Re: PIRs for house with ceiling heating & cooling vents and "pets"!

[eddy <eddyweddy@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Oct 25, 2:35 am, "alarman" <thatsallfol...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> eddy wrote:
> > I recently had an alarm system installed, consisting of a NX-16 panel,
> > magnetic reeds on all doors and DSC encore PIRs in the main living
> > areas. The PIRs, according to the installer are immune to small pets.
> > In my case the pets consist of one 12kg Cavalier King charles spaniel
> > who spends all his time sleeping and a 8kg, 15 year old cat who sleeps
> > even more! Then there are the 2 Roomba discovery automatic vacuum
> > cleaners, dinner plate size gadgets who run around the house at
> > regular intervals sucking up debris.
>
> > However, it was not this collection of pets who appear to have caused
> > the problem. I also have heating and cooling ducts in the ceiling
> > because the house is all on one level and built on a concrete slab. At
> > the moment, because it's still early spring here, the heating
> > occasionally comes on at 6.30pm. Because I sometimes get home only
> > after 7.30pm, the heating has been running for around an hour. Over
> > the last 8 weeks, practically every PIR in the house has falsed at
> > least once after 6.30pm. Some of the heating ducts are within 3 ft of
> > the PIR.
>
> > To be absolutely sure, I have actually "banished" the pets from the
> > house, but the false alarms still continue.
>
> > To make matters worse, even if I did disable the timers that operate
> > the thermostat, my heating unit is a ceiling mounted model which has a
> > fan controller that is triggered by the ambient temperature inside the
> > unit. In days that are hot enough, the heat in the roof is actually
> > high enough to trick the fans into coming on, which in turns causes
> > warm air to circulate into the house. And this has caused at least one
> > false alarm ...
>
> > In a situation like mine, are there PIRs which are capable of handling
> > the disturbance from the heating ducts, or is the only option to have
> > the PIRs removed from the security system ?
>
> > rgds, Ed
>
> The PIR's were installed (located) incorrectly by an inexperienced
> installer. They need to be relocated away from the heatong ducts, or at the
> least, replaced with dual-technology units. Who did the install?
>
> --
> js
>
> - The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
> ( Also, the harder they bite, punch, and kick.)

Hi alarman,

Yes, some of the PIRs are actually quite close to the heating ducts.
The people who did the install are a Melbourne company called Insec
security http://www.insec.com.au/ (Yes I am in Australia) . I have
already called them. So hopefully they can do something. However, the
guy I spoke to is trying to get me to accept that this is the way it
is, and that I should never ever let my heating come on when the
alarms are armed. If he is correct, I might have to get some highly
paid heating technician or electrician to figure out how to ensure the
heaters can  be totally disabled!

On the idea of dual tech PIRs, if I understand the theory correctly,
is it because of the microwave element that this technology might be
less vulnerable to alarming when the heaters come on?