Burglar alarms are among the most important and widely bought commodities for homes in the entire world. In a world where crime is common, people go to great lengths to protect their home, property and family. One way to protect everything that is important to you is by purchasing a burglar alarm. There are three basic types of burglar alarm, including hardwired, wireless, and self-contained alarms. Knowing the difference will help you learn more about which one is best for you and your home. Because security and safety is the most important thing to a home.

General Setup

A basic burglar alarm consists of three components. These components are a siren (sometimes called a sounder), a control panel, and one or more detection devices. Detection devices are used to detect intruders or potential burglars and send that information to the control panel. The panel signals the siren or sounder to go off, alerting the members of the household of the intruder outside or inside the perimeter. The control panel is also used to turn the siren off and reset or activate the system.

Hardwired

A hardwired burglar alarm is one where wires are run from each sensor to the control panel. This burglar alarm is more convenient for those who have a small area to protect, or those who don’t mind the extra work it takes to run individual wires to the control panel. This system also works well if only one or two sensors is needed. The control panel of the hardwired burglar alarm is usually larger because there needs to be space to wire up the individual sensors.

Wireless

Wireless burglar alarms have a smaller control panel because there are no wires to be wired directly into the control panel from sensors. Wireless systems are more convenient for very large houses that require several to several dozen sensors in order to protect the entire area. Sensors send signal to the control panel wirelessly and then signal is sent to the sirens to alert the household of the intruder.

Self-Contained

A self-contained burglar alarm is generally one single unit, in the general shape of a VCR or DVD player, that is placed in the most important room of the house (usually the one with the most electronic equipment, things burglars would go for first). When the unit is moved or messed with, the self-contained system sets off an alarm. The idea is that technology that is stolen would be around this unit which looks like a piece of electronic equipment itself and in the process of taking the rest, the self-contained burglar alarm would be moved and let the alarm off.

Sensors

There are a couple different types of sensors that are used in burglar alarms. One type is the regular motion sensor that detects any motion that seems to be bigger than an animal that goes past it. The other type of sensor is the PIR sensor, which detects infra-red (or heat) signatures and alerts the control panel when a humanlike signature is detected.