[Closed] House alarm systems

I’d spend the money stopping them getting in. No one bothers when house alarms go off these days, if it’s not monitored it’s not worth it, and your talking £300 a year for a monitored alarm, plus given the fact you won’t be a police priority it’s not really worth the bother.

If you want something like that then I think your better off with a couple of ip cameras set to detect movement and link to your phone, that way if something happens you can see what’s going on and react to it yourself.

+1 for ip cameras. Mine ping a message to my phone. I've got one in the garage so if there is any activity I can either pop out there myself if I'm in or call the police/neighbour if I'm out. Also have a similar set-up in the house. They can be set independently. So garage one is usually on, house one at certain times. It will do auto detection of when you are out using google location but I don't tend to use that. Only false alarms so far: a spider, a moth and friends looking after the plants so I'm glad its not a big screeching thing. Easy to review the footage before acting.

After looking around lots, we ended up getting [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sentry-Touch-Screen-Wireless-House/dp/B00CXRVBEM/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1508152247&sr=1-3-spons&keywords=wireless+alarm&psc=1 ]one of these[/url] - various versions available depending on the size of your house. Completely wireless (apart from the base unit that needs to be plugged into mains obviously). The external box is solar powered too so no need to wire that in even.

It auto dials up to 5 different phone numbers ion the event of an alarm (you just need a pre-paid sim card) so check you can get a good reception first.

But it was relatively simple to set up and it has worked very well for us.

If you want something like that then I think your better off with a couple of ip cameras set to detect movement and link to your phone, that way if something happens you can see what’s going on and react to it yourself.

What happens when you're asleep, does it alert you/wake you up then?

Also with movement detection, PIRs work on change in temperature (Infrared radiation) rather than movement, so a PIR triggered camera should have fewer false alarms than a movement sensor camera, e.g. the spider comment above

I have a yale system from Costco, really simple to setup and work with. You can set the door contacts to chime so even if not armed it will make a sound (useful if you can't see the garage from the sofa!)

For me it is more about alerting me when I am home something is going on than when I'm away. I also have IP cameras at strategic locations so I can check if it is a false alarm or someone is really there. And a swann cctv setup on the outside (I have issues with these going off when spiders hang their webs of the cams)

And I agree no-one bothers responding to alarms, our houses old redundant system went off on Friday and I eventually managed to crowbar it off the wall and cut wires. Not a single person checked, and all the neighbours proudly told us they looked out for each other when we moved in....

Miguard and Yale do cheaper wireless ones that either use a mobile SIM, your landline or broadband to alert you when it goes off.

I'm sure I'll be told now that anything less than a fully wired system for 4-figures with a 3-figure annual contract for monitoring is garbage, but it seems to be working fine for us, no false alarms (except when I forget I've set it and nip in the garage).

Realistically an alarm going off is just going to hurry up a burglary, not prevent it totally. It just gives a little peace of mind that if it happened when were were out/away we'd know so that I can get someone to check or get home promptly.

I think there's a still a deterrent value in an alarm but, having popped a few front doors, I'd recommend getting a London bar and a Birmingham bar fitted if you've a wooden front door and obliviously keep an STW collection of swords, bats, machetes and longbows under your bed.

I've fitted two Yale alarms, biggest benefit is getting the call if it's triggered. It will call up to three different numbers. At mine it's open plan and the neighbours don't care, so both sirens are inside the house, you could add more sirens for a bigger place. At my mothers, her neighbours do care so traditional install there.

I do think having an alarm box outside will still be a deterent, it's worth installing a fake bell box styled/branded with a top of the range name, and fit the DIY wireless box out of clear sight.

When I researched it on here some time ago, I was told that Yale were stopping support for the automatic dialling feature (although that might be for the hard-wired internet ones. Perhaps they have just switched to sim card ones)?

Not sure about that, the Yale ones I fitted plug into the landline.

Which IP cameras are people using??

I'm looking into alarms myself. Our neighbours garage (and our garden) were broken into whilst we were in bed. That's the sort of thing i want alerting too. The neighbours might not respond but I'll be down there ASAP to stop some scrotes cutting through the bike locks in the garage.

I think all I need is three door sensors, some kind of mobile phone alert via GSM/Wifi and a possibly a camera.

Have a look at Nest cams, very good quality and back up. There about £170.

Have a look at Nest cams, very good quality and back up. There about £170.

'Ring' Door Bell

Alerts you when motion is detected and when someone rings the doorbell.
Has a camera so you can see the people and saves all recordings to the cloud for replay whenever you like.
You can live chat with the person that has either rung the doorbell or who has been detected and see live footage on your mobile phone iPad etc.
£179

Have a look at Nest cams, very good quality and back up. There about £170.

I don't mind paying for the camera, but their ongoing fees for storing images are a complete rip off.

One problem with OH being on the thin blue line is she told why all options for the garage are rubbish. Went for a wireless yale alarm that can be added to. Fortunately we have very nosy neighbours.

You don’t have to pay fees to store footage, it keeps upto 3 hours for free.