Like thousands of other householders, Patrick O’Connor, chief executive of ADA, based in Rockchapel, Co Cork, knows that protecting oil tanks is a huge problem, especially as the price of heating oil has soared. Research and development staff at the company, which employed 28 people, came up with a new wireless security system to make it much harder for thieves to steal home heating oil.
“We tested the prototypes in our own homes. The beauty of a wireless alarm system is that farmers, for example, won’t have to dig up their yards to install it. It will work up to 120 metres from a central control system.”
The alarm, if required, even works independently of a central system. Any hint of interference with the tank triggers an automatic text message to the owner of the property or a nominated person; if the owner is away, a key holder or neighbour can receive the alert as well. The alarm can also be connected to a monitoring station, with gardaí notified.
In recent months gardaí had reported a spate of home heating oil thefts throughout Munster and advised householders to improve their security. Simply putting a lock on a tank no longer suffices, as thieves drill into the side of the tank and siphon off the contents.
By Seán O’Riordan. Published in the Irish Examiner, 18 August 2011.