Originally posted by @Charles Goetz:
@John Collins Somewhere they should be a metal box on the wall that houses all the electronics. I'm familiar with the ADT systems and I've never seen one wired direct so there should be a place where its plugged in. Doesn't mean that it's not, but very unlikely. What you're looking for is small box about 2 inches x 2 inches that's plugged into an outlet. There will be a small low voltage wire running from that to the metal control panel.
Now if this house is fairly new, they may have installed the system when the house was built. If that's the case, there will be a flat panel on a wall in a closet or utility room. Sometimes it's a plastic panel. Wherever this is, it's plugged into the power somewhere. If you can disconnect that you will need to also disconnect the battery to it that acts as a backup power source.
I've seen these located in bedroom closets, coat closets, utility room, somewhere that's accessible though. Personally, I would not bulldoze the house over this though.
There was a pretty big box in the master bedroom closet. It was high and located close to the ceiling, but sure enough that was it. However, it was not the transformer which I was told was located separately and plugged into an outlet that powers the system. I could not find the transformer anywhere, had wasted too much time so I just took some pliers, cut the wires of the main unit while it beeped, then let out a sigh of relief when I cut the final wire and everything went silent.
Trashed it, and patched up the hole with drywall and mud. Disconnected the telephone chord from the unit in the master bedroom closet, there's alot of elaborate wiring in there that I will forget about.
Ahhh.... feels good.
