Wireless Infrared Home Security System Has Many Limitations

Wireless Infrared Home Security System Has Many Limitations

With home security becoming more accepted and utilized across the country, before installing any type of system make sure you understand any limitations that may be part of any of the systems on the market. One of the most common, a wireless infrared home security system can be connected quick and easy and without the need to run cables between the camera and the recorder or monitor.

A wireless infrared home security system can be used at driveway entrances and as area-wide surveillance. By the nature of the infrared technology that makes it useful in covering large areas, its use to transmit signals is non-existent. For most uses in a wireless infrared home security system there is a transmitter that sends out an infrared beam to a receiver. If the beam is broken, the receiver opens a loop, kept closed by receipt of the beam, and activates an alarm.

This technology makes infrared an ideal solution for covering a room with a single device. Many alarm systems use infrared detectors on large rooms with numerous windows to cover the interior of the room instead of separate devices for each door and window. A wireless infrared home security system can cover much more area with a single device that most wired devices.

Infrared Requires Direct Line Of Sight

Due to the fact the an infrared beam flows in a straight line and cannon go through walls or people, the use of an wireless infrared home security system is limited. Think about the remote control on the television and how it cannot work through the kids or around walls. The same limitations exist in a wireless infrared home security system. They work well when covering a wide area, but cannot be used to send signals to a receiver unless they can establish and maintain a direct line of sight between the transmitter and receiver.

While the individual units can be hidden inside walls, there has to be a hole through which the signal passes. In a darkened room the red beam origination point can be readily identified. Although the beams used in a wireless infrared home security system may be wide, a narrow band trips the alarm when it is broken. In most cases a perpetrator can skirt the visible origination of the beam and work their way past the beam.

This effectively allows some burglars to circumvent the entire alarm system. Most people use components of a wireless infrared home security system in conjunction with other types of devices to insure full and adequate property coverage.