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Motronic posted:ADT used to put in proprietary panels, but I understand they are now using DSCs or similar and just password protecting them (it can be gotten around). It's still a scummy business practice and they count on people not knowing poo poo and locking them in for 10 years at a time. Very old reply, but the thread popped back up to page one. ADT has rarely, if ever, used proprietary equipment. They currently rebrand DSC, Ademco, and GE. They've almost always just rebranded equipment, but DSC is their favorite right now. They've even rebranded Silent Knight back when SK actually made burglar alarm panels. The only panel I've seen that actually required a real ADT tech was one installed in an early 80s house we lived in - the tech had to bring out an EEPROM burner. The panel was old enough to run on 6 volts instead of 12, and was one of the first multi-zone residential systems ADT offered. You could actually open a door really fast, squeeze through, and slam it shut, and the alarm wouldn't even notice (at least if you were a 110 pound teenager). And the "siren" was a speaker powered by the panel that just went BEEP BEEP... BEEP BEEP... BEEP BEEP. It wasn't even outside, it sat inside a furnace return air duct. Getting around the installer lock is a PITA on DSC panels, it's usually easier and more cost effective to just replace the board. A complete basic DSC system is less than $150, including the can, board, 1 motion, 1 keypad, interior siren, and battery. And IMO, DSC is one of the easier to program. The board alone is about $75, and if it's a Power series, replacing a power series, the existing keypads work fine (the keypads and wireless transceivers are the only things that are really model dependant). Plastik posted:This hasn't gotten addressed directly, but everywhere I've lived the FD has said they'd rather you call and be wrong than your house burn down This too. I came home one day to find my apartment full of smoke, just as a thunderstorm had moved through. Called the FD. I recognized the smell as a grease fire instead of "oh poo poo my home is on fire", as did they. They initially wanted to rip down my ceiling to see if there was an attic fire, but all of us realized it smelled like food.. so they broke into my downstairs neighbor's apartment instead, and found a small grease fire on the stove. It'd just started to spread to the cabinets, they got it knocked down within a few minutes. All they had to do was break down the door and put out a pretty small fire. Neighbor was pissed as hell at me, saying I overreacted, until I invited him upstairs to see how much smoke was in my place, and mentioned most of my furniture was likely ruined from the smoke, and that I'd already taken both cats to the vet because they were hacking their lungs up. My ceilings were dark gray afterwards, for fucks sake. No idea why he moved out the following week with no forwarding address.  (all of my furniture in the living room had smoke damage, along with fairly heavy smoke damage to the walls and ceiling - furniture and clothing in bedrooms behind closed doors was fine) tl;dr Always err on the side of caution when it comes to fire and/or life. Worst case, the responding officers or FD crew get a laugh at your expense, and it gets them out for a bit. Always err on the side of caution if you smell smoke, or if you think someone is remotely injured. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Jan 21, 2015 |
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Jan 21, 2015 12:14
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dietcokefiend posted:It blasted apart a roof joist and started multiple fires in various parts of the house during its travel. That's actually not all that uncommon at all. And hard wired smokes usually do have a battery backup (centralized) or batteries in each one. If no detectors were going off the lightning strike either destroyed the system or none of them had batteries in them. Having a few backup battery ops is always a good idea. And ALWAYS call the fire department. We have the equipment and training to check this poo poo for real (like really expensive thermal imaging cameras).
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Jan 21, 2015 18:11
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Motronic posted:That's actually not all that uncommon at all. So you're a mechanic, contractor and a firefighter? 
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Jan 21, 2015 18:15
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PuTTY riot posted:So you're a mechanic, contractor and a firefighter? I was a mostly volunteer but sometimes paid firefighter and paramedic since I was in high school. Never really a full time job. Then I ended up fire marshal of our town for several years (where I got all my code edumication and investigative training). I've never been a professional building contractor, but I have and continue to professionally wrench. I started out doing that way back in high school in the winter times (my buddy and I ran a landscaping business into out early 20s - not much to do in the winter unless it's snowing and you have plow jobs). It's now an occasional thing/side job. My real job is as a computer guy/telecom. I've spent several years in other weird rear end employment, whether full or part time (apprentice at a winery, ground training race horses, baking bagles.......) I have adult ADD.
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Jan 21, 2015 18:23
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A facebook friend wants to build a kotatsu which is apparently a table with a piece of cloth and a heater element under. The page she links to uses the super lifehack of using an halogen lamp upside down as heating element. Is it the fire deathtrap I assume it is ? I see an unprotected halogen lamp just above the feet, heat being blocked off by the table and slowly cooking the wires as well as general retardedness. e: 
unpacked robinhood fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 16:00
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unpacked robinhood posted:A facebook friend wants to build a kotatsu which is apparently a table with a piece of cloth and a heater element under. The page she links to uses the super lifehack of using an halogen lamp upside down as heating element. Putting a bare halogen lamp that was designed to be in a fixture that sinks heat into open air in an enclosed space with combustibles? Yes, that's a bad idea.
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Jan 26, 2015 16:11
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unpacked robinhood posted:The page she links to uses the super lifehack of using an halogen lamp upside down as heating element. More or less any Lifehack that involves electricity varies between 'you may want to rethink this, champ' and 'trichromosomal teenager after a frothy mug of gasoline' levels of retarded. I've seen maybe one Hack that would actually pass code inspection, and that one was 'replace your outlets with ones that have a USB port built in!'.
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Jan 26, 2015 18:23
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