Quick bit of background:

Wife is at home alone for a few days a week (with 2 x kids and a new pup, not guard dog!) due to new working arrangements. We live in a decent neighborhood with great neighbours (thankfully) who yesterday stopped two blokes who had climbed on our garage roof (flat) and were apparently, when questioned ‘doing some work for us’.

Luckily the neighbour knew this was a load of crap (as they know we are looking at getting an extension but a long way from having any work done) and told them to do one and get lost (top work considering she is in her late 60’s).

Obviously my wife is now worried, and despite our hope that they were just chancers (the wheelie bin was left out in a position allowing an easy hop up to the roof) we think that we should probably do something regarding home security.

What is the general STW consensus on the best bang for your buck? I’m happy to spend whatever it takes really to make the wife feel safe, but we both agree we need to strike a balance.

We’re getting a new garage door anyway in the near future (this is going to be moved forward a few weeks probably as a result) and will get the rear door done at the same time. Our insurance is being updated with all the stuff we have added to the house sine we last did it so that will settle the nerves a bit as we know if someone really wants to get in they will do regardless of what we have done to the house. (Wife thinks they may have been scoping out the new pup to steal, but I think that’s unlikely as he’s not been out of the house since we’ve got him other than to the vet as he’s only just had his injections).

The geek in me wants to get a nest/canary or something similar as there’s the added bonus that I can spy on our new pup/wife/kids while I’m not there :-).

Pretty happy with our canaries. Very simple to set up, good picture. Decent enough peace of mind sometimes, eg if the garage one goes off when I’m in the house I can pop out there (or make enough noise that sod off) if I’m away I’m not sure what I would do. At least I could come home early and secure whats left I suppose. It is nice to have a quick look and see everything is fine.

Similar to the Canary, I’m happy with our Netgear Arlo. Got an alert on my phone a few weeks back because a bird was flying around in our garage!

It’s easy to set up, the only cables are for power to the base station, and for network between the base station and your router. The cameras themselves are battery powered and wifi enabled.

I just banged up a reasonable Yale wireless alarm after our neighbours got burgled. Didn’t want to be the only house without one. Wireless sensors mean the shed is now also alarmed and can be set at night with the downstairs sensors. The dog friendly sensors are good and work well too. The blip on the back door sounds if someone comes in the door even if the alarms not on. It’ll ring me when the alarm goes off and I can set/ unset over the phone.

I quite fancy a canary thing but which one?

I’ve not quite overcome our bikes being stolen from our van last summer. So on our new place we’ve put diamond grade euro barrel locks on our doors (which are already decent composites). We are also fitting an alarm (thanks to help from Ton) and putting bars over our cellar window. Can’t live in fear, but I don’t sleep properly. Canaries look interesting for the garage.

I’d avoid the Yale alarm as they have said they won’t be continuing support for them.

I got a Sentry Pro – similar spec, all wireless, remote key fobs, solar alarm box etc.

I’d avoid the Yale alarm as they have said they won’t be continuing support for them.

Think that is just the cloud ones. The ones which just work with any sim card look OK.

Ahh right fair enough – I wasn’t aware they were doing a sim card one now (that’s what I have with the Sentry Pro).

That explains why they are withdrawing support for the older version.