Security Zones: part 1

While you are selecting the various entries and items you want your home security system to cover and before you choose your contacts and control panel and other accessories, you may want to consider the security zones in your house. Every system is divided into specific sections that enable you to know exactly where the danger is coming and what kind of sensor is being activated. These specific sections or areas are called zones.

It is best to plan your zone before actually purchasing the contacts. This will give you a definite clue into how many and what kind of sensors or contacts you may want to buy. Planning your zone can be very frustrating, but as long as you designate a purpose to each zone, and understand how the zone works within your system, zone developing can be easier than you imagine.

Each zone is wired or programmed into a specific terminal in the control panel. The number of zones that can be entered into a control panel depends entirely upon the system you buy. It depends on whether the system is hardwired or wireless. The hardwired systems have the ability to carry more zones, sometimes as many as 50, while wireless systems will range anywhere from around 20 to 32. This information is vital to your purchasing decision because you may want to buy the system that will fit the amount of zones you want.

First of all, it is important to note that the purpose of each zone is to alert you to a specific danger in a specific area. For example, while one zone will alert you to a fire on first floor, another zone will alert you to a fire on second floor. Or, while one zone will tell you that an intruder has broken into your living room, another zone will alert you to an intrusion through a bedroom window. The most basic rule when you are planning a zone is, designating a particular zone to a particular area and a particular alarm. You do not want to mix smoke detectors with motion or window / door contacts because when the zone alarm goes off you will not know whether the emergency is a fire or an intrusion.

Keeping in mind the rule of specifics, you can begin to divide your into sections or zones. For fire zones, it is rather easy. You can connect all the smoke detectors on an individual floor to an individual zone. But to make the system more effective, you may want to divide the floors up into two sections. One zone will cover all the rooms where smoke may be a possibility, such as a kitchen or a living room that has a fireplace. The other zone will contain rooms that the possibility of smoke only means a definite house fire, such as bedrooms. Continued...

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