TIL most false alarms happen between 6 and 9 PM, not overnight

I found this stat on the Security Industry Association's website last week while looking up panel specs. It said over 60 percent of false alarms happen during what they call the 'settling in' hours when people come home from work. I always assumed it was middle of the night stuff like bugs or battery issues. Made me think about how I program my entry delays and how customers interact with the system right after work. Has anyone else adjusted their installation practices based on peak false alarm times?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_king1mo ago

...yeah, I ran into this exact thing a few years back when I kept getting calls about the same system going off around 7 PM and the customer swore nothing was wrong. Turns out they'd set the alarm to 'stay' mode but forgot they left a window cracked in the back room and when the sun went down the temp change made it shrink just enough to trip the sensor. I started putting longer entry delays in my programming for that 6 to 9 window, like 45 seconds instead of the standard 30, and it cut down the false alarms by a lot. Also started telling customers to walk through their house for the first 15 minutes after they disarm instead of just setting it right away. Those two things together helped more than any equipment upgrade I ever did.

rayc381mo ago

That thing about the 6-9 window makes so much sense to me. People are coming home, cooking dinner, getting kids settled, they're not paying attention to the system. I started setting up two different arming profiles for my customers who have that problem. One for daytime when they're home and another for that evening window with the longer delay. The tricky part is teaching them to switch between them, but once they get it, it works real well. I also added a chime feature that beeps when a door or window opens, even when the system is armed. That way they hear it and can check before the alarm goes off. Saves a lot of headaches with neighbors complaining about false alarms.