Advice On A Replacement Wired System

[chum]

I'm a bit of a novice with alarm systems (installed a few basic wireless kits in the past), but a keen DIY'er and have an electronics, computing / programming background and am looking to replace an existing system which is dated and some of it needs rewiring.

 

I've been doing my research on the forums here and reading a some guides (already learned a lot from this site, such a useful resource) but I'm after a bit of advice about a suitable alarm / panel and wiring.

The current system consists of a number of magnetic sensors and PIRs. I'm looking to increase the number of sensors to a total of 9 (4 magnetic, 5 PIRs) individually wired, ideally 2 external sounders (1 existing at the moment to be replaced) and a new keypad. The ability to part set is also required and the option to add a communicator would be good.

 

I'd prefer a wired system (cabling already exists in most places), or the option to add wireless if I find adding some of the new sensors is problematic to get wires to. Texecom seems to be a popular choice on this forum, any recommendations on which model to start looking at? PE 24? Or other popular brands?

 

Regarding the wiring, some of it looks like it's been badly installed (run under carpets and then partially severed when the carpets have been laid) so it needs replacing. I've got some of my wiring routes in floor void with pull cables ready but I'm unsure about what cable to install. There is 6 core unscreened already existing so my initial thinking was to replace like for like, is there any reason to go with anything other than this for sensors? Some of them currently run along with mains at the moment which I'm planning to reroute if I can.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

[antinode]

The Texecom Premier seems to be a good choice with the DIY'ers, and popular with pro installers too. I've only ever taken them over, but they do seem to have a lot of good features and are easy to work on, although if you're not used to alarm programming, you may struggle with some of the terminology/programming options. Personally, I'd go for the Elite 48. You'll also need an expander as you're up to 9 zones (the panel only has 8), but you could wire one of the door contacts to a nearby keypad's onboard zones to get around this.

 

I'd be looking to totally recable where possible if the wiring is under the carpets/damaged, using standard 8 core alarm cable. Get it as far away from the mains as you can.

[chum]

Ok thanks, I'll take a look at the Elite 48

[Wyatthaplo]

Why would you use a 48 over a 24 when its only 9 zones?

 

Only thing I can see would be the 48 has the 4 terminals for 4 wire, whereas the 24 has only 2 and would require either commoning up tampers or using EOL circuits.