a lot of referrals from those things.

Perhaps you can experiment with some of these things and come up
with some of your own ideas.  You might find your business
growing even better than it already is.  You never know if
something is going to work for you until you try it.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

Bass Burglar Alarms
The Online DIY Store
http://www.BassBurglarAlarms.com