Wired or wireless: which alarm should you fit?
Wireless suits finished houses, awkward walls and anyone who wants a one-day install, at £350 to £700. Wired suits renovations, new builds, larger properties and people who never want to think about batteries, at £400 to £800. Both detect equally well when specified properly.
The comparison in one table
| Factor | Wired | Wireless |
|---|---|---|
| Typical fitted price | £400 to £800 | £350 to £700 |
| Install time | One to two days | Usually one day |
| Disruption | Lifted floors, chased cable | A few fixings only |
| Batteries | Panel backup only | Every device, two to five years |
| Expanding later | New cable run needed | Add a device and learn it in |
| Taking it with you | Stays with the house | Mostly removable |
Where wireless clearly wins
If the house is decorated and lived in, wireless avoids the part everyone hates: cable through joists, holes in ceilings and a decorator booked afterwards. Solid-wall terraces around central Middlesbrough, Stockton and Hartlepool are the classic case, since there is often nowhere sensible for a cable to go. Renters and landlords benefit for a different reason, because equipment that unclips can move to the next property. Wireless also expands easily, which matters if you might add a garage or a summer house sensor later without another install day.
Where wired still wins
If the floors are already up, wired costs very little extra in labour and removes battery maintenance for good. New builds, extensions and full renovations should almost always be cabled while the opportunity exists. Large or awkward properties favour wire too, because long radio paths through thick walls, across yards or up three storeys need extenders that add cost and another point of failure. Commercial premises tend the same way, partly for robustness and partly because higher-grade specifications lean on cabled infrastructure.
The myths worth clearing up
The first is that wireless is easy to jam. Modern encrypted systems supervise their devices and raise a fault or alarm if one stops reporting, so silent defeat is not the trivial trick it is sometimes made out to be. Cheap unbranded kit is a different matter, which is an argument about quality rather than about radio. The second myth is that wired is inherently more reliable. A badly designed wired system with detectors pointing at radiators is worse than a well designed wireless one. Positioning and commissioning decide reliability far more than the transmission method does.
Choosing without regret
Ask three questions. Is anything already open, or about to be? If yes, cable it. Will the property or the household change in the next few years? If yes, favour the system that expands cheaply. Who deals with maintenance? If nobody in the house will change a battery or check a panel, plan a service visit into the budget whichever route you take. Then compare quotes on the device schedule rather than the headline. The cost guide has the figures, the wireless page covers what a radio install involves, and smart alarms sit on top of either choice.