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

[Frank Olson <use_the_email_links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

eddy wrote:
> 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?
>


Have a look at the Paradox DG-75.  They're an extremely stable PIR.
IMHO, one of the best units out there.  http://www.paradox.com