Silence Vs. Sound: Which Type Of Alarm Will Help You The Most

Posted on: 22 March 2017

Adding a commercial alarm system to your building is a practical step that helps deter break-ins, but the type of alarm you add can also make a difference in how easy it is to catch anyone who still attempts to get in. Chief among your choices will be whether to get a silent or sounding alarm, one where there is a loud alarm bell ringing. The location of the property, the neighborhood, and the ability of police to get to the scene are all considerations.

Residential Proximity

If your building is near a residential neighborhood, it could be nicer for the neighbors if you got a silent alarm system. While this might not be necessary, depending on the zoning in your area, it's just more polite so that neighbors aren't woken up by a loud alarm.

Extra Help

Of course, if you don't have a security guard wandering the property, and you're looking at alarms that aren't connected to monitoring services, then a loud alarm could be better. It would alert neighbors who could then call police. However, you'd have to be sure that people in the neighborhood were willing to do that, and also that there were no potential opportunities for false alarms (for example, if the alarm is so sensitive a cat could set it off, that could make your neighbors very unhappy, very quickly).

Response Time

When looking at alarm systems, find out what the expected response time would be for your building. If police could get there quickly, a loud alarm might be fine (it would scare away potential crooks, but they wouldn't get far before police could arrive). If it might take longer even with a monitoring company alerting the police, a silent alarm could be better because that would give the police more time to show up and catch the person who got in.

Revenge

If your property does not have a security guard, and there are no residential areas nearby, a super-loud alarm could provide revenge of a sort. Anyone tripping the alarm would be faced with an ear-splitting screech that could make them leave quickly, while their heads spin from the noise. Note that you should not use a super-loud alarm if you have anyone onsite like a security guard or after-hours workers. Only use the very loud alarms if the property is supposed to be empty of people.

Because each system has several features, it's best to sit with a representative from the alarm service you're interested in, such as Tele-Plus, and see all of the options. You may also want to talk to neighboring businesses to see what they have found to be successful.

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