Understanding Security System Terms
Throughout this guide, and in some displays on your keypad, you’ll see certain words or phrases that might be unfamiliar. Although every effort has been made to use terms that are commonly known, there are some for which there was no acceptable substitute.
Below are some terms you’ll see here and on your keypad display:
Arming
This is the term used for turning on the burglary protection in one or more areas of the system. Your system may require you to enter a code number. When armed, the system is able to sound alarm bells or sirens and, if monitored, send alarm reports to a central station when a burglary zone is faulted.
Fire, panic, and other 24 hour devices are always turned on and do not need to be armed.
Disarming
This means turning off one or more areas of the system. When disarmed, the system does NOT sound alarms or send alarm reports to a central station when a burglary zone is faulted.
Zone
A zone refers to a group of one or more protected openings or protection devices assigned the same zone number. Each door or window, motion detector, smoke detector, or other device has a zone number and a name.
Often, similar devices in the same general area will share the same zone. For example, the windows on the east side of the premises can all be grouped together in a zone named E. WINDOWS.
Entry or Exit Zone
Almost all systems have one or more doors through which you can enter or exit the premises. These doors are programmed with a delay time to allow you to enter or exit while the system is armed without setting off the alarm.
When you arm the system, activity on all burglary zones is ignored until the programmed exit delay time expires. Once that time has expired and the system is fully armed, opening the door causes the panel to start the entry delay time. During the entry delay time, you must enter a valid code number to disarm the system or an alarm will occur.
Instant Zone
Exterior windows and non entry doors, or interior protection devices, are typically not programmed with delay times. If these zones are faulted while the system is armed, an alarm occurs instantly.
24 Hour Zone
A 24 hour zone is never assigned to an area and is not turned on or off by arming or disarming your system. Some examples of 24 hour zones are: fire zones, panic zones, and temperature control zones.
Areas
An area is made up of burglary zones that can be armed or disarmed together. The Perimeter area, for example, consists of all the doors and windows on the outside of the building. When you arm the Perimeter, these zones sound an alarm if faulted.
4 | Introduction |
