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With all the emergency response systems on the market today, it's sometimes hard for the installer to figure out how to wire the telephone lines to insure proper order of signaling, especially if they are an alarm technician that has just been thrust into a new market.
Case in point: John (not his real name) has been working on security systems for several years, and has just been handed an installation of a Personal Emergency Response System (or PERS), and told to "just follow the instructions, it's easy "He said. (How many times have I heard that through the years?)
So, John goes to the site, and finds out that they have a security system, a separate fire alarm system, and one of the new health monitoring systems that calls in every two hours to a server which analyzes the clients activity.
He installs the PERS system which, as it turns out, is an easy install, for once. Now, he's faced with the problem of how to hook up the telephone line to the new system.
Where does this one part fit in to the whole of the clients systems? Well, here's your answer. It comes down to priorities, and one word that is bigger than most every other word in the English language: LIABILITY.
This word pops up the most when discussing fire alarm systems, but there is a certain amount of liability in every type of system a company that can install that deals with a form of protection for the client.
Here then, is the proper order of priority:
- Fire Alarm System . This system (by fire code) has to always be first, before any other kind of system and the house telephones. It's usually necessary to run a phone line all the way to the Demarc (telephone block at the point where the telephone line enters the house or business) to ensure that it can seize the line and cut off anything else that is using that line, when it needs to call out.
- Security Alarm System . This system goes second because it concerns safety as well as security.
- PERS System . This one is next, and must be able to seize the line from any system that uses scheduled signaling and the telephones.
- Health Monitoring System . This type of system uses motion detectors to track the movements of the client, and can warn of a possible fall, or medical problem, and usually calls in at a predetermined time schedule (typically every two hours).
- House Phones . These are always hooked up last in line. A fire, security problem, or health issue is always more important than what dress Aunt Betty is wearing to the wedding.
The Fire and Security Alarm systems should always be wired for proper line seizure, and the PERS system when possible, where the health monitoring system can be wired in parallel with the house phones, since every signal that it sends is not a critical issue. It's better if it can be wired for seizure, but not mandatory. (Typically, both the PERS and the Health Monitoring systems have telephone plugs in the back to attach the phone line in series, like an answering machine.)
If a client does not have all the systems listed above, just leave the ones that do not have out of the list, but keep the same order, and you'll always have your systems dialing in with the correct priority, and keep liability where it belongs: anywhere but on your shoulders.
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Source by Mark Beghtel
