By allowing alarm panels and peripherals from different manufacturers to work together, Resolution Products’ wireless translators eliminate the need to rip-and-replace – keeping more components installed in the field and out of landfills. Courtesy of Resolution Products

Wireless translators from Resolution Products, Hudson, Wis., are contributing in a big way to keeping “millions of alarm panel sensors” in the field rather than in a landfill somewhere, says Josh Hauser, the company’s director of sales.

“I’m not sure if that was the original intention, but it’s a real benefit for people who are concerned about the environment,” he says.

The company’s translators ensure that existing alarm panel sensors can be installed in other manufacturers’ alarm panels. That way, Hauser says, if an installer who uses one company’s equipment takes over a homeowner’s alarm system that uses equipment from another company, there’s no need to rip all the existing hardware out and replace it. Rather than being tossed in the trash, all the transmitters, batteries, plastics and other components can remain in place.

Through a partnership with Australian company Securenet, Resolution Products has also developed an internet gateway module, a monitoring solution that’s also designed to keep panels and peripherals in place, making it as environmentally friendly as the company’s translators, Hauser says. The solution was named Best in Commercial and Monitoring Solutions in the Security Industry Association New Product Showcase at ISC West.

Another example Hauser cites is panels that were manufactured several years ago when the assumption was that land lines would always exist and would be the primary means of communication for alarm panels. Without Z-Wave, integrating other controls like thermostats and lighting wasn’t as popular. Without a translator, if a homeowner wanted to upgrade to some of the “new, flashy toys so they could make sure their heat was on or their dog was fed,” they’d have to rip out the old panel and put in a new one that would be compatible with Alarm.com or Total Connect, to name just a couple systems. Today, adding a module “updates the system to the 21^st century” while leaving components and peripherals in place, Hauser says.

 “If you can keep perfectly good stuff on the wall, that’s as green as it gets,” he says.