For one of you LilBro lurkers to take back to your site as they discuss the "side entry door" and why all the building security means that this door would be alarmed blah blah blah.....
If you go to the books preview and you scroll down to the photo of the door...it is CLEAR to all that there is a large stone or brick sitting on the concrete stoop close to the door.
There is a reason for that. Its not to break out the window in the door (more on that in a moment) but its there to prop open the door. You prop the door open so that you can let your friends in...or prostitutes.
If the opening is monitored...and it likely is...that would send a signal back to where ever it is that they monitor doors being held open. That does not necessarily mean that there would be an alarm going off. That is all controlled by the "software" and without knowing how that door is monitored there is no way to know what would occur if it were opened. And frankly, with the brick sitting there in this picture...it happens a lot.
Also, the window on the door.....that tells me its there so you can see who is out there in order to let them in. If that were just an exit door for fire escape purposes you would not have a window because you do not care who is outside the door...there shouldn't be anyone there in the first place. The window is there for a reason.
I'm actually an expert on electronic access control and sold fire rated doors and hardware for 8 years. If you came up with this with no prior training, you may actually have more knowledge than 95% of the installers I've worked with over the years.
An alarmed exit could mean many things. There could be a door prop alarm, an exit alarm, a delayed egress magnet or similar to what you said, a door position switch mounted on or in the frame that simply triggers an alarm in the software. The first three are audible alarms meant to attract attention. The last, the door position switch, is just a relay telling the access control panel that the door is either open or closed. The software would have to be programmed to interpret that as something more like sending a text to security or even a simple flashing of an icon.
Or, it could just be a fire exit with panic hardware. If it's a fire rated opening, all that really means is the hardware is 3 hour fire rated and the door must have positive latching. That doesn't mean it has to be or ever will be monitored.
Furthermore, not all EAC systems are 24/7 monitored. They just aren't. If I was a betting man, there's a panic device on the inside of that door, an emergency exit sign and maybe even at one point it was monitored but after years of people propping it open, they gave up on that.
I read that thread you're referring to. It starts out with incredible amounts of stupid and only gets worse from there. If Police or Fire were notified of every propped exit, crime would be 99% more than it is today because they would be chasing false alarms all day/everyday.
The hand scanner. Bet it's made by Schlage and has Ingersol Rand on it. I've had training on that reader when I was with distribution and all it does is send a 26 bit weigand signal (the most common language of access control systems) to a panel. They have them all over UGA dorms. Which still, has not a damn thing to do with that side door. It just means they would rather not have to issue and reissue prox cards or fobs day in/day out to student that lose them and they would rather spend $1,000 on a biometric reader since kids don't usually lose their hands.