It’s that time of the year where many people leave windows open for ventilation. Be advised that open windows, in general, are burglar magnets. Many homeowners will leave high floor windows open and don’t realize that windows without screens, could let critters in that will violate your motion sensors. If a motion detector is looking at a window, the beams will terminate on the glass, but if the window is open the beams may travel out into the yard and pick up passing motion also. Sometimes windows with or without screens allow breezes to blow the curtains and if a motion detector is looking at those curtains, you will have a false alarm when they move. As an added note, helium balloons will also set off a motion detector as it rises and falls in line of sight of a motion detector when an alarm is armed.
While we are on the subject of motion detectors. Your wireless detectors are designed to conserve lithium batteries for many years of service. Once the detector sees motion, it must remain idle for about 5 minutes before it will check in with the control and stand ready again. When testing the motion detectors, people often call us to say it worked and then stopped. We explain the above process and assure them that after the idle reset it will be detecting motion again.
The motion detector would not report back to the control if it were malfunctioning and that would trigger a notification to both you and Absolute Security Alarms. It will also report when the internal batteries are at about 30%, allowing plenty of time to install fresh ones. The panel will let you know when you have a low battery daily by beeping an alert (beep beep beep). You can stop the beeps by acknowledging you now know about the low battery on the main keypad.
If your windows are contacted, they must be closed to arm your system. We can often (depending on window type and configuration) set your window contact up so that it can be opened a small amount for ventilation and still be armed. When armed in this position the window although open and ventilating, can’t be opened enough for someone to fit in. It can of course still be armed when closed also, giving you a choice of closed or ventilated when arming.
We also offer bypass contacts. This type of contact allows you to push a button on the contact and bypass it so it could be opened with the alarm armed. When you close the window the contact rejoins the system again automatically.
If you have any additional questions about your motion detectors, ventilating window contacts, low battery reports or any other part of your security system it’s always our pleasure to hear from and share information with you!