Disconnect Bell Box Battery

[TheScullster]

Hi all

A quick alarm question... Is it detrimental to disconnect the bell box internal battery in advance of further system works? I understand that with the battery disconnected, the alarm won't sound if the cable to it is cut (maybe the internal sounder will be activated by the loss of bell tamper, thinking about it).

The reason I am considering this is because I need to decommission the alarm system for internal works early next week. I don't like being up ladders in wind or rain and the weather is looking unsettled over the next few days. So I intended to disconnect the bell box battery when a suitable period of calm weather occurred.

I don't believe that the bell box battery will suffer for a week or two of disconnect time.

Any comments from the wise?

TIA

Phil

[Toby]

Sounds like a reasonable thing to do to me - if you have flashing LED's on the bell box, one may stop because of the loss of the backup battery, but other than that, as long as the bell box is in SAB mode, rather than SCB mode (Self Contained Bell, where AFAIK the sounder always uses the battery to sound) you can always test this by doing a bell test after you disconnect the battery)

Unless there is a way to deactivate the tamper in the bell box that you know of, you need to put your panel into engineering mode, then climb ladder with ear defenders, open the bell box (which should sound when you open it) then disconnect the battery (still sounding), then put the cover back on (it should stop sounding now!)

If you omit the ear defenders, then prepare yourself for ringing ears for quite a while afterwards...

Toby...

[RobertL]

prepare yoruself for deafness for ever i should think. These alarms have a source level up to 105dB. So if you are 50cm from it you will be exposed to a received level of about 111dB.

The threshold for hearing damage is round about 85dB.

Robert

[meow2222]

the only issues I see are insurance validity and security risk. The SLA wont care.

NT

[TheScullster]

"Toby" wrote

Thanks Toby

I will check for SAB/SCB mode. Yes I can de-activate the bell box - there is a 15min hold-off facility which can be invoked by testing the strobe 3 times in 30 seconds. One problem is that it is difficult to see the flash mode of the bell box leds on a bright day. Think I'll fit the ear plugs just in case :)

Phil

[ARWadsworth]

Ear plug are a wise choice. And how long do you think the bell box spends on the wholesalers shelf before without power before they are sold and still work? Do not worry.

On the SAB connections in your alarm panel then connect 0V and Tamp (D and C respectively) to each other to stop the internal tamper sounding. Do this before climbing the ladder!

Adam

[Toby]

Or simply just put the panel into engineering mode, as otherwise opening the panel will set the tamper alarm off anyway!

Toby...

[Steve Walker]

85dBA (note the A) is the recommended maximum for contnuous exposure over an eight hour period (although it may have recently been reduced), you can take considerably more for short periods without damage. The A weighting adjusts the multipliers for different frequencies to match the effect across the frequency range upon the ear more accurately.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

But if you've got any sense, you won't have told the insurance company that you've got an alarm - the last time I looked, it reduced my premiums by about £10 per annum, but risked invalidating the insurance if I didn't set it every time I left the house!

SteveW

[Dai]

try