Curtain PIR

E39MSport

Morning all.

I've recently had an installation at my Mother in Law's place of a Visionics Powermax Express. Happy enough with it. Installation carried out by one of the Dublin based suppliers listed here.

The larger windows with more than one opening are protected by curtain PIR's. The kitchen one was activated when owner turned on the tap at the kitchen sink close to the window and she's now reluctant to arm it at night. She insists that she didn't access the window itself. I haven't managed to perform a test myself as yet.

My question is whether a PIR is suitable (general suitability aside) at a window that is close to an area that could see movement during home activation ? Is it normal that it would pick up motion away from the window ?

Any idea whether the sensitivity can be modified as a workaround without the installer coming to the house ? They charge for diesel as it's 50 mins from Dublin.

Thanks all.

KoolKid

I would recommend inertia sensors/contacts over this configuration.
Also as this is a recent installation I would imagine any call outs to get the system running correctly would be covered under guarantee.
I never heard of charging for diesel. We have jobs in Limerick & Cork. That would work out well.
Not sure how reliable any sensitivity adjustments would be if you want the alarm set & be able to work that close to the window.

kub

Op, get back onto the installation company that is what I would recognise as a warranty issue.
They should not be charging for a call out, besides human intruders don't enter by kitchen sinks.

E39MSport

I have to deal with the complication of the owner not being quite sure how she set it off. She got such a fright that she can't recall.

Interestingly, over the weekend, I 'home' armed the system and I couldn't get that PIR to trigger at all !!

This doesn't instil me with confidence as I was able to open the window and stick my head out.

On a walk test it was equally fickle. Triggered easily once and then not at all the second time.

I'll contact the installer. Keep you posted.

Thanks

Evolution1

E39MSport wrote: »

I have to deal with the complication of the owner not being quite sure how she set it off. She got such a fright that she can't recall.

Interestingly, over the weekend, I 'home' armed the system and I couldn't get that PIR to trigger at all !!

This doesn't instil me with confidence as I was able to open the window and stick my head out.

On a walk test it was equally fickle. Triggered easily once and then not at all the second time.

I'll contact the installer. Keep you posted.

Thanks

These detectors have a sleep timer built in. Once they detect motion they go to sleep. You must have triggered the sensor shortly before arming the system as this explains why you could stick you're head out through the window.

Try arm the system for night and wait 3 minutes before triggering the detector.

E39MSport

Thanks for the info - makes sense

Dardania

Did she by any chance set it on normal full set rather than part home set?

altor

With the use of curtain detectors then they should be on in full or part set so I would also get this checked out.

E39MSport

Following up.

The sensor has been changed to inertia type and all is well now.

To answer the last question, she has armed it in the wrong mode from time to time but is getting used to it and hasn't done that in a while.
However, when the window PIR was triggered I had verified that system had been set to 'Home' at the time.

All in all a good system imo.

Interested to see how long the batteries last. I have the external bell short squawking on arm, so that might drain a bit quicker than advertised.

Thanks all.

KoolKid

I find on average 3-4 years on wireless batteries. I would disable the squawk if you have a wireless external bell relying on battery only.

altor

E39MSport wrote: »

Following up.

The sensor has been changed to inertia type and all is well now.

To answer the last question, she has armed it in the wrong mode from time to time but is getting used to it and hasn't done that in a while.
However, when the window PIR was triggered I had verified that system had been set to 'Home' at the time.

All in all a good system imo.

Interested to see how long the batteries last. I have the external bell short squawking on arm, so that might drain a bit quicker than advertised.

Thanks all.

Not a fan of curtain motions as an inertia will alert you of an attempt of a break in where as with the curtain they have to have gained access to activate the alarm.