[drbawb]

We just moved into a condo which had a very old [Nov 1999] BRINK's home security installation that we didn't intend to use.

When we first moved in all the keypads said: "CALL 1-800-<WHATEVER> FOR SERVICE. NOT READY." We were not interested in a home-alarm service, so we simply left them alone and went about our move.

Fast forward 3 months: these alarm pads would start beeping in the middle of the night. We had a friend watching our house during the day: they'd _never_ beep during the day, not once. Around 1AM though they'd go off and starting chirping in 15 second intervals.

The first night: we were able to silence it by hitting "CANCEL" on the keypad. On subsequent nights we could silence it for [what seemed like] a random period of time between 15 minutes and several hours.

Perhaps it was just the sleep deprivation, but I swear by the fourth night you couldn't shut it up for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Fed up with the alarm: I headed downstairs, pajama-clad, with my multi-tool and a flash light.

---

Turns out: this is the "low battery alarm" -- we cut open the strongbox and disconnected a sealed lead acid battery and shut off the breaker. (Which coincidentally takes out our CO alarms, but it was worth it for the peaceful slumber.)

The battery did test bad so I disposed of it. (Shame: I wanted to repurpose it.)

It seems that these sorts of "self-destruct" alarms are DESIGNED to (A) go off when you're likely to be home (night-time hours) and (B) they are hard to ignore (e.g: exhibit some kind of non-deterministic pattern.)

[WillyF]

Because the alarms are so annoying, people often end up disabling the alarms and never replacing them. That's dangerous in the long run. In the short run it's dangerous to try to disable an alarm in the middle of the night. I wonder if anyone has ever died from a fall while attempting to stop the chirping in a sleep-deprived state.

[drbawb]

That's the thing: we still haven't replaced our CO alarm.

Given how integrated it is into the BRINKs panel: it's doubtful the CO alarms would've even worked while the BRINKs panel was powered but unactivated.

Now we are left with keypads [we don't want] and deactivated CO alarms bolted in to our freshly painted walls. sigh

I'm not particularly annoyed by the behavior itself: false alarms don't bother me, and a low battery alert is definitely a useful "error code."

What bugs me is that it should be easy to dismiss the "low battery warning" for _at least_ 8 to 12 hour windows. Long enough that you can actually get some rest and deal with it in the morning / after your shift.

[lallysingh]

If the walls are freshly painted, you can remove the alarms, patch the holes, and paint over. The new paint will match the paint around it.

It costs maybe $20 for enough materials (not counting paint).

[drharris]

It's likely because late night/early morning is cooler temperature, and this drops the battery voltage enough to trigger the sensor.

[drbawb]

Might make sense for fire alarms: but this home alarm system had a battery that was in a sealed strong-box in a midwestern US basement.

tl;dr: the battery, in this case, was in a room that is continuously controlled for humidity, temperature, and in this case: light.

--

The system usage should also be pretty static: as our house guest was home and presumably tripping the motion sensors all day. (Yes: even though the system was unarmed _and unactivated_, our motion sensors still appeared to be _sensing._ -- It's purely coincidence, but this ordeal started right around when the Internet was in an uproar over PRISM & the NSA.)

Retiring to our unprotected bedroom dwellings for the evening would've only _decreased_ the system's draw, if it had any impact at all.