Exterior sirens - yea or nay?

[kwschumm]

I was planning on installing exterior sirens on our new house but I'm wondering if they are more bother than they're worth these days.
 
I'm sure we will have brief and occasional false alarms from user error. We will be in a semi-rural area but maybe there's no point in annoying the neighbors. People these days mostly ignore alarms anyway.
 
Now LOUD interior sounders seem to make sense, if those don't chase away a thief maybe the outside siren is just noise.
 
I also like outside strobes for the purpose of any emergency people finding the house AND knowing when you pull up that the alarm has tripped. Also, the monitoring service and texts/calls from the alarm system will notify us directly when there's an issue.
 
Maybe it's good to install an outdoor siren for visibility purposes, as a little extra deterrent?
 
Is my thinking wrong here? What are your thoughts these days with more notification options than in the past?

 

[RAL]

I agree that many neighbors ignore alarm sirens these days.  But the important part is that a thief will know that the siren can be heard and they have no way of knowing whether someone will or will not take some action.
 
Most thieves usually get in and out of a house in a matter of minutes.   They grab the easy stuff and take off as fast as they can in order to cut their risk of getting caught.  But not always.... a few years back, several guys broke into our neighbor's house and spent about an hour loading up a box truck with everything they thought was valuable.  A couple of other neighbors saw the truck while it was there and figured it was just some delivery guys.  Our neighbors didn't have an alarm system, but if they had had one, and the siren was going off, there would have been no doubt about what was taking place.

 

[ano]

There have been robberies around here where they used a moving truck and spent the entire day there. Nobody suspected anything. 

 

[kwschumm]

There have been robberies around here where they used a moving truck and spent the entire day there. Nobody suspected anything. 

 
Hard to see how this can happen if they have a security system that was armed and working. I rented a house once that was broken into, and they spent quite a while in there (the bed even looked slept in an it STUNK), but there was no alarm.

 

[kwschumm]

I agree that many neighbors ignore alarm sirens these days.  But the important part is that a thief will know that the siren can be heard and they have no way of knowing whether someone will or will not take some action.
 
Most thieves usually get in and out of a house in a matter of minutes.   They grab the easy stuff and take off as fast as they can in order to cut their risk of getting caught.  But not always.... a few years back, several guys broke into our neighbor's house and spent about an hour loading up a box truck with everything they thought was valuable.  A couple of other neighbors saw the truck while it was there and figured it was just some delivery guys.  Our neighbors didn't have an alarm system, but if they had had one, and the siren was going off, there would have been no doubt about what was taking place.

 
You bring up great points but I'm curious what action neighbor could really take. I wouldn't want them to personally intervene. Call the cops? The security system should have already done that. Report a license number or description? The surveillance cams should already have that. Of course neighbors could report it much faster than reviewing the security cams so there is that advantage.

 

[RAL]

You bring up great points but I'm curious what action neighbor could really take. I wouldn't want them to personally intervene. Call the cops? The security system should have already done that. Report a license number or description? The surveillance cams should already have that. Of course neighbors could report it much faster than reviewing the security cams so there is that advantage.

 
I wouldn't expect the neighbors to put themselves at risk.  But they might be able to provide a description of their vehicle  license plate, and maybe a description of the thieves.  If they called the police, my guess is the police might respond faster if they knew there was a real break-in in progress rather than a possible false alarm.
 
Surveillance systems are helpful.  But many cameras aren't able to provide an image where you can clearly read a license plate.

 

[kwschumm]

I'm thinking now I'll install the outdoor sirens but leave them disconnected at the panel for the first few weeks. The interior sounder may be able to help train the users so any initial false alarms won't wake the neighborhood. After a decent period of no false alarms I can hook it up. We have a boy who is seemingly unable to remember anything unless he is embarrassed by mistakes.

 

[mikefamig]

My decision was to use very loud interior sounders. First it will hurt the thieves ears. Also your nearby neighbors might hear it without it being too annoying and you won't be annoying everyone within a half mile of your home. The police can also hear it from the curb when they arrive.
 
Mike.

 

[cobra]

My decision was to use very loud interior sounders. First it will hurt the thieves ears. Also your nearby neighbors might hear it without it being too annoying and you won't be annoying everyone within a half mile of your home. The police can also hear it from the curb when they arrive.
 
Mike.

Have you been sleeping when they went off yet? I’ve considered this, but it might stop your heart...

 

[mikefamig]

Have you been sleeping when they went off yet? I’ve considered this, but it might stop your heart...

I'm very disappointed to say that I didn't install the noise yet. at this point I just have speakers and two sirens one inside each garage.
 
The reason for this is that we got a puppy and now don't want to hurt her ears. I still plan to install screechers and arm in "stay mode" muting the screechers when we leave her home alone.
 
Mike.
 
And good point.

 

[pete_c]

Recently here upgrade my interior siren to a combo strobe and pieze siren.
 
Over the years have purchased but not installed different outdoor sirens and strobe lamps.
 
Pulled wires for the outside stuff but never did install anything.
 
I purchased two of these devices as they are rated for outdoor use.  They are loud and work fine.
 
I have not installed the outdoor one.  Strobes are blue or red.  I purchased two red ones but may put a blue one outside.
 
Years ago also installed a wave file when the doorbell rang which was just a loud sound of a couple of attack dogs barking and running on the wood floors.  It was loud enough to hear outside of the door.  I have since shut this off.
 
Googling noticed that Home Depot has these for $10.48.  Originally purchased them on Ebay.
 
Mini Strobe Siren with Red LED Light (DC12V)

 

[tmbrown97]

The world of security systems has definitely changed over the last decade.  Nowadays, the only point to alerting the cops is to get a report number to give to your insurance company.  You're basically on your own to try to deter the criminals in the first place.  We used to tell people to never rely on themselves to monitor the home security system, but nowadays, you have a far better chance of getting a police response if YOU call them and say your alarm alerted you, and you're watching the crooks on your cameras.
 
I didn't do the outside siren on my last house - in fact many communities are starting to ban them.  I'm about to do a new house, and will also skip the outdoor siren, but I do like the idea of the strobes on the outside - at least if a neighbor hears the faint sound of the indoor screamers AND sees the flashing lights, they'll put it together.
 
Also - I set my screamers to only go off if the house was armed away when it violated; not if armed stay - so as not to blow out the kids' ear drums.  Also, put on a 10 second delay before it got obnoxious.

 

[MichaelHarris259]

The world is too selfish, no body cares whats happening around or in the neighbourhood unless they are affected by the actions. So i would suggest no exterior sirens.

 

[Linwood]

I have no statistics to counter some of the arguments but I will argue that they are useful.  A couple of hypothetical scenarios:
 
1) I don't want a neighbor to try to interrupt a robbery, and having a siren going off is a great way to tell joggers, neighbors, etc. to "stay the heck away". Or at least give them that opportunity, if something is going on before the cops arrive. 
 
2) Emergency services arriving in poor light might not be completely sure which is the house they were called for; a sounder going off loudly will give some help.  It may also (let's say fire) cause them to hesitate less at coming inside if no one is home.  With block houses, concrete roof, well sealed -- a fire might need to be pretty well involved before they could see clear indication from outside.  And mine not only sounds a siren it shouts "Fire Fire Fire" so you can tell the difference. 
 
3) Someone who hasn't fully gotten inside may be encouraged to leave a bit more by more noise including outside.
 
And finally the semi-reason:
 
4) If everyone is right and most people ignore them, then they also do no harm, so why not?
 
I will add that I added a "silence" switch, a physical on/off switch, so I could easily silence the outside siren if there is a problem with the alarm system, or when I want to test it.  It's really rude, I think, to have it blare if one is doing a smoke test.

 

[mikefamig]

I have no statistics to counter some of the arguments but I will argue that they are useful.  A couple of hypothetical scenarios:
 
1) I don't want a neighbor to try to interrupt a robbery, and having a siren going off is a great way to tell joggers, neighbors, etc. to "stay the heck away". Or at least give them that opportunity, if something is going on before the cops arrive. 
 
2) Emergency services arriving in poor light might not be completely sure which is the house they were called for; a sounder going off loudly will give some help.  It may also (let's say fire) cause them to hesitate less at coming inside if no one is home.  With block houses, concrete roof, well sealed -- a fire might need to be pretty well involved before they could see clear indication from outside.  And mine not only sounds a siren it shouts "Fire Fire Fire" so you can tell the difference. 
 
3) Someone who hasn't fully gotten inside may be encouraged to leave a bit more by more noise including outside.
 
And finally the semi-reason:
 
4) If everyone is right and most people ignore them, then they also do no harm, so why not?
 
I will add that I added a "silence" switch, a physical on/off switch, so I could easily silence the outside siren if there is a problem with the alarm system, or when I want to test it.  It's really rude, I think, to have it blare if one is doing a smoke test.

 
I found that the inside sirens can be heard from outside if they are loud enough and a strobe on the front of the house satisfies most of your list. The M1TWA sound module seems to have a higher output than the audio on the M1 panel and you can add a screecher or some other loud noise maker that could be heard from outside..
Mike.
 
Mike.