hi everyone
i'm presently shopping for a home alarm system for a 4br house i was looking at some Ademco brand, can anyone recommend me to a good brand and model, i'm not looking for something expensive but something that can expand i have 4 romms living room family room kitchen and dinig room
which is better hardwire or wireless the house is presently under construction so hardwire is not a problem, phone is not available in my area/house so connection to a alarm company will not be required is there any where to lookup schematics or installation manual with different alram fixtures and function, i'm newbie to alarm system but very advance in electrical, i was never present when one was being install but i know i can do it
thanks in advance for any help

[This message has been edited by albertldee (edited September 16, 2003).]

I see this post is a cpl months old & you have most likely closed up your walls by now so maybe this could be of more help to someone else.

For a 4 bedrm house I would suggest a control that will give you at LEAST 8 zones, if you plan on contacting all the windows you should go with a 32 zone control.

Hints: if you contact the windows be sure to back it up w/ glassbreak or if you do not have pets that have free run of the house use motion detectors.

Hint: if you have pets beware of the so called pet immune motion detectors make sure the pet immune detector you choose will ignore dogs up to 100lbs. & or up to 3 cats.

Watch out for those companies that give away free alarms you only get a 4 zone, basic control w/ 2 door contacts & 1 motion detector that they charge huge monthly monitoring rates and lock out the programming so you cannot switch to another company after the 3-5 year contract is up.

If your home is under construction, now is the time to wire it. You should plan on the security rough wire to begin when the plumbers have finished & the electrician is about ready to finish up. One reason for this is you don't want your wire runs to be in the way of recessed lighting cans & running wires after all other trades have finished insures the smaller thinner 22/4 cable will not be damaged.

If you wait & have it installed after the house is finished some areas may not be able to be hardwired & running a snake up the walls will disturb your insulation.

One last bit of info would be ONLY use wireless if you are not comfortable drilling & running wires. The major downfall with wireless is you will need to change battries every 1-3 years.

Hope this helps!

I did the same with a new house. Ran wires to all windows, doors, glassbreak outlet in ceiling.

Used a Caddx-NX6 system. Though the Ademco Lynx is highly rated as well.