Installing Alarm Myself,

[Swancoat]

Hi, I think I know the answers here, I'm mainly looking for someone to confirm what I think.

I'm building a new home, and want to go with an M1G. The builder includes some other alarm standard (Don't know the make). My concern is that when I request the M1G the builder is going to try to mark up the price to some insane level (they've already told me that I can't procure things for them myself).

Is it unreasonable to tell them to just run all of the sensors (sensors are basically universal right?), and leave all of the labelled wires in the can, and I can drop in the M1G myself? (I guess I'll need them to run Cat5 to the keypad locations too...

I'm pretty certain that I can get this thing hooked up and configured myself. I assume there's nothing too tricky. I've never installed an alarm before, but I'm not an imbecile. Am I fooling myself here? Am I going to find myself way over my head in no time?

What else would be wise to have them do for me in preparation? Wire in the sensors. Cat 5 for keypads. Install a flush-mounted can with an outlet in the bottom. I'll have another can nearby with telephone, home networking, etc... so I can get it to a phone line. I'm thinking I'd like the doorbell interface, so I may have to look into that too.

Any words of advice/caution?

 

[sonny1639]

I'm a long way from an expert but have installed an M1.
If you are thinking of using their expansion boards you may want to request the larger can and the small one will get filled quickly.
The can also has a place for a power outlet in the bottom for a couple of transformers if you would like that added. I didn't bit mine is surface mounted and I wanted just low voltage their.
The sensosr I am using are from the old alarm that I put in probably 30 years ago and work fine.
You may want some wires from around the house to that area for small announcement speakers. The ELKs are 32 ohm and less than $10 fitting in a standard outlet ring/box.
If you want to control things like garage doors, spa etc, you may want to run some wires from their to the can area.
I am using cat 5 to the keypads and as I wanted to see the status of my garage doors, I also have led's in a panel by the back door along with a momentary switch to easily open and close the doors. They re using cat 5 also and it took me 6 wires for each set the way I wired them.
Hope that gives some idea's

 

[drvnbysound]

Install a flush-mounted can with an outlet in the bottom.

Just an FYI, the final inspector that came out for my installation only looked for the location of the transformer and the requirement was that it was not installed in the can with the alarm panel. I assume this may or may not be something that is different for different counties or states, but it may be worth looking into.