Getting our first cat, will it set off the house alarm?

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David321

488 posts

Ultimate Geek

#277412 14-Oct-2020 08:20

Hi all,

My wife and I are about to get our first cat in 8 weeks (old enough to leave its mother) and we actually only just thought about how it might effect the house alarm, obviously we set this every time we leave the house and there is pir sensors throughout the house. Would a cat set these off if it were inside?

If so is there some sort of modification possible that we can have done to the alarm so that a cat is not enough to set it off but a person is? Ideally we would still like to be able to set it so if someone broke into the house it would go off but we cant have the cat setting it off every time it moves in the house!

Thanks,

_David_

MikeAqua

7785 posts

Uber Geek

#2584077 14-Oct-2020 08:22

As I understand it that depends on the sensitivity of your PIR detectors. Some of them are not triggered by small things like cats (but are by Labradors)

Mike

Jase2985

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#2584087 14-Oct-2020 08:33

depends on the sensor and how close the cat could get to the sensor.

if there is the back of a couch near the sensor that the cat could climb on it could potentially set the alarm off as the mass of heat is now closer to the sensor to trigger it.

you can get specific sensors if this does happen. they are less sensitive down low to account for where animals normally are.

We have never had this problem, but my parents did and changed sensors and its been fine since.

Dingbatt

6760 posts

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#2584096 14-Oct-2020 09:01

When we had our alarm installed about 18 years ago the PIRs were advertised as “pet friendly”. To my knowledge our cats, one of whom is rather ‘corpulent’, have never set it off. Can’t comment on dogs, we’re not a dog family.

Certainly our alarm displays when a PIR senses something whether it is armed or not. If yours is the same you may get an indication of whether the moggy will set it off without chancing the siren going off.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

mdf

3523 posts

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#2584097 14-Oct-2020 09:01

You can get pet-friendly sensors that are adjustable depending on the size of your pet. I would consult the manual (or in all probability, the website) for your particular model and see what it says.

You also need to think about where your sensors are and whether kitty can park itself right in front of them (e.g. is there a shelf or ledge right in front). I've had one go off (I think) when a spider managed to get inside the unit and dance about right in front of the sensor.

Resnick

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#2584193 14-Oct-2020 10:58

Our cat has released live birds in the house while we were away......

neb

11294 posts

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#2584377 14-Oct-2020 16:18

Reinforcing the previous comments about checking whether your cat can climb up on things and trigger pet-friendly sensors, most recent sensors should be pet-friendly even without explicitly having to to request them, but do check out for an ability to climb up to non-pet height and dance around there. Our cat can set off the pet-friendly sensor in the bedroom by balancing around on the window sill in front of it.