Doorbell Fundamentals: Opportunity is Knocking

Doorbells are common elements in most every home. Some are plain, and some are fancy, but they all function along the same lines.

Somebody outside walks up to the door, pushes a button, a noise happens inside the dwelling and the dwelling owner goes to the door.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to answer the door from inside the house without having to walk to the door? Maybe even answer the door by picking up your telephone?

The advantages to being able to do that include security (not having to open the door -- suppose a young one home alone) and convenience (not having to run to the door from the farthest corner of the house).

Here are a number of fundamentals to bear in mind when tackling these projects.

Installation Considerations

There are a number of manufacturers who offer door station/telephone interface solutions. Fundamentally, all of them will operate on the same general principle.

A door station at the front or back door connects using two conductors to a black box inside the house near the telephone demarcation point. When the door station is engaged, the black box will generate a ring tone through all the telephones connected behind it.

Often, the manufacturers will accommodate more than one station.

Considerations for this type of installation include making sure that the black box is located behind the security panel. This way, in the event of an emergency, the RJ31 alarm interface can do its job unencumbered.

Back in the days when computers used dial up modems to connect to the Internet, you'd want to make sure the black box was located behind that extension.

Additionally, consider the size of the house and purchase appropriately. If there's a great deal of distance between the gate and the house, investigate the specifications closely to make sure it will meet the requirements.

Also, make sure that you add up the total number of telephones inside the house and look at the REN number of the device. The REN stands for Ringer Equivalency Number, and devices like this can only drive a finite number of telephones before ringing anomalies occur.

Good for New-Build or Retrofit

Often, these door station systems will allow the homeowner to push a button or series of buttons in order to manipulate electronic door releases.

(If the homeowner is on a call already, pushing the flash key will allow them to toggle between the door and the call.)

Several manufacturers also allow the installer to integrate this system in with the traditional "ding dong" door chime. This type of installation is something that generally can be done on a retrofit basis as well as with new construction.

The retrofit installation would have you removing the power supply from the existing doorbell. The push-button would then be replaced with a door station.

At the transformer end, you'll run a telephone wire over to the demarcation point and install the black box.

Different cosmetic choices are available, too. For example, a house can have a simple white box at the front door or a handsome, oil-rubbed bronze plate that looks grand.