Why Does My Alarm Activate in a Storm?

This is nearly always because the Backup battery in the Intruder Alarm control panel is no longer doing its job.

All that happens in a thunderstorm is that the electrical supply to your property is interrupted for a brief second, you notice this because the lights flicker.

Your backup battery is supposed to retain power to the alarm panel in the event of a mains electrical failure so you wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary and the system continues to operate as normal. But if the battery can’t provide backup power then the system will revert to initial power up and then go into an internal alarm.

Not only is a thunderstorm a sign from God, it is also a sign that you need a new backup battery.

A service engineer will carry out a battery test and recommend renewal, if you battery is more than five years old then a new one is recommended.

Try turning off the mains electrical supply to your alarm panel and see what happens.

You can change the battery yourself, they are available on the net, I recommend a YUASA 12V 7Ahr, these are what we fit, but it may depend on the physical room for this size battery, you may need to use a smaller battery say a 12v 2ahr. Best thing is to look at what size of battery is in your control panel and change ‘like for like’.

Oh, and if your external sounder is totally quiet when you turn the power off to the main control panel and remove the battery backup, then the battery in the sounder is also no good, to renew this battery you need ladders, and if your external sounder is old and looking tired, then you might as well renew the complete sounder, for a nice one, that lights up at night and tells the world you have an up to date and fully operational Intruder Alarm system.