Alarms for homes
A well-planned home alarm warns you the moment somebody comes in, and puts people off before they try. Today’s systems are wireless: the sensors talk to the control panel by radio and run on batteries, so nothing has to be chased into the walls. A typical system includes:
- A control panel with an internet connection and, if you want, a data SIM as a second route.
- Motion detectors in the places people have to walk through, with options that ignore small pets.
- Magnetic contacts on the front door, low windows and the garage door.
- A siren indoors and, where it makes sense, outdoors.
- A keypad or remotes for arming and disarming.
The part that matters most is the alert to your phone: you get a notification naming the sensor that tripped, and you can arm or disarm from the app. In coastal second homes that stand empty for months, pairing it with a couple of CCTV security cameras lets you check from home whether an alert is genuine.
Alarms for businesses
In a shop, an office or a storeroom, the alarm protects the place outside opening hours. We put detectors on the door, the shopfront, the back room and the stockroom, and split the installation into zones so you can arm only part of it when you need to. Each member of staff can have their own code or app user, so you know who armed and disarmed.
In larger units it is worth covering the entrances first, along with anywhere entry could be forced: roller doors, high windows and back doors. For alerts to get through reliably the panel needs a solid connection; if there is no coverage where it has to go, we fix that with cable or with our wifi solutions.
Monitoring centres: what we do and do not do
We install and set up alarms that alert your phone. Connection to an alarm receiving centre and keyholding response are reserved in Spain for licensed private security firms, and we are not one. If you want that level of service, you can contract it with a licensed firm. We say so from the start, so you can choose with the full picture.
Access control with key fobs and cards
With mechanical keys, every lost key or departing tenant leaves the building’s security in doubt. Electronic access control solves that:
- Every user has their own fob, card or code.
- Lost fobs are cancelled on the spot.
- Permissions are limited: which doors each person opens and, on some systems, at what times.
- Some units keep a log of openings, which is useful in businesses and garages.
Key fobs and access cards are the usual choice: no battery, cheap to replace and tough enough for daily use. Keypads with a code suit places with a lot of turnover, such as holiday lets or offices with outside contractors. Opening from a phone lets you hand out temporary access. The blog covers this in the benefits of electronic key fob access.
Apartment blocks and garages
In a building we usually fit readers at the entrance, on the pedestrian and vehicle doors of the garage, and on communal areas such as storage units, the pool or the roof terrace. The chairman or the property manager can handle adding and removing users, or ask us to do it. In blocks with holiday lets this stops dozens of uncontrolled copies going round.
Garages are the trickiest part: remotes go missing, doors get left open and vehicles follow each other in. With managed receivers and readers you know which remotes and fobs are live, and you cancel the ones that should no longer open anything.
Built into the door entry system
The tidiest answer at a building entrance is a street panel with a reader built in: a visitor rings, and residents get in with their fob at the same point. If the existing panel will not take a reader module, we fit a separate one wired to the same door release. If the door entry system is causing trouble as well, it is worth looking at both together: see door entry and video entry systems.
What affects the quote
- The alarm: how many detectors, contacts, sirens and alert routes.
- Access points: how many doors, what kind of credential, and how many users to programme.
- Locks: whether they take an electric release or have to be changed.
- Integration with the door entry system or cameras.
We give you a free quote once we have seen the place.
How we work
- We visit the home, the premises or the building.
- We propose the simplest system that covers what you need.
- A clear quote, in writing when it is for a residents’ association.
- Installation, programming and a test of every sensor and every door.
- We show you how to use the app and how to add and remove users.
Where we work
We install alarms and access control in Tarragona, Reus, Salou, Cambrils, Vila-seca, Altafulla, Valls and Amposta, and across the rest of the areas we cover in the province.