System Limitations
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While this system is an advanced-design security system, it does not
offer guaranteed protection against burglary, fire, or other emergency.
Any alarm system, whether commercial or residential, is subject to
compromise or failure to warn for a variety of reasons. For example:
•
Intruders may gain access through unprotected openings or have
the technical sophistication to bypass an alarm sensor or
disconnect an alarm warning device.
•
Intrusion detectors (e.g., passive infrared detectors), smoke
detectors, and many other sensing devices will not work without
batteries or if the batteries are not put in properly. Devices
powered solely by a main power supply will not work if their main
power supply is cut off for any reason, however briefly.
•
Signals sent by wireless transmitters may be blocked or reflected
by metal before they reach the alarm receiver. Even if the signal
path has been recently checked during a weekly test, blockage can
occur if a metal object is moved into the path.
•
A user may not be able to reach a panic or emergency button
quickly enough.
•
While smoke detectors have played a key role in reducing
residential fire deaths, they may not activate or provide early
warning for a variety of reasons in as many as 35 percent of all
fires. Some of the reasons smoke detectors used in conjunction
with the system may not work are as follows: Smoke detectors
may not sense fires that start where smoke cannot reach the
detectors, such as in chimneys, in walls, on roofs, or on the other
side of closed doors. Smoke detectors also may not sense a fire on
another level of a residence or building. A second-floor detector,
for example, may not sense a first-floor or basement fire.
Moreover, smoke detectors have sensing limitations. No smoke
detector can sense every kind of fire every time. In general,
detectors may not always warn about fires caused by carelessness
and safety hazards like smoking in bed, violent explosions,
escaping gas, improper storage of flammable materials, overloaded
