Hot take: I wired every zone with 22/4 off a 500ft spool from the supply house, then a callback made me question it

Simon Carr · 2026-10-09T13:40:03.07726+00:00

Six months ago I was finishing a 40 zone panel job in Phoenix and the homeowner called me back twice in one week because the motion in the back bedroom kept going off for no reason. I ran new wire, swapped the sensor, replaced the resistor, and still got random triggers, so I sat there and watched the panel log for an hour. Turns out I had been stripping my wire with the same old crimper and nicking the copper just enough that heat in the attic was causing resistance jumps on the zone. The fix was a $12 automatic wire stripper and a little slack loop, and I have not had a phantom zone since. So here is the debate: is it worth spending the extra money on solid copper versus stranded for long home runs, or do you just deal with the voltage drop by bumping up the wire gauge?

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Hot take: I wired every zone with 22/4 off a 500ft spool from the supply house, then a callback made me question it | Alarm System Installers - Vivisector