Alarm Installing Courses ?


  #1  
Old 10-26-18, 03:12 PM
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Alarm Installing Courses ?

I'm looking to have an alarm installed at my house in the future and I'd rather not pay a professional to do it . I'm also the type of person who isn't a natural with hands on things and I'm really not good at learning how to do hands on things by simply reading a book either ...

Which is why I'm curious if there are any community college type places out there that offer alarm installing courses for the average homeowner seeking to install an alarm themselves .

Any place located in the DC-Baltimore metro area will do if that helps .

Oh and thanks ahead of time for any answers .
 
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Old 10-26-18, 03:36 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

I install mostly commercial security and fire alarm systems.
I'm not aware of any schools in your area that teach alarm system installs. You may want to check with community colleges or what we have that are called Vocational training schools.
 
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Old 10-26-18, 05:29 PM
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You might consider a SimplySafe system, so easy to install a caveman can do it.
 
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Old 10-26-18, 09:44 PM
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Hi Shaun, welcome to the forum. I live a few miles south of Frederick, MD, so we're neighbors, relatively speaking. A DIY installation of a "real" (professional-grade) alarm system is within the capability of most people who are willing to put in the work.

I'm (mostly) retired now, but I worked as an alarm tech for over 35 years, mostly home and small business systems. I don't miss having to punch the clock at 7 five days a week, nor working 50+ hours every week; but for the most part, I liked working with alarm systems. I especially liked installing a system that I could design to be as trouble-free and maintenance-friendly as possible.

I might be willing to give some on-site hands-on training, just for the fun of it. I wouldn't expect monetary payment but I might ask you to provide pizza and soda (or equivalent). There would be logistics to work out (NOT money).
If you're interested, PM me your phone number and best time(s) to call. Don't post your phone number on the public forum.
 
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Old 10-26-18, 09:53 PM
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A very generous offer.

(Heck..... I'll come for the pizza and equivalent too. )
 
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Old 10-28-18, 11:29 AM
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There's not really an "alarm installation course". Most of the skills involved are variations on basic electrical wiring retrofit skills; and a little basic electrical circuit knowlege (like knowing the difference between a normally open and a normally closed switch/circuit; and the difference between series and parallel circuits; and where which is appropriate.)

The rest is pretty much having enough basic construction knowledge to know how to route and fish wires with minimal damage.
 
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Old 10-28-18, 06:40 PM
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I pretty much learned how to upgrade my alarm panel from watching a bunch of YouTube videos and get a a visual feel of it. Otherwised I wouldn't know how to feed wires through walls and such since my system was prewired by adt
 
 

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