pudding said:
I suppose it depends on what people term as false alarms.
If false alarms means a device had triggered with no known reason why, then
it could be termed a false alarm. But I usually find that there are reasons
why a device has triggered. It isnt always an intruder of course but the
humble insect, or gecko or moth etc etc. A client calls this a false alarm
but the detector is doing what its designed to do. I think the main problem
is that detection devices havent really changed for 20 or 30 years. With
technology advancing at the rate it is you would think that someone could
come up with a device a bit more sophisticate than a Pir or Microwave or
combined, that can also be afforded by the average home owner.
Motion detectors are not designed to detect insects, moths or geckos,
they are designed to detect human intruders. In fact most are now
designed not to trip for insects, changes in heat patterns, pets etc.
They should only trip if they detect a human intruder...tripping for
any other reason is, in fact, a false alarm.
As I have stated in the past, this type of discussion should
differentiate between false alarms and false dispatches. False alarms
are not a huge problem if the CS is able to speak to the user and get
a password before dispatching the police. It is false dispatches that
are the problem issue, and since most false dispatches are the result
of user error, with the user present on premise, having the user call
the CS to report the false alarm instead of waiting by the phone to
hear from the CS would, IMHO, not reduce false alarms, but would
greatly reduce false dispatches.
Bossman