Unused alarm suddenly triggered

[kisaki75]

 

Hi,

 

 

 

Apologies in advance for my complete lack of knowledge on this subject!

 

We moved into this house 2 years ago. There is an alarm system installed but the former owners told us they never used it and have no idea how it works. They gave us some manuals and documents they also got from the owners before that.

 

I wasn’t interested either so we just left it alone. See attached photo. Until last night, the power and the ready leds were green and the display would just show the date and time.

 

Last night we were woken up by the alarm sounding . I manged to switch it off using that fob-like thing shown in the photo. There was (and still slightly is) a smell of burnt electricals on the 1st floor around where our hot water tank is. The alarm in the photo is on the ground floor, though. Since then, the Power and Ready buttons are still green but also the service one is now orange. The digital display is blank.

 

From what I gather, this means the alarm is broken and needs a reset/service. The booklet I have says to call the company that services these but I don’t have a service contract and no number to call.

 

 

 

I guess I am just looking for advice. What should we do? Can we just ignore it or could this become a bigger issue? 

I a. Worried about the burning smell but i cant find exactly where it comes from

 

Would an electrician know where to look/what to do?

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

[PeterJames]

Hi and Welcome

It sounds like you need to get someone to look at it, I would recommend an alarm company rather than an electrician. 

If you dont use it you should get them to decommission it, alarms are designed in such a way that they are difficult to circumvent, and when they are not serviced this can have side effects like the one you experienced last night. 

The external sounder has a battery and can sound regardless of any connection to the control panel. The panel also has a battery with a 4 year life expectancy, if this has failed it will start to pull on the charging circuit, in some extreme circumstances could cause a fire. My advice would be to search for a local company and get a few quotes to decommission it or to recomission it and provide a maintenance contract.

[sixwheeledbeast]

It looks a relatively modern system so could be worth fixing and keeping in good order and using.

If you have no plans to use it at all you need to decommission it correctly as explained above.

Systems that never get serviced will only cause you a headache in the early hours.

 

It's possible the PSU has popped and that is causing a burning electronics smell.