Start by selecting the best position for the bell push. It should be visible and sheltered from rain and excess heat, so is usually sited either on the door frame or close to it. Mounting on the frame is the simpler option because you can screw the bell push baseplate directly to the woodwork and also drill a hole through it with just a twist drill to take the wire to the sounder.
Next, decide where to place the sounder unit. It is normally put in the hall, but it can be placed in a living room or kitchen if you are more likely to hear it there. However, you should avoid an over-long circuit if you are installing a battery-operated bell.
If you also need a doorbell at the back door, you can fit two separate bell pushes and sounders. Alternatively, choose a sounder offering two different tones, so you can tell which bell push has been used.
Work out the best route for the cable between the bell push and sounder. Since bell wire is slim and unobtrusive, most people simply surface-mount it, running it in the angles round door frames and along the edge of skirting boards, picture rails or ceiling coving.
For mains-powered systems, make sure you purchase a transformer with an output voltage that matches the needs of the sounder unit - often 3 or 5 volts for bells and buzzers, and 8 volts for most chimes. Some transformers have three output terminals; select the pair that gives you the output voltage you want.
Find the best place for the transformer. Bell transformers are relatively small and unobtrusive, and can easily be concealed in a hall cupboard, or even in the void beneath a timber floor if the power supply is being taken from an existing light or power circuit.
Decide how to provide the power supply to the transformer. The simplest way is to plug it into a socket outlet, but there may not be one available, and the flex between socket and transformer is difficult to conceal neatly.
You can run a spur directly off a lighting circuit by connecting 1mm2 cable into a loop-in ceiling rose or into a junction-box connected to the lighting circuit. If it is more convenient to use a power circuit, you can run a spur in 2.5mm2 cable from a suitable socket outlet to a fused connection unit (FCU) fitted with a 3-amp fuse, then run 1mm2 cable from the FCU to the transformer.
If you have a spare fuseway in a modern consumer unit, you can fit a 5 or 6-amp miniature circuit breaker and use this to supply a circuit to the transformer. If you are specifying a new consumer unit, you can include a bell transformer within it.
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