Discuss Normal for a house alarm to be on upstairs lighting circuit? in the Security Alarms, Door Entry and CCTV (Public) area at ElectriciansForums.net

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For a few weeks I've had my upstairs lighting circuit on and off at the board, not noticed anything.

Last week my decorator buried some of the cables coming out of the alarm box (just above my fuse box/consumer unit). When I now switch on the upstairs lighting circuit, there's a red light on my alarm box and the alarm goes off. If I turn the lighting circuit off, the alarm shuts up.

Worth noting - some sensors were taken off as part of his decorating (so the wires in the corner of the rooms now don't have sensors on)

This is confusing me for a few reasons:

  • This didn't happen previously (he's not aware of knocking anything, but even if he did, it now seems to work more as it was entirely silent beforehand?)
  • Should an alarm be on the lighting circuit?? Doesn't seem right to me but I'm not an expert
  • Even if it is on the lighting circuit, why would turning it on kick the alarm off? I thought the idea was that the alarm was triggered when power was lost in case of an intruder deliberately cutting the power supply

Any help on this greatly appreciated, bit stumped.
 
I don't see a problem with having the alarm on a lighting circuit. They don't take much current.
Where was it initially wired to, before the decorator came in?
Was it all working before he came in?
I'd be considered about the missing sensors that were taken off.

"This didn't happen previously (he's not aware of knocking anything, but even if he did, it now seems to work more as it was entirely silent beforehand?" - I don't understand this bit.

Depending on what bell you have, if the power goes off then the bell will go off. They have a small board with a battery in the bell box for this. Your battery may not be working in the bell box. Hard to tell.
 
If the sensors have now been removed the alarm will sound due to the tamper fault. If it's only sounding when the power is on, the alarm panel battery is probably dead. Are the sensors going to be refitted?
 
Not unusual, and most likely to do with removing the sensors as the tamper/alarm/+&- wires have to be correctly re-terminated if still planning to energise the system with a sensor(s) removed.
 
you may have more than 1 fault.

1, panel battery goosed.
2. fault due to removal of sensors, could be a blown fuse in panel.
3.flat or faulty battery/ pcb in bell .
 
For a few weeks I've had my upstairs lighting circuit on and off at the board, not noticed anything.

Last week my decorator buried some of the cables coming out of the alarm box (just above my fuse box/consumer unit). When I now switch on the upstairs lighting circuit, there's a red light on my alarm box and the alarm goes off. If I turn the lighting circuit off, the alarm shuts up.

Worth noting - some sensors were taken off as part of his decorating (so the wires in the corner of the rooms now don't have sensors on)

This is confusing me for a few reasons:

  • This didn't happen previously (he's not aware of knocking anything, but even if he did, it now seems to work more as it was entirely silent beforehand?)
  • Should an alarm be on the lighting circuit?? Doesn't seem right to me but I'm not an expert
  • Even if it is on the lighting circuit, why would turning it on kick the alarm off? I thought the idea was that the alarm was triggered when power was lost in case of an intruder deliberately cutting the power supply

Any help on this greatly appreciated, bit stumped.
It’s very normal.
 

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