Intruder Alarm Wiring Advice.

[BrumChad]

Hi everyone.

I'm refurbishing my new house that I haven't moved into yet and want to install a Burglar alarm.  Not sure which one, but it will be wired.

As the whole house will be plastered/skimmed starting on Monday, the wiring needs to be done pretty soon.

My question to the forum is, can I use standard 6-core telephone cable or do I have to purchase specific alarm cable?

I used the telephone cable to add a PIR to my present house years ago without any problems.

Can I do the same for the whole installation in the new house?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Andy™]

a roll of 6c alarm cable will set you back less than £20. not exactly going to break the bank ontop of what you would have spent refurbing the place

 

[BrumChad]

Hi Andy.

Thanks for that - I agree, but the difficulty will be finding anywhere open that I can pick a roll up from so I can get it plumbed in before Monday morning.

Not sure if Wickes, B&Q etc sell it.....

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Telephone   cable can be used, but as Andy says you really should use 'proper' stranded alarm cable. Look up Screwfix, they will have it and has long opening hours.

 

[Blue Duck]

Are they open today?

 

[Andy™]

no, but i would expect many wholesalers etc to be open sat morning. SF may be open tomorrow

 

[BrumChad]

Thanks to all.  I suspect SF will be open on Saturday and I can cable up on Sunday.

 

[Badger]

screwfix codes 6core 26551 8core 44093

 

[Blue Duck]

I nearly fell over when they told me the price of 6 core in CEF :slap

Lesson learnt; if in CEF if you have to ask you can't afford it!

 

[Andy™]

bet you didnt get much change from £100 there

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

For what its worth, telephone cable is frowned upon in the alarm industry because it is solid core. No other reason.

But being solid core, it is very easy to snap, causing false alarms. It is also preferable to run an 8 core cable to each device that way there are at least two spare cores.

 

[kerching]

^^^^^^^^^. As the upside down one says.....shove an 8 core in!

You can NEVER have too many cores....well , almost never

Just advising..........CEF. CRapscious. Extortionate. F???ers

 

[BrumChad]

Thanks to all.

Went out got a roll of alarm cable and the job is done.

Not sure why alarm people frown upon single core breaking - once it's installed it will stay that way - I don't intend to move it around.  The 'phone cable in my present house has been in for over 20 years and hasn't ever snapped.

I think it's a case of someone has decided "this is what we'll use" and nobody wants to say "Actually, this is just as good and can be used as well"!

Never mind, as Andy said, it was only £20 and nothing in the big scheme of things!

 

[Doc Hudson]

Not sure why alarm people frown upon single core breaking - once it's installed it will stay that way - I don't intend to move it around.  The 'phone cable in my present house has been in for over 20 years and hasn't ever snapped.

I think it's a case of someone has decided "this is what we'll use" and nobody wants to say "Actually, this is just as good and can be used as well"!

Telephone cable is twisted pairs whereas alarm cable is untwisted and generally a bit cheaper than telephone cable. Also the flexible strands can be a bit easier to form and connect inside panels and sensors which are often smaller than telephone socket outlets. These are probably some of the reasons for not using telephone cable, cost & convenience will always carry a large influence.

Doc H.

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

Nothing to do with cost or twisted pairs.

It is solely to with flexibility or lack of. Yes in theory once installed it should never move or does it? To service an alarm you have to open the control panel to check the battery etc, this is where most of the problems occur. A solid drawn wire will often snap with a clean break, but has often been known to still touch, creating an intermittent fault and so gives rise to false alarms. Also (again down to flexibility) if a cable is fixed to say a floorboard the board will move, a solid drawn cable will snap, yes it will take some time, but it will snap giving rise to false alarms.

NACOSS as it was then, decided that if something so simple as a multi-stranded cable can prevent false alarms then that is the cable to use.

Although, yes it was because NACOSS said so, they said it for a good reason.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Nothing to do with cost or twisted pairs.

It is solely to with flexibility or lack of. Yes in theory once installed it should never move or does it? To service an alarm you have to open the control panel to check the battery etc, this is where most of the problems occur. A solid drawn wire will often snap with a clean break, but has often been known to still touch, creating an intermittent fault and so gives rise to false alarms. Also (again down to flexibility) if a cable is fixed to say a floorboard the board will move, a solid drawn cable will snap, yes it will take some time, but it will snap giving rise to false alarms.

NACOSS as it was then, decided that if something so simple as a multi-stranded cable can prevent false alarms then that is the cable to use.

Although, yes it was because NACOSS said so, they said it for a good reason.

Clearly spoken by someone who has never worked within the telecommunications industry...

To service telecommunications equipment you also have to open covers disturb cables etc...

far... far... more than in the average alarm system!!!

(have a peek inside one of them big green boxes on the side of the road...

or a commercial office / factory exchange...)

You can rest assured correctly terminated solid wires do not snap that easily!! 

:shakehead

 

[Andy™]

You can rest assured correctly terminated solid wires do not snap that easily!! 

maybe the problem is these alarm engineers not terminating the cable correctly?!

but yes, id rather have stranded over solid. maybe go back to the old days of stranded T&E... much more flexible

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Agreed stranded is more flexible than solid....


But as another point..

The individual solid colours used in alarm cable are probably more practical for that purpose than the dual colours used in telephone cable...

e.g.

Red, Black, Blue, White, Yellow & Green...
-vs-
Blue/White, White/Blue, Orange/White, White/Orange, Green/White, White/Green.

easier and quicker to identify each of the six cores with the alarm cable IMHO...


p.s.
If the solid cores were that fragile and in danger of snapping...
Then you would have just as much a problem with telephone intermittent faults as alledged alarm intermittent faults ! ?

Guinness

 

[steptoe]

whats the actual csa of them?

just,,,,,,,   wonderin'

 

[Sidewinder]

I suspect it could be because alarm "engineers" who are not actually Engineers, are not capable of correct installation and termination of the cable type they are presented with. Thus the industry "body" makes rules to make it easier for them to be cowboys?

Sound familiar anyone?