I’m in the process of planning my first home security system with the IQ Panel 2+. I have at least 1 Pella casement window from the 1990s in the kitchen that has the screen on the inside, and the double pane window on the outside. Because of this arrangement, not even the regular indoor-rated contact sensors will fit properly based on my measurements.
In the basement, I also have a similar issue. There are 4 small casement windows (awning style, open outwards and up with a crank).
The only solution I see is to install the PG9312 outdoor rated sensor on the exterior of the house/window frames. Has anyone used this sensor for a window for this purpose, as opposed to a gate? Any other ideas?
For the basement windows, I can canvas with motion sensor, but we sometimes have guest staying over and then that wouldn’t be ideal.
Generally speaking I wouldn’t recommend alarm sensors to be placed on the exterior of the window.
It might help a bit with suggestions if we had an image of the portion of the window that opens, I am having a bit of trouble imagining the limitations on the interior. Would you mind posting a photo of where you would need a sensor?
Here’s some photos of my casement window.
They swing out with a crank operation. The main issue appears to be that the screen is on the inside, and the entire window frame seems to be fairly thin so I’m having trouble finding places where my planned sensor choice would fit. (My planned system is IQ Panel 2+ with the PG9303 sensors.)
I actually have a PG9303 sensor that I bought to test. Having trouble finding a way to fit the actual sensor piece. There’s not enough room behind the screen and the interior pane. But I imagine this type of window can’t be too uncommon. I’m not sure if there’s any strip style sensors compatible with the IQ2+
That’s a really tight fit. Sensors are designed to fit the large majority of modern windows, however in this case, aside from glass-mounting it I don’t see any real work around for that model, or really any model of surface sensor.
What might be better in this case is a wired recessed contact and a wireless sensor with an input, like a PG9945, to act as a transmitter. You may be able to drill up and mount the sensor above the window.
You may also be able to try a wireless recessed contact, but those are pretty large compared to a small wired one like this.
Darn! Yeah, there doesn’t seem to be any room to work with here at all. Thanks for listing some possible alternatives. I’m going to look into those further. The good thing is that this is the only type of this window in the house.
