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Safety during load shedding

During power outages, low-battery alarms can lack sufficient reserve power to send and receive a signal. As a result, Chubb Fire and Security South Africa has launched a solar panel that connects to the alarm system and battery, ensuring operation while reducing false burglary and panic alarms during load shedding. Chubb Fire and Security South Africa is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies.

False burglary and panic alarms are triggered as a result of continued load shedding across South Africa. Chubb Group operations director James Havenga explains that more than three times the normal amount of panic alarms have been recorded on days experiencing load shedding. “The high influx of alarms in a short period of time can cause a delay in actioning alarms of a lower priority, as Chubb’s monitoring system prioritises signal by type.”

In addition to solar panels, some safety precautions for homeowners include: having solar-charged night lighting at the home’s access points, being vigilant and looking for signs of abnormality when entering households and having back-up batteries for alarms.

Havenga concludes by saying that calls should be made to the Chubb Security monitoring centre if safety is compromised. “It is also important to call the centre to cancel false activations in order to enable operators to focus on other incidents.”

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