Roof Alarm Technology For Churches Across The UK

The E-Bound Roof Alarm system comprises multiple wireless sensors, arranged into a digital radio network and located on the roof of the church in order to detect and deter the moment any unauthorised access is made to a supervised area. E-Bound roof alarm systems are designed to operate on the basis of rapid detection & deterrence before an opportunity for damage has arisen.

The sensors detect intrusion because they are tuned to detect the infrared energy emitted by every living thing. When an intruder enters the sensor’s field of view, the sensor “sees” a sharp increase in infrared energy by using beams that detect a heat rise over a specific short period of time. Thus, a person will trigger the sensor, whereas small animals, blowing leaves or moving tree branches should not.

When the alarm is activated, the system will sound for approximately 30 seconds. The sound is a combination of a siren (like a police siren) and a voice warning. The strobe will flash for a total of 20 minutes, during and after the siren. The sounder is designed to be loud on the roof. At the same time, the alarm system relays immediate intrusion alerts to an NSI Gold Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC), who act based on your previous instructions – this may include the immediate dispatch of security personnel or local contacts.

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Below is the sound you will hear, when an activation of the roof alarm has been triggered

The above video from shows how easily access to your church roof can be gained. In only one minute the individuals have gained access to the roof, triggered the alarm and fled the scene, resulting in no theft or damage to the building.

The system has an anti-tamper feature. Should a sensor (or other piece of equipment) be tampered with, the alarm will trigger and our ARC will call contacts immediately (or the Response Officer company, depending on your specific instructions). Usually, the sensors will need to receive quite a knock before the tamper is initiated. You will also receive an email notification for this signal from our Alarm Receiving Centre. We tend to advise a revisit following tamper signals as this indicates interference with alarm equipment.

Our system is designed to detect various types of activity, as fast as possible, but without constantly advertising its presence with incessant nuisance alarms. In order to do this, we provide for several levels of detection. The first of these is the strobes. The strobes are set to flash for 2 minutes, each time any activity at all is detected. Should the activity persist or increase, then the full alarm will sound. The alarm system software is sophisticated enough to distinguish between background activity and criminal threat.

No. We decided against cameras for our roof alarm system when looking at our options and designing a system fit for church roofs. Camera based roof alarm systems rely too heavily on human verification and we strongly believe that they are not robust enough for the use on large historical buildings. Images that are recorded from some camera-based systems can be questionable even on their best days. The E-Bound roof alarm system will trigger immediately and automatically and is not dependent upon the transmission of images before the alarm sounds.

The E-Bound Roof Alarm System panel is powered by the mains, should the power fail or be interrupted for a period of time, the system will continue to function on its backup batteries. The batteries last for at least 24-hours. If the power is not restored during this time, the batteries will be drained and the alarm will be off completely, putting the roof at risk. Replacement batteries will then be required and possibly a revisit by engineers.

You will be contacted via email by our ARC each time the mains power fails and is restored. Most roof alarms are powered by the mains, via a fused spur that would have been fitted prior to the installation of the alarm. The fused spur is a small metal box, with our company name engraved on it, that will be situated near the alarm panel control box, usually in the tower. The fused spur also has a red light that will be illuminated when there is mains power going through it. If you do not see the red light illuminated, then there is no power from the mains to your alarm and you will need to check for any electrical issues in the building or in the adjacent area. It may be necessary to contact an electrician for this. Once you have rectified any power issues you can call our office on 01733 843341 and speak to our operations department, who can talk you through some checks to carry out over the phone, to confirm that the alarm is communicating with our software as it should.

The roof alarm has a mute facility, activated by unique fobs and a mute button/box. There are fobs that mute the roof alarm for 90 minutes or 8 hours. It is recommended that you keep the mute fobs separate (i.e., not on the same key ring) and in a secure place. We also advise that they are not kept on or near the mute button itself and not to display the muting instructions with the mute button. Remote muting is available if you are unable to mute the system manually. We request an email confirming this, including the times and dates the alarm will need muting. A small admin fee is charged for this service.

If you opt to have local contacts take responsibility for alarm activations, the ARC will call through a pre-selected list of contacts. They do not leave voicemail messages and will cease calling once they have reached a contact on the list. Regardless of a call being received or not, your main contact will still get an automated email from the ARC regarding the activation. Please note; the ARC will only speak with the named contact. e.g., not husbands or wives. If you have opted to have the 24-hour Response Officer Service, the ARC will call them to attend the site and your main contact will just receive the automated email.

We work closely with a company called Karma Security Solutions for this service. This is an optional service that churches take up when they do not have willing and able persons able to respond to the roof alarm activations, 24-hours or just during the night. They carry out an external patrol only and report their findings to us so that we can notify you. Best endeavours are always taken to provide the quickest possible response time but it is a shared service and they cannot guarantee an attendance within a particular time frame. The service is provided simultaneously to a number of customers and interruptions or delays can happen if an event occurs at the site of another customer. All attendances to activations will be responded to in the priority that they are received. We will always advise that you check the church properly following an activation as the Response Officers are limited by being at ground level and by darkness when checking the ground during the night-time.

Night-time Response Officers are called (by the ARC) to attend activations between the hours of 20:30 and 07:00 (or 19:00 to 07:00am during winter months). Any activation outside of those hours, the ARC will call church contacts (we usually request 2-5 contacts). We will send an email notifying you of the activation(s) with the date/time. If the Response Officers see damage or suspicious persons whilst on site, they are instructed to call the police and/or key holders where possible.

Response Officers are called to attend all activations, day or night. If Response Officers see damage or suspicious persons, they are instructed to call the police and/or key holders, where possible. We will send an email notifying you of the activation(s) with the date/time and we may call you if the activation was at a suspicious time.

• Checking installation and siting of all security devices against original specification

• Checking operation of detection devices, including radio signal strength for all sensors and the mute

• Checking condition of cabling and connections at the panel and between the panel and sounder, strobes and unswitched, fused spur

• Checking mains and stand-by battery power supplies at the panel. Changing all sensor batteries. Changing the mute control batteries (panel battery replacements are charged for separately if required, e.g., due to prolonged mains

• failures to the alarm)

• Checking control panel. Flash updating software if required

• Checking mute function, both local and remote

• Checking remote signaling equipment

• Testing remote signaling equipment

• Testing audible alarm devices.

• Testing strobes

Any hardware replacements that are outside of their warranty (two years) will incur further charges unless you have opted to take out the Extended Warranty (E-Bound Care) package with us.

Each Annual System Check can take approximately three hours to complete but this can vary depending on the size of the roof and the roof alarm system.

The roof alarm will need an annual check each year to guarantee the functionality of the system. This is a vital visit where important checks are carried out. It is also necessary if the alarm is installed for insurance purposes as most insurers will insist on the annual visit being carried out to meet their requirements for full cover against metal theft.

For health and safety reasons. Although our engineers undertake a full risk assessment each time they visit a church, we are not able to complete a Service or visit if the bells are not in the rung down and safe position.

No. Something as small as a bird or similar will not be perceived as a threat by the roof alarm.

No. The alarm automatically resets itself following an activation, once it stops ‘seeing’ a threat. There is no user intervention required unless you need to mute it yourself to access the roof (covered in Q7.)

The batteries would be expected to last in excess of two years, but they are changed at 12-month intervals as part of the annual system check. The system will alert the ARC to a sensor low battery condition and various other conditions.

The extended warranty covers all physical parts of the alarm system, excluding the panel batteries. Labour costs are not covered, though most replacements tend to be made during the routine Annual System Check whilst we are already on-site. Third party damage is not covered by the extended warranty. Full details can be provided upon request.

Below is a downloadable version of the Extended Warranty information leaflet

Below you can see the price for individual alarm components and how much taking out E-Bound's Extended Warranty could save you should you need any parts replacing. The one off annual price of £340 costs less than the price of replacing a single sensor.

The roof alarm will activate when the conditions for it to do so are met. There is always a reason why the alarm activates and should it do so, do not automatically presume that there is a fault. Concerns regarding alarm triggers should be directed to our office on 01733 843341.

The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of our hardware is many tens of thousands of hours. A church roof is a very challenging environment for sensitive electronics such as alarm sensors. We are not aware of any companies offering longer, or extended warranties on such devices, in particular given where they are located. Nevertheless, we have alarm systems that are over a decade old and still functioning as they should, although replacement parts may be necessary from time to time.

Often customers ask our engineers if they have had to drive all the way from Peterborough to undertake a service or visit. Although the company and our offices are based in Peterborough, the engineers are on the road Monday to Friday and would have only come a short distance from their hotel.

For health and safety reasons. Although our engineers undertake a full risk assessment each time they visit a church, we are not able to complete a Service or visit if the bells are not in the rung down and safe position.

We have developed a safe system of work, based on HSE guidelines, which aims to minimise the risk to the engineers as far as is reasonably possible and it empowers the engineers to determine whether the work can be completed without unnecessary risk. All of our engineers undertake regular health and safety and working at heights training. All of the company’s engineers are experienced in this type of work and a risk averse attitude is positively encouraged by the company’s management.

Our alarm systems are designed and installed with the intention of minimising the disturbance to surrounding areas when they activate. The sounder will be directing the sound on to the roof, rather than the surrounding area, therefore it is not always possible to hear the alarm at ground level when it activates.

It is important to keep us updated with current treasurer details and also the details for your main contact in order that we can ensure we are speaking with the right person for arranging visits. Your main contact details must also be shared with our ARC (by us) so they know who to send alarm notifications to. You will be reminded to keep such details up-to-date via any appointment confirmation emails.

We regularly receive calls from Treasurers asking us to confirm our bank account details as a number of high street banks have been unable to "verify" our Metro Bank details. We can confirm that the details provided on the invoice are correct.

Account Name: E-Bound AVX Limited

Sort Code: 23-05-80

Account Number: 22131265

At present, we are only able to accept payments by bank transfer or cheque; we have no facility to take card payments over the phone or arrange direct debits.

Great care is taken to ensure that the location and fixing method for this security system respects the building. Conservation specialists are closely consulted in order to ensure that there is minimal impact to historic building fabric. Wireless technology will be deployed on the roof in order to minimise disruption and reduce unsightly cable installation. The installation is usually completed in one day and the system will be maintained annually by E-Bound.

Lower temperatures make sensors work more efficiently, as they are able to detect heat more quickly relative to the ambient temperature. During very cold weather, the sensors may react to much smaller heat sources, relative to the background than they usually would.