How to Add Monitoring to an Existing Alarm System
Here’s the Situation:
Maybe you’ve moved into a new home that already had an alarm system installed.
Maybe you installed an alarm system in the past but were unsatisfied with your security provider.
The punchline is the same: you have all the hardware installed for a security system in your home, but with none of the monitoring. Now you need to figure out how to set up monitoring on an alarm system that has already been installed.
Yes, it can be done (most of the time), and we’re here to tell you how.
How to Set Up Monitoring on Existing Alarm System Hardware
The first thing you need to do is figure out is whether it’s even possible to set up monitoring from a 3rd party security provider. Most (but not all) alarm systems will facilitate this, so your first step is to figure this out.
As a general rule of thumb, any alarm system made by Honeywell or GE will be easily convertible. If your alarm system was not made by either of these companies, don’t give up hope just yet—there’s still a chance! We’ve prepared a helpful graphic showing pictures of almost every alarm system that can and cannot be converted. Try to match your alarm system to one of the these pictures, and if you’re having trouble, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’d be happy to help.
If your alarm system is not convertible, you will need to have it removed and a new one installed to take its place. This, of course, carries with it a price tag that will need to be considered. However, by hiring a locally-based, trusted company like us, you should be able to minimize this cost.
Once you have confirmed that your current alarm system hardware is, indeed, convertible, all that’s left to do is choose your service provider. In choosing this service provider, we want you to know that you have options! The world is literally your oyster, but we understand that it can be hard to sift through the options that you have at your disposal without some help. We’re here to give you that help. In choosing your next security provider, you should seek out companies and organizations that...
- Can provide every service that you want
- Have a long track record and a great reputation
- Can work with your existing hardware
- Does not lock you into a long-term contract
- Provides 24/7 UL-listed monitoring services
You can choose to go with whatever company you’d like, but as long as you’re here, we want to let you know that we at NCA Alarms fit into all of these criteria. So, if you are a homeowner in the Middle Tennessee region, we’d love to provide you with a free quote! And if you’re reading this from anywhere else in the U.S., we hope our advice in what to look for in your next security company was helpful.