For someone that only wants to buy an alarm for a single door or a single window in their home, buying a complete alarm system with multiple sensors and a control panel is overkill, and can also get very expensive. Fortunately, one can buy a single door sensor alarm (to secure a single door or window in your home). A single door sensor alarm is normally quite cheap, and you can normally get one for under $10.
When you buy a door sensor alarm, it is normally powered by batteries – button cell, AAA, or AA batteries. It may come packaged with the required batteries, or you may need to purchase batteries separately. As there are no wires involved, they are quite simple to install, and normally just require some double-sided tape (which may also be included in the product package).
A door sensor alarm comes in 2 parts, and works using a contact sensor. A contact sensor is a closed-circuit system, and when a window or door is closed, an electrical current flows between the two parts of the circuit (the two parts of the door sensor alarm). When that window or door is opened, that electricity does not flow between these 2 parts anymore, and this then triggers the alarm.
To install a door sensor alarm, the part containing the magnet is placed on the edge of the door. Whilst the door is closed, install the other part (the part containing the contact) adjacent to the magnet on the doorjamb. When the door or window is closed, these 2 parts must only be separated a very narrow distance (normally no more than a half an inch), which will keep the electrical current flowing through the closed-circuit. The door sensor alarm is normally activated by turning on a switch located on the contact part of the unit.
Door sensor alarms are a very cost effective way to secure the perimeter of your home, and these alarms are often sold in packs of three or four door sensor alarms to a pack, making it an extremely good value for money to secure all your windows and doors.
The first disadvantage of these units are that some of them don’t emit a very loud alarm siren when activated.. The other disadvantage is that when these units are used on windows, smashing a window pane won’t set these sensor alarms off – only opening the window itself and separating the contact will trigger the alarm. So a burglar can smash the window pane, reach inside, and turn off the sensor alarm unit.
The GE 51107 Smart Home Wireless Alarm System Kit consists of one door sensor alarm, and three window sensor alarms. The alarm sound these sensors produce is an impressive 120 decibels, which is louder than just about any the other battery-powered door/window sensor alarm available. Also, the door sensor alarm provided with this kit has a 4-digit keypad for arming or disarming the door sensor alarm.
Tags: door sensor alarm, home security sensor, window sensor alarm
