Doorbell sets alarm off and turns all house lights off

[aidendewhirst]

We've just moved into a new house and the doorbell wasnt working so i put a new bell push on the door and hey presto doorbell works again.

However... if the house alarm is unset the alarm sounds for aslong as the doorbell is pushed in, and the lights in whole of house flick off, then back on again when doorbell is released.
If the alarm is set the doorbell push sets the whole alarm off until alarm code is entered.

I've no idea where to even begin trying to sort this problem. Im inclined to just put a new doorbell in and remove the old one, but then id still be wondering if something was wired up wrong somewhere.

Any ideas on first things i could check?

 

[bernardgreen]

Is the door bell a wireless one ?

Does it have a battery in the push button unit and no wires connecting to it ?

If it is a wireless one that could explain why the alarm is being triggered by the door bell.

Another possibility is the previous resident was deaf and instead of a door bell they had arranged for the lights to be blinked OFF when the door bell was pressed That blink OFF could be affecting the alarm as well if the battery in the alarm panel is old and no longer working.

 

[aidendewhirst]

It is a wired bell, and it was a very old lady who lived here previously so its a possibility that the lights were wired like that. Also thinkjng alarm battery could be dead as we had a powercut the other night and it set the alarm off. Is it just a standard type of battery to replace or specific to each alarm system?

 

[bernardgreen]

Most alarms use something like these on this page

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search?text=yuasa batteries

There are other sources and supplies of batteries.

You need to find out the type and get a new one. Post details of the alarm and then very likely someone here will be able to tell you how to shange the battery,

For the blink OFF there will a relay or contactor probably installed close to the consumer unit. The door bell wires will connect to it as will the mains cables to the lighting circuit. When the door bell is pressed this will operate and may make a click sound as they operate. The quick fix is to remove the door bell wires from it. Leave the mains wiring. An electrician can then remove the relay and replace it with a junction box or ( better ) replace the cable. Some modern blick OFFs may use a solid state relay and these do not click and tracing the door bell wiring may be needed.

 

[sparkymarka]

If it is connected to the lights you may have a grey box near the consumer unit with an override switch on it , have seen loads of these in the council properties for the hard of hearing !

 

[aidendewhirst]

there is a grey box next to it that says silentbell and has a day & night switch on it, if i switch it to day it sets the alarm off and the alarm keypad lcd has no power. Might have to get some1 in to try sort it unfortunately..

 

[sparkymarka]

That's the unit, how this works depending on how it was wired is ...the live feed from the fuse board goes via the relay which flashes on and off when the door bell is pressed the alarm is probably fed off the lights after the relay , and the back up battery is no good in the alarm .

 

[Europlex]

Haven't seen one of those boxes for years, how old is the alarm?

 

[plugwash]

should be a pretty simple job to sort now the problems have been found. Remove and bypass the "silentbell" box and put a new battery in the alarm panel.