Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Random wires?!

Hello Everyone.

I just purchased a new home which came with a hardwired alarm system (GE concord express). Behind the unit I found four wires running to somewhere in the house labeled "spare". Why would the pre-wiring installer do that? is there anyway I can find where these wires go?

I have been decided between a GE concord unit using alarm.com or the ademco unit using nextalarm with a GSM unit. I've pretty much been convinced into using the Ademco unit. I hope i'm making a wise decision. It seems hard to find an alarm installer in Virginia so I have to do it myself. I just need to know why Vector left those extra wires.

A fully prewired house will drop keypad drops to the front door, back/garage door, and usually the master suite. There may also be one or more motion detector prewires.

Sometimes when a window is put in with a fixed window or glass block instead of a moving window, you end up with an unused drop, also.

The _best_ way to find them is if they actually did a wire schedule and left it in the alarm enclosure. Otherwise, the easiest way is to put a tone generator on the wires, one cable at a time, and wave the wand at likely looking locations along the walls until you hear the tone. That will get you _close_.

The last way is to hand-over hand through the attic.

do you have a recommendation on tone generators? I'm going to hunt these wires down and see where they are. I'll be very excited if the master bedroom already has a wire run for the keypad. I'm not looking forward to fishing wires all the way from the basement.

Tone tracer and wand sets can run a bit pricy (40-60 dollars each for the tone generator and wand), being a specialty tool.

Check your your local tool rentals to see if you can rent a set, unless you are planning on doing a lot of wire tracing.

we used it for a a pull if we needed to add later