Hardwired vs wireless sensors on a big commercial job - which side are you on?

I just finished a 30,000 square foot warehouse in Nashville where I had to choose between hardwired contacts and wireless ones for the perimeter. The hardwired stuff took way longer to run cable for but I had zero false alarms after install. The wireless ones were faster to put in but I'm already getting callbacks on three zones that dropped signal. Curious how you guys handle the trade-off on bigger jobs - do you push for one over the other?

3 comments

3 Comments

wadecooper3d ago

The hardwired payoff is reliability every time.

spencerm462d ago

The thing nobody brings up is how the building itself changes over time. That warehouse you did, think about what happens in five years when they add a mezzanine or reconfigure the interior walls. Hardwired stuff is a total nightmare to adapt to new layouts because now you're fishing wire through new framing or cutting into drywall. Wireless gives you flexibility to move sensors around when the building gets modified, which in commercial spaces happens way more than people plan for. I've seen guys rip out perfectly good hardwired systems because the tenant changed their floor plan and the old wiring was useless. Most people only think about day one installation, but that building is gonna change hands or get renovated three times before those sensors die.

paulschmidt2d ago

Did you see that article in Commercial Construction News last month about how often warehouses get retrofit? They had a case study showing a facility that rewired twice in 7 years because of layout changes. That aligns with what @spencerm46 is saying about the flexibility argument. The initial install cost savings on wireless is one thing but the real win is not having to pay an electrician every time someone moves a wall.