Alarm/security question

[sean1986]

I'm a qualified sparky so obviously know what the average pay is but was wondering if anyone could give me an idea what the average pay is for a burglar/ security alarm engineer is. or fire alarm engineer. cheers

 

[Tin]

Depends what the job is really, Im a fire engineer doing installation, gettin anywhere from £110 - £160

 

[sean1986]

Thats pretty good, I've jus been laid off with one electrical company but i'm thinking of applying for a few alarm companies. Think I'll have more chance of gettin a van than at some of these electrical companies where your just another number

 

[Tin]

good luck mate. its pretty quiet out there at the mo and not many fire alarm companies that I know are looking for people as it is dead on the work front.

Good luck anyway

 

[sean1986]

yeah it is a bit. thanks anyway

 

[oldtimer]

Sean good luck finding alarm but remember there are standards to adhere to for example you need to run a tamper circuit along with a detection circuit so say a magnetic door contact this needs a 4-core cable pir sensor needs a 6-core ( detection/tamper/power)

Panel battery needs to be the correct size needs to be have install date put on it so you can change it every 5 years outside sounder (by law) cannot activate for more than 20 minutes.

Also DONT fall into the same trap as an alarm engineer and connect the mains supply across the live side yes I said the live side of the mains switch of the CU rememeber you are a qualified spark so you dont get a get out of jail card on this.

If you are serious about doing alarms then get a 1metre x 1metre boards say a optima control panel outside sounder ,pir,panic button, door contact and battery O dont forget a nice bottle of beer then settle down and start to learn. I did 27 years ago and it has been a handy extra string to my bow as I used to earn more money fixing an alarm than fitting a socket.

I can mail you some info ie service / test sheets i made up to assist,

Forgot to add it will cost about 100 bucks for the equipment

 

[UNG]

Sean good luck finding alarm but remember there are standards to adhere to for example you need to run a tamper circuit along with a detection circuit so say a magnetic door contact this needs a 4-core cable pir sensor needs a 6-core ( detection/tamper/power)

Some panels are wired with E.O.L. monitored detection circuits so a tamper circuit is not required, each detection device has a resistor across the detection contact to indicate alarm and a tamper indication is given by an open or short circuit on the loop. If you have long runs to power using detectors you may have to use four cores for power i.e. 2 for positive 2 for negative to keep the volt drop to a minimum

Until you get experience try to avoid the panels that need a lot of complex programming

And the best bit of advice I can give is to keep copies of all the manuals of all the panels you install it will be an invaluable reference