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We moved house about a year ago. The previous owner had an alarm system, which we assumed was inactive, but whenever we lose/regain power, the panels beep intermittently.

We've somehow armed the system though, and now the alarm goes off whenever we enter the house. We don't have a code, so we have to turn the mains off, which stops the alarm but leaves it armed.

Is there a way to permanently disable the system? Here are some pics of the panels and what I believe is the control panel.

Thanks in advance.

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user123965
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    Find the incoming AC power feed. Disconnect and cap off. Remove the battery connections (the black thing in the lower left of the panel. No more power to the system. – Jon Custer Mar 08 '23 at 18:42
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    I have to ask: why haven't you called the phone number on the label inside the control panel? – CatchAsCatchCan Mar 09 '23 at 03:04
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    I moved into a place with such a system installed by a previous owner and I found the manual online, and reprogrammed it for my own use. Free alarm system. You don't have to pay for monitoring if you don't want to, a siren is better than nothing. – user71659 Mar 09 '23 at 04:53
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    @CatchAsCatchCan there's a chance it might still be active; I know mine wasn't when I tried - the company were no longer in business – Chris H Mar 09 '23 at 11:59
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    @CatchAsCatchCan If the OP calls, the first question from the alarm company will be “What’s your account number?”. – GB540 Mar 09 '23 at 18:29
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    Why not contact the previous owner? You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Also check for alarm company stickers and if you find one contact them and tell they you purchased the house and need the alarm system checked etc. My thoughts if you have it use it. – Gil Mar 09 '23 at 23:36

3 Answers3

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Per your pictures you have a DSC 1832 system and the manual can be found here. What you might try is doing a factory reset

  1. Power down the system completely.
  2. Connect a short (wire) between Zone 1 and PGM1 on the control panel (remove all other wires form these terminals).
  3. Power up the control panel (AC power only) for 10 full seconds.
  4. Power down the control panel, remove short between Zone 1 and PGM1.
  5. Power up the control panel.

Once you have the system reset, the manual walks you through the process to set it up for yourself.

Machavity
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Disconnect the battery and the power supply (if you can find where it's plugged in, somewhere near the brown box, unplug it.) Unfortunately your picture of the label is not quite clear enough to read.

enter image description here

But the first two wires on the left of the power strip say 16 VAC, so that's the power supply that's plugged into the wall somewhere, and the plug to the left of them looks to be the battery.

Usually looks like this, more or less:

alarm transformer image from alarmgrid.com

If you can't find and unplug the 16 VAC transformer, cap off those wires with a wirenut and/or electrical tape. Actually likely more reliable to remove only one of them and cap it (which still shuts the system off, but reduces the odds of the two coming into contact with both loose.) But better to find and unplug it (if not found, try taking the box off the wall, it may be behind)

In most cases you can look up the alarm model number and find out how to reset it (Relevant, no affiliation) so that you can control and use it, rather than disabling it permanently.

Ecnerwal
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    Thanks for your suggestions. The AC wires are going into a hole in the wall. If I'm not sure where they're plugged in, should I try switching off breakers until it powers off to help narrow it down? – user123965 Mar 08 '23 at 19:08
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    Flipping breakers, @user123965, is the _only_ way to find out if the labeling on the panel isn't clear enough. – FreeMan Mar 08 '23 at 19:10
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    Typical alarm-guy hack is that those wires pop out of the wall again next to an outlet. 99% of the time, the plug in transformer there is a similar brown color to the big wall-box with the main board in it. There are other possible ways, but that's typical. And yes, as Freeman says, you'll flip breakers (and perhaps do some other labeling updates) if your labelling isn't clear. – Ecnerwal Mar 08 '23 at 19:14
  • I've narrowed it down to the microwave circuit! I still haven't found the plug, but at least I can keep that breaker off for now until I find it. If not, I'll have to try capping. – user123965 Mar 08 '23 at 19:55
  • Look near the electrical panel, and look near (in any direction from, through walls, floor, ceiling etc.) the location of the alarm box. – Ecnerwal Mar 08 '23 at 23:25
  • I think walking though the house and looking for AC adapters with no known purpose would be faster than flipping breakers. I don't see how flipping breakers will help find it. A mysterious powered wall wart looks a lot like a mysterious unpowered one. – jay613 Mar 08 '23 at 23:31
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    I don't love the "remove one wire and tape" approach. That will leave the mystery PSU plugged in and totally useless, with its wire disappearing into the wall. In 15 years, some poor sucker will be afraid to unplug it for fear of whatever. The house blowing up. People think that way. :( It will remain plugged in and useless forever. – jay613 Mar 08 '23 at 23:33
  • If you have done a through job looking for it and not found it, (which is the first thing I suggest) what alternate approach are you suggesting? rip the walls open to follow the wire? – Ecnerwal Mar 08 '23 at 23:35
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    I get a bit obsessive with these things. Quit your job, stop eating, find the damn thing. :) – jay613 Mar 08 '23 at 23:35
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    given it went off with the microwave, i'd look at the outlet where the microwave is plugged in. Imagining an OTR where the plug is above and in a cabinet which is a good place to put a transformer or on top of kitchen cabinets. – Fresh Codemonger Mar 09 '23 at 01:57
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    Next step: follow those wires connected to the right most 4 terminals, it looks like they come from a telephone wire, unplug it from that jack I see above and make sure your phone service still works. Older alarm systems would try to call the monitoring company. Newer ones may have cell or internet connections. – DaveM Mar 09 '23 at 22:42
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You need to disconnect both AC power and battery power.

The battery is easy - remove the red and black wires from the terminals on top of the battery.

The AC is a bit trickier. AC power is coming on the left-most black and red wires on the left terminal block. They should be connected to a power adapter or transformer "somewhere". That could be a plug-in block plugged into a regular 120V AC receptacle. Or it could be a transformer mounted on a box somewhere like a doorbell transformer. Turn off the breaker for this circuit (if you do that after you disconnect the battery then the alarm will be totally off) and then trace the wires and disconnect them. Do not disconnect the wires from the terminal block without also disconnecting them from the AC source. Otherwise they could be dangerous for someone who doesn't know they're live (though not a huge danger because they are low voltage) and also some future person may find the transformer or power pack and not know they can remove it.

manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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  • can you elaborate on the last sentence, why it matters so much.. – dandavis Mar 08 '23 at 21:50
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    It's a power-limited low voltage circuit. Really not that dangerous. Better to kill it at the source, yes. But dangerous - not unless you start fiddling with it as you are having a gas leak. – Ecnerwal Mar 08 '23 at 23:23
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    Disconnecting at the source is certainly better, but as long as they're properly capped, I don't think it poses much of an additional danger. Anyone in the habit of assuming wires aren't live without checking shouldn't really be doing electrical work. – Michael Mior Mar 09 '23 at 15:23
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    @MichaelMior That's true, but there is an additional danger here. The standard NCVT is for 50V+. It won't detect these wires, so while not as dangerous as line voltage, there is a danger that might not be so obvious to the next guy. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Mar 09 '23 at 15:29
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    @manassehkatz-Moving2Codidact Very good point :) – Michael Mior Mar 09 '23 at 18:50