According to a Federal Communications Commission consumer advisory telephone companies will not be required to provide analog service after February 18, 2008. Alarm back up radios that are analog supposedly won't work after that date. Should you be notifying your subscribers and either replacing the radio or giving them the option to cancel radio backup? The answer is obvious, yes you should. I don't know how much of a problem this really is, but you don't want to have a system compromised with cut telephone lines and a back up radio that you know doesn't work. Your subscribers should have to pay for the upgrade. Be sure to present theDisclaimer Notice - again I remind you to get it at www.alarmcontracts.com.
The communication should be designed to alert the subscriber to the risk. Here is how the FCC advisory notice found at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/analogcellphone.html reads:
Alarm System Users
see surge protectors comments below
The majority of alarm systems installed in homes and businesses do not use a wireless radio signal to connect to a central monitoring station. Some alarm systems, however, use analog radio equipment and send a wireless signal provided by a wireless telephone company using the 800 MHz spectrum. These systems are affected by the transition. According to the alarm industry, out of a total 26 million installed alarm systems, there are approximately one million systems that use analog radio equipment. Wireless alarm systems installed before Spring 2006 generally used analog equipment.
There are several ways to tell if your alarm system will be affected by the analog-to-digital transition. Most alarm companies are contacting their affected customers by letter, bill insert, and/or telephone to arrange for replacement installation of a digital alarm radio. In many cases, if you have an analog alarm radio that has not been replaced and the analog wireless network stops operating, the radio will emit a beep or warning tone. If you believe your alarm system relies on an analog wireless radio and you haven?t heard from your alarm company, or if you're unsure about what type of alarm system you have, contact the company to determine your options for maintaining service.
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Comments on Surge Protection
Ken;
Your thoughts on surge protection/liability are very interesting. I will say this: if you go back in time in the alarm industry about 30 years, the first microprocessor panels were awful. You could literally zap a panel with the static electricity generated from walking across a rug on a cold dry day. And I know, having been there and done that. The new panels are much better at resisting damage from miner surges. But the bottom line is this: If you get a big surge, no matter what the cause, whether it be lightning or man made, your panel is toast. As far as I'm concerned, placing additional surge protection on a control panel is an admission that you are using sub-standard equipment.
Sincerely,
John P. McClellan
Blue Knight Security Systems
Verona, New Jersey
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Ken,
I was moved by your latest article on surge protection, so much so I felt I needed to respond. I am actually moved by many of your topics, this one just hit a nerve!
Perhaps the title to this could be reconsidered, "Surge Protection and Proper Grounding of Equipment"
First a couple of base issues. 1) Installation manuals make reference to and provide instructions an "earth ground" connection. 2) If you talk to tech support and ask them if panels need to be grounded they say "yes" that would be in accordance to manufactures recommendations. 3) If the technician is properly trained and licensed by the state (some states do not have licenses) and he or she has been trained on proper electrical grounding as described by the NEC - National Electrical code then all panels should be grounded?
I also understand about the three type of grounds - 1) The good ground, 2) **The bad ground and 3) No ground at all. (** sometimes a bad ground is worse than no ground) If a company or the individual representing the company installs a system in a home or business "knowingly" not grounding the system is he or she liable?
I understand the importance of all the disclaimers in the contracts pertaining to acts of GOD and surges and why it is important to have them.
What I am suggesting is, if we know and have been instructed and trained that panels and controls are subject to damage from electrical surges, then why are we not grounding all panels and installing surge protection on the electric and phone lines?
Is it more cost? More labor? Do the technicians truly know and understand what a proper earth ground is?
Do technicians use the proper color and size cable? Do they make the proper connection to the earth ground when they do install one?
As my father said "there is no problem until there is a problem" - we can go along with no grounding or surge protection until something happens......however, when a claim is made to an insurance company and they decide to conduct an independent investigation and determine that the controls were not grounded and you did not install surge protection and you did not offer or install a radio or cell back up or inspect or test the system in a reasonable time period after the original installation, oh and do you have all the documentation to support your actions, installation and completion forms, service forms and the history of the system. This is when you will need to be properly insured.
We are professionals in the business of saving lives and property, and if you advertise that your company has been around for many, many years and you are experts, then you should clearly know and understand the shortcomings of controls in relationship to surges, I would therefor recommend the proper grounding of all controls and the installation of surge protection on the phone and power to the controls.
Respectfully,
Harvey Clark
Lewis and Clark Enterprises
Arizona/Connecticut
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Hi Ken,
I think this (surge protection) should not be of high concern to anyone except perhaps those people who are in lightning prone or power failure prone areas.
But more generally speaking, It is simply not possible, in a contract, to account for all of the things that are NOT put in the installation. A plumber does not say that he's *NOT* putting antifreeze in the hot water heating system. The electrician does not say that he's not installing a whole house filter or noise suppression device or a backup generator. Come to think of it, why the hell *DIDN'T* the electrician offer a surge protector that could have protected all the other items damaged in such an event? I'll bet you *HE* didn't have it in *HIS* contract that he offered it because most probably did not..
These trades and others, may or may not offer add on's in a sales presentation, but I do not ever remember seeing anything of the sort in any contract, of them *NOT* being included in the actual installation. And obviously, the absence of any of these items could result in similar damage as that of the lack of a surge protector on an alarm system.
I mean certainly, it is not a bad idea to offer surge protection, but I think it would fall more into the category of an "add on"(but low on the list of priorities in my area) just to add a little more compensation to the job, rather than something that would be considered an issue of liability if you didn't offer it, or didn't include it, in a list of "rejected" items. A list of that sort could contain a hundred such items.
We go into homes and businesses every day and would spend more time telling people what they could have and didn't want, than we would telling them what they actually need; with the result that the next day, our potential customer would be telling our competitor that "All I wanted was an alarm and he wanted to sell me Fort Knox"
For instance, in all the years I have been in this business, I never once was called to anyone's home to install *JUST* a fire alarm. Not once! . So, being the consummate salesman, I sell them a burglar alarm system. Then, I mention smoke and fire detection. Even though they've already maxed out what they thought they wanted to spend, smoke detectors are almost always "added on" to the system but hardly ever heat detectors in other places that I recommended in the home. If I would start off with smokes included, I would likely not get the sale. But my point is, in my contract, I do not say that this is *NOT* a whole house fire alarm. That I offered heat or smoke detectors in various places and they were declined. And if they do not opt for the fire alarm, I do not say in the contract that I offered it and they did not want it. The contract is for a Yep You guessed it .... A Burglar alarm!
The same thing goes for motion detectors, glass break detectors or panic buttons. I could suggest panic buttons by every entry door and in every room of the house. Glass break detectors in every room. If I do make such an offer and it is declined, must I put that every door and room was offered with a panic button and all but the master bedroom was declined and every other item that was perhaps discussed or not, and declined, in a never ending list of rejected items?
If the contract is for a burglar alarm it's for a burglar alarm. Qualify the equipment listed in the contract as "equipment and placement as discussed during the survey" and when the customer signs it, that should be enough. If it did not included a fire alarm or a panic button or even a surge protector, it would be included in the list of equipment. If you include a surge protector in the exclusion list, then what's next? *NOT* stainless steel screws in a system installed by the water? (normal hardware will eventually rust) *NOT* a cooler in the control panel, because the restaurant cook decided to move the oven a foot away from the control panel? (That really happened !) *NOT* every wire in conduit, in food businesses, to avoid rodents chewing on wires? (Happens all the time contrary to the owners claim of "we do not have vermin in this restaurant"but it even happens in homes).*NOT* water proof all the components because of possible water damage? ( I have had equipment water damaged from over flowing bathtubs, toilets, broken pipes, holes in the roof) (Water leaking into a motion detector, corroded the board so that it appeared that the contacts were still closed, even with an End of line resistor. It was in that condition for years!)
In my book, the customer signs the contract. As long as the contract shows what is *IN* the installation, I don't see how it's possible to cover everything that's *NOT* in the installation. How can any contractor, in any trade, keep a list of all the things that he didn't offer, in the event that in it's absence, because maybe, sometime, in the future, it may result in failure or it may cause or be the cause of a bad situation.
And because he did not do so, in the absence of such a list , he would be liable?
Come ON! Give be a break already!
Sounds like we are on the path in search of a "politically correct" contract to me.
Gene
Reliable Alarm