I am helping friends with the alarm system for their house and will be having them use Surety. This will be a 100% wireless build with high level design of IQ4 + 1 Remote, Door/Window Contacts, Smoke/CO, and Sirens
I migrated from a Vista 21iP to an IQ4 in my own home (Surety customer), so I’m familiar with the IQ4 in general, but I’m using existing hardwire and Honeywell wireless, which brings up the following questions for this new install:
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Wireless Devices - I have been planning to use all PowerG devices as they seem to be the most desirable. Is there any reason to consider using S-Line?
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Door Contacts - The doors in the house are black, so white nor brown sensors will blend particularly well. Can the PG9303 be painted? If not, is there another wireless option that can be painted? If not, I am thinking PG9312, which is chunkier, but at least it’s black. I am my friends not very interested in drilling holes in their door/frame for recessed contact.
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Motion Detector - Indoor - Is the PG9984P the best overall PowerG motion detector, or is there another model worth considering? There are ceiling fans in areas where a motion will be going.
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Motion Detector - Outdoor - This would be for use on a fully covered porch that is 17’ x 20’ with 3 walls against the house and the fourth wall open to the yard. 2 of the walls against the house have 8’ sliding glass walls so it’s one of those indoor/outdoor type porches. The locale is FL so it in the summer it could certainly get hot in this area at times. There shouldn’t be any direct sunlight on the motion detector itself, but maybe the device could warm to 120F over many hours of high 90s/low 100 degree temp warming the porch. It would be fully protected from rain and well protected from dust. Is there any reason I couldn’t use an indoor motion like the PG9974P/PG9984P (both with max operating temp 131F), or should I really use the outdoor PG9994? There is a ceiling fan on the porch.
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Smoke/CO - These would be PG9936 and PG9933 for use inside, no question on that. They asked about possibility of a CO on porch (referenced in outdoor motion above) as it has a gas line. I think it’s unnecessary but am looking into it. All the wireless CO’s I see have a 100F max operating temp so I’m thinking this may not be a viable option? Looking for feedback on this one.
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Garage - There are (2) car entry doors, (2) side doors, and (1) window. They want to put contacts on all of them. The garage will likely get to 110-115F in the summer, possibly warmer at times.
In my house I use a Honeywell 958 wired sensor on my garage car doors mounted at the top of the door and it has worked flawlessly for the past 12+ years. Mine is actually hard wired so I can’t do that direct in this house, thus I was thinking of using a PG9945 with a 958 on the Aux for each of the garage car doors, which yields the same mounting type result I am familiar with. is this a good option? PG9945 is rated for 131F. Would there be any need to use a PG9312 instead since it’s a bit more robust in design and rated to 151F? Or maybe I can just use one of those wireless sensors directly on the door if magnet distances are within spec?
For the garage side doors and window, is PG9303 good (rated to 122F, or should I go with PG9945 or PG9312?
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Sirens - Are the PG9901 BATT and PG9911 BATT good products? Are they really 110dB as advertised or do they fall short? My own reference for sirens is Honeywell WAVE2 that I use indoors and Honeywell 748LC in my attic over an eave as an “outdoor” siren.
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IQR vs IQR PG - I know the QW9104 IQ Remote is discontinued with IQ Remote PG replacing it, but there are QW9104’s available online. Is there anything more desirable about the IQR over the IQR PG or would it be silly to buy an IQR for a new install like this?
Behavior question with IQR/IQR PG: What volume levels/control can be set independent of the IQ4? The remote will be in the hallway right outside master bedroom and would be desirable to have things like chime and voice volume levels on the IQR (Advanced Settings/Sound on IQ4) be set to different levels than on the IQ4.
Lastly (for now), are links available for documents that list of supported RF, Z-wave, and Zigbee devices on the IQ4 as of firmware 4.4.0?