Anyone using a system without paying for monitoring? I’ve had ADT for the last 3 years, they’ve been absolutely crap and hike their prices every few months. So was thinking a couple of door entry contractors, half a dozen PIRs (including one in the garage), siren, camera and some sort of text alert if it triggers. Oh, and remote access to the camera so I can check that nobody is in the house if the alarm accidentally triggers. Fed up of having to send someone to the house when I get a false alarm on my current system.
Anyone got anything that fits the description?

I was in the same boat as you with ADT. False alarms and price hikes.

Cancelled and bought Amazon Blink cameras – havnt looked back.

Have several cameras triggered my motion covering all areas outside my house and I can now see all activity at my house instantly as it uploads the video to the cloud or log in, in real time and see what’s going on.

This is timely, I’ve just had verisure round tonight quoting on an alarm system. I’m already cabelled up, but they’ve offered a wireless system, that on the face of it is pretty good. It went from 1500 to 580 I’ve just had a txt on. Monthly fee is still 45quid though and they use securitas.

I hadn’t thought about increases on the monthly fee… Hmmm..

Interested in other thoughts on this..

What do you actually get for your monthly fee?

You can buy a complete alarm system for under £200 and cameras which sends you video alerts to your phone (so you can see if its a false alarm or not) for under £50, with no additional costs / fees.

Cant really see the point of domestic premises on contract, scores will long gone by the time they send someone. Modern systems send you the alert, again not much use if you’re out but might mean you don’t get hurt if you’re in. At best security systems are a deterrent, not particularly useful for prosecuting thieves and can advertise you have something worth nicking. Better to spend the money on better euro cylinders, dreadlocks and other hardware first. Suppose CCTV might be useful for monitoring detached garages etc. without having to go outside ar night.

Better to spend the money on better euro cylinders, dreadlocks and other hardware first.

The Rasta guide to DIY security….

You want one of these – self install, smartphone enabled and does everything ADT does but with no monthly costs.

Fully extendable to add more PIRs, door contacts, cameras etc…

What ever you do dont go with Verisure. I have been in the industry 25+ and theyre wireless kit is absolutly awful and the installation it self is all put up using double sided tape. They say they have 24hr guards but there might only be one in the entire county. If  you add up the month costs over the entire contract you could have bought a new system 3 times over.

If you want a wireless alarm i’d recommend a Pyronix Enforcer, it’ll take 32 wireless detectors, comes with a wifi card for app control and notifications, also the range on the sensors is one of the best. You can also put Hikvision cameras onto the same app.

Feel free to ask any questions.

I was going to recommend a Pyronix system but see I’ve been beaten to it. I installed one last year in our house and out buildings.

Sorry for hijacking the thread twin.

Stof I’ve got alarm cable set up already so have option for. Oth wired or wires. If I had a ~600 budget what would you recommend that also has camera capability?

Ta

Morning Sui

If you have all the wires in place already i’d use them, it’ll work out cheaper as your not paying for the wireless tech. However if youare going to need the odd wireless sensor it can start to work out more expensive to have a hybrid system (can’t beat a wired bell on any sytem tho). Look at Pyronix, Enforcer for wireless or Euro 46 for wired. Both use the same app.

Re the CCTV if your going to install it your self you can get a lot for your money using Hikvision equipment, personally i fit the 5 megapixel  POC (power over coax or cat5)range of cameras and dvrs. A little thought in to running the cables in for the system and you can have a very nice neat system.

If your looking at combined alarm pirs/cameras take a look at visonic equipment.

Cool thanks Stof..

Very timely, had our back door kicked in and the house ransacked the other week 🙁

For the Pyronix, is self install with no cloud contract/reliance possible? Ideally I’d like to tie it in via both WiFi and gprs as backup to message us /control. But not be reliant on someone’s cloud service, otherwise I might as well be paying for monitoring. Bonus points for if I can tie in to a local home automation system like Home Assistant.

ERA Homeguard also looks interesting, thanks.