Anthonyh : What do you mean you put 2 contacts, one on the ac and the other on window ? The window frame already has the reed switch and the window normally has the magnet. If I have an AC in the window, simply putting a magnet on the AC so that it closes the circuit on the reed switch. Now to prevent the window from opening anymore than it is already, I will just put a piece of wood inside the track thus jamming the window against the AC. Of course that wouldn't prevent anyone from lifting the window out of the frame. Another solution would be doing as above, then add another reed switch on the other side of the AC and the magnet already on the window will close that circuit. When the AC is not in place, I would have to remove the wire between the 2 reed switches. Doing that a 2 times per year isn't that bad but I would need to find a way to easily pull out and push in the wire into the window frame to make the connection in series. Everytime I remove that piece of wire, I would need to cut it part of the wire coming from the window frame. Termination would look ugly because I would be using beanies.
TexasTechnician : Wood door jams. Sheet-rock on the walls. Tar paper/styrofoam on exterior walls. Parquet glued directly onto cement slab. Once I get to the baseboard level, I can drill through the bottom plate and go into the garage in some areas. For other areas where there are actual room underneath, I would drill a small hole in the studs (in a angle) to pass the cable horizontally until I reach the panel. That's going to be hard between the walls under the windows usually have a large wood going horizontally to alle easy installation of baseboard heaters during the winter. Unfortunately I have cement slabs between my floors and there no attic or crawl space. If I happen to have a door in my path, I guess I could go around door casing between the jam and the wall. I live in Canada and the walls/floors/ceiling are insulated because of the cold so passing wires is much more difficult.
I have done a lot of wiring in my house (from 10base2 to be replaced with 100baseT, from RG59 that I replaced recently with RG6 Quad Shield. I upgraded my current alarm system from an old SurGard panel with only PIR by adding window/door contacts and glass break detectors. I recently replaced teh Surgard with a DSC632 and added a few keypads and extra zones. I pretty familiar with this stuff even thought I don't do this every day but for all the wiring I did before, I always had time to come back a week or two or more later to "clean up" by patching the walls and repainting. Now with a 60-70 hour week job, the Miss that will become Mrs in very short time and out of the country projets, time is NOT on my side. Of course I need all this done before I can paint the walls which is delaying the sanding of the floors and the delivery of the furniture. Project starts July 1st if my tenant leaves on time and have about 4 weeks before the guests arrive.
Also one more thing, how about PIR. I know you should point it towards the window because the sun rays can confuse it or cause it to trigger. How do you normally position them ? I was thinking of having it on the same wall as the window and pointing towards the door leading into the room. Obviously if the PIR is on the same wall as the Window, it means it's on a insulated outside wall and even more troublesome is that it needs to be in the corner which normally is studded for structural support and drywall surface nailing.
Wow long post. Hope you guys didn't fall asleep reading it.
thanks
