Should I move my alarm panel?

I will be moving into a new home soon. The alarm panel is located in the attic. The home is nearly 10,000 sq ft two stories and the rest of the HA gear will be in a room on the first floor. I would guess the distance between the two is nearly 100 ft taking into account all the bends and turns.

I plan on replacing the panel with an ELK and will start the HA project with lighting (probably Zwave), distributed audio (probably Russound CAV6.6) and touchpanel interface (probably MainLobby or CQC). HVAC, pool control, distributed video would come later.

Does it make sense to move the alarm panel to the HA room or leave it in the attic?
 
I'm in an area where for some reason they like to install things in the attic also ;) I have over the years moved everyting down into the attached garage.

If it were me I would install the new Elk in the equipment room on the 1st floor. If it's too difficult to extend all the zone wires you can install one or more Elk zone expanders in the old alarm box.
 
Another vote for moving it. Carry's advice was good - leave an input expander or 2 if you need to. I pulled an old alarm panel out of the attic and it was nasty. The battery especially did not take kindly to the heat. I would think the electronics will enjoy air conditioned space better, leading a longer and healthier life.
 
I would move it also. In fact if you can put the zone expanders in a small can in a closet of the upper level that would be the best in my opinion.

Heat reaks havoc on electronics, batteries etc over time.
 
Move it.

Leave the old box there and use it as a junction box. Splice the wires there and run wires from there to the new location. You could consider using a multiconductor cable to run between the old box and new box. The pull will be easier, and you could have some spares for future I/O expansion.
 
So far its unanimous to move it. I like the idea of leaving the old panel as a junction box. Thanks for the support and ideas.
 
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