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House alarm

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steviefaux:
Based in the UK

Moved into my new house a couple of years ago and it had an alarm we were told "I think its not been used it ages". No code was given. So waited quite a while to decide to pull it out.

Disconnected the fuse the other day and thankfully it didn't go off. Not knowing what I'm doing electronically and to make the ends safe I thought "I'll put my wago connectors on each end. That way I'm sure I won't ever accidentally touch. Actually I have a 3 way, I'll put that on the end".

I can see everyone face palming. Yes, I ended up tripping the downstairs sockets. But only the downstairs sockets when I put the power back on. Eventually realising idiot me had created a circuit with the wago connector, I took it out and put electric tape on the ends instead, like normal people would do. Not no trips.

Question is, I've always felt the electric in the house was a bit suspect despite being signed off. I'm not an electrician but even I could tell from trial and error that they'd patched the house alarm off off the downstairs sockets. Am I correct in thinking this is a cowboy setup? It seems it.

We've had an electrician friend (before I did all this) tell us the main consumer unit needs replacing. Which is fine, but he said he can't test the sockets in the house as they haven't even bothered to ground the consumer unit, so he said all sockets will fail his tests. That also sounds like a cowboy setup.

Long winded question is, does the alarm setup (that now is removed) sound like it was setup by a cowboy company? Surely you don't power it off of the main sockets downstairs and instead put it on its own separate circuit.

Ian.M:
Depends *HOW* they did it.  If it had a fused connection unit on the ring, its 'kosher'.  Plenty of cheapskate clients wont want to pay for a dedicated circuit, many panels may already be maxed our with breakers, and the alarm company probably doesn't want to have to mess with the panel further than using the main disconnect to isolate it so they can add the fused connection unit to the ring, so when the customer calls to bitch about some totally unrelated electrical problem, they can say, "We didn't even touch that, and its nothing to do with us - call a general electrician."

steviefaux:
There was a box in the small room with ALARM fuse written on it. The cable that went into that, appeared to be the one that was connected to the downstairs sockets. So from what you say it sounds like it was installed properly, just the previous owner didn't want to pay for a separate circuit? Sounds about right as he was renting the house out and cheaped out on alot of other stuff. Like the plug socket directly under the sink with no protection against leaks from the sink. How the electrician signed that off is beyond me. That plug eventually went pop one night due to water.

Gyro:

--- Quote from: steviefaux on September 17, 2020, 03:11:37 pm ---Question is, I've always felt the electric in the house was a bit suspect despite being signed off. I'm not an electrician but even I could tell from trial and error that they'd patched the house alarm off off the downstairs sockets. Am I correct in thinking this is a cowboy setup? It seems it.

We've had an electrician friend (before I did all this) tell us the main consumer unit needs replacing. Which is fine, but he said he can't test the sockets in the house as they haven't even bothered to ground the consumer unit, so he said all sockets will fail his tests. That also sounds like a cowboy setup.

--- End quote ---

If your electrician friend says that the consumer unit isn't grounded you have a bigger problem than the alarm wiring. Lack of main earth is an IET code C1 failure (Danger present. Risk of injury. Immediate remedial action required) - As a qualified(?) electrician, he is required to make the installation safe before leaving the premises!

How good a friend is he?  I can't believe he walked away from it if you have interpreted what he said correctly (although unable to test the sockets is pretty conclusive).  :-\

P.S. By "signed off", do you mean that you had an EICR inspection carried out.

james_s:
It would be very unusual out here for a low power load like an alarm system to be on a dedicated circuit, normally they are just tapped off a convenient circuit feeding receptacles in the area but I don't know if UK conventions are similar. If in doubt you should hire a licensed electrician to look things over, it's not something you want to risk having done wrong. More than once I've found live wires dangling abandoned in wall and ceiling cavities, here I would try to disconnect the run at the source and then cut the exposed tips off the conductors and tape them up securely so they cannot contact each other or anything else in case they ever become energized for any reason but follow local regulations and conventions, don't just guess.

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