Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Question on wiring

Hi,

I purchased a new home and the builder provided the alarm rough in. Every door and window on the first floor has a wire that drops down into the basement.

My question is how should I connect the windows together?

1. Should I extend each window wire drop in the basement (6 of them) to the panel and make the connections inside the panel?
OR
2. Should I connect each window in series at the drop points and bring only 1 or 2 wires (depending on desired zones) to the panel? I have an 8 zone panel.

Second question is I think I should use NO switches and connect to the NC circuit with a resistor...is that correct? and why is that better than using NC switches and connecting to NC circuit w/o resistor?

Thanks.

In series is fine....

You can't connect NO switches to a NC circuit with or without resistors... won't work.

Need to use NC switches, and put the resistors at the switches/devices.

Most typical installations use NC circuits. In your case, you tie them into series circuits at the head end (the panel location). Actually, the zone resistors are required for most alarm systems, only DSC and a handful of recent models from Ademco and Networx give the option of disabling the resistor requirement.

Thanks for the replies.

Ok, I took a look at my panel again, (its been stored for a few months), and I can connect NC switches to the NC circuit OR use resistors and connect NC switches to the NO circuit.

Question is, why would I want to use the second method? Whats the advantage?

Thanks.

If the resistors are placed properly at the end of the loop, it allows you to mix NC and NO devices on the same loop. It also provides a fault supervision for the alarm loop.

Again, for a typical residential installation, you go with Normally Closed loops. Much of the benefits of properly using the resistor supervised circuit make more sense in a commercial installation where zone tampering is a real possibility. Again, depending on the brand and model of the alarm control, you may not have the option of not using the resistors (you simply install them at the panel end of the circuit).