Exposed Alarm system wiring?

Grimm · 02-05-2010, 09:30 AM

Hi everyone!

I just cut the wires to the sounder of our home alarm system.

It hasn't been active in nearly a year, and out of the blue the sounder continually went off, the company wouldn't offer advice, and I couldn't afford to have a service guy come in to shut it off so I cut all the wiring to the 12 year old sounder.

Until I can get my brother or an electrician friend to come out and disconnect the whole system, is this wiring a fire hazard?

I know I am a dumb-a** for just cutting it without thinking, so I hope you'll forgive a total newbie and let me know what, if anything, I should do with this wiring which is still connected to the main box. Any helpful feedback would be appreciated very much!

Thanks in advance!

KE2KB · 02-05-2010, 09:42 AM

As far as I know, alarm should be low voltage. Check the voltage to make sure.
But to be truly safe, why not find the source and cut it off there?

FW

Grimm · 02-05-2010, 10:54 AM

I believe it is 12volts. It was a 'quick fix', and I will get my brother to come by and look at the other wiring. I know zero about wiring and such, so I'll let my brother figure out the actual source. Thanks for replying : )

Billy_Bob · 02-05-2010, 12:14 PM

Most home alarms are 12 volts low voltage. However some are 120 volts. And some alarms are mostly 12 volts, but tied into house electrical circuits to switch on lights and so forth.

Best to be on the safe side and treat the wire as though it is regular house electricity, until you learn otherwise.

So turn off power to the whole house.

Then install a wire nut on the end of each wire.

Wire nut...

Gigs · 02-05-2010, 12:42 PM

Well to be clear, split the two wires and use two wire nuts. Don't wire nut both wires in one nut or you might short it out.

darren · 02-05-2010, 06:29 PM

When you cut these wires, did you cut the red and black at the same time. If you did and did not see a spark and your cutters still look new tey would be low voltage. If you cut them together and made a nice spark and now have a nice notch in your cutters then they would be 120V.

Get a couple of marretts and cap them off to be safe but they probably are low voltage.

The only thing usually 120V on an alarm system is the high side of the transformer.

Grimm · 02-05-2010, 09:20 PM

Thanks for the advice everyone! : )

I cut the red and black at the same time and there was no spark at all.

To be on the safe side, I will pick up 2 wire nuts and install one on each of the wires separately.

Thanks so much again, you are so helpful here!

Chevyman30571 · 02-06-2010, 03:05 AM

To be honest. I install alarms everyday and technically there should not be voltage on those wires unless the alarm was triggered. The only time there is voltage present on siren wires is when the actual alarm system is set off. What kind of system do you have? I may be able to walk you through on how to disconnect it. If you want to totally shut the system off go into the main alarm panel box and unplug the battery and than unplug the transformer. Most likely the transformer will be close by but this is not always the case.

Grimm · 04-20-2010, 02:16 PM

I managed to take care of the problem, but thanks for the offer. I have no clue what the system is, but I'm pretty sure the Flintstones had one like it

. Thanks again!