Sorry guys, I've been slacking in the posting deptment of late. I've had a wierd last few weeks. Just personal stuff creeping in and making me feel blah and not wanting to do much of anything. That said I had a wierd experience here at work that I just can't figure out and was hoping to get an answer to it. I'm not sure if it is paranormal or not but I can't find a reason for it so I'm going to ask here to see if someone else can tell me what's going on. As most of you know I work in a haunted museum. I've heard and seen wierd things for the past three years and most of them I can explain away. But the other week we had several false security alarms here at the site and we just can't figure out why.
Let me explain our security system. All our doors and windows are on the system. In the morning when you open the door the alarm will start to beep and if you don't shut it off in time it will trip the alarm and the company that monitors our system calls and sends the police out if you don't call. Also the windows are on the system so if the one breaks the system will go off. We also have motion and heat dectors through out the musem. Okay enough of the about the sustem.
When the alarm went off last week, it went off in the stone room, where most of the activity over the past three years has taken place. It wasn't a door or window sensor, or even a motion sensor . It was the heat sensor. My question is can a ghost change the temp. of a room enough to set off a alarm? I was told that it would have to be a drastic change in temp. to get the alarm to set it off. A small animal would not set it off but a human entering into the room would set it off. I know that this did not happen cause none of the doors or window sensors went off and neither did the montion sensors. So does anybody have any suggestions for me?

It has been my experience, living in a haunted house, that yes a ghost can drastically change the temperature in a room in a very short amount of time.
Suzy

Where I work, we have the same type of security system lke you described. And since it is the heat sensor going off, I would absolutley set up some kind of surveilence in that room. Something infrared or a temperature monitor.

Does the company who monitors your security device have a readout of what temperature it was that made the alarm go off?

I'm curious too at what temperature that alarm sounds. And what was the temp in the building at the time? (If it's possible to get an approximate reading somehow.)

This happened while the museum was closed, yes?

Kell

[ January 27, 2003, 02:04 PM: Message edited by: KellKell ]

I don't know what the temp was when the alarm went off. I don't think there is a preset temp for the alarm to go off. We have had some problems with our furnace this year and the temp. has been drasticly up and down here in the museum and that does not set it off. I believe that the alarm takes the current temp wheter it is 45 or 75 and monitors it from there and any drastic change in the temp sets it off. When the alarm went off our furnace was back up and working so I would say that the temp in the stone room was about 70. So it would have reading off of that temp.
I'm not sure if the company that monitors our system has the temp readouts but its worth checking into. And yes the museum was closed. It was after the staff left for the day. Our night guy should have been here when the first alarm went off.

how close is that room to a "boiler room" where the furnace is....if the furnace is acting up could it have anything to do with it???

The boiler room and the stone room share a wall between them. I'm not sure if it could be a factor in the alarms going off maybe. I do know that the temp in the stone room always more consitent then the rest of the museum. Its the warmest place in the winter and the coolest place in the summer. I believe it has to do with the walls being stone.

I don't know....but when I had what I believed to be ghost encounters, I don't remember sensing a change in temperature.
But then again...I was freaking out so...
I've heard that ghosts do change the temperature.
The question is...does the sensor detect an increase in temp or a decrease?
I have heard that ghosts make the temp in the area of effect drop.
Having some electronic background, my next questions are...was it one sensor and how many are there in the room?
These sensors most likely have a thermistor.
If the building has had recurring problems, such as you have stated, then maybe some condensation occurred and the thermistor has been damaged in some way.
I fix helicopters for a living and there are temp gages and sensors and they usually break down after temp changes as in increasing altitude and flying into weather conditions. This snag is common.