Unattended long term security - DIY or Installed?

A friend is considering a job opportunity that would have her away from her home for extended periods of time - potentially close to a year at a time before being able to check on things personally back at her house. She has no security system right now (she lives in a very low crime rate area and has good neighbors around her, but still...), but she's been concerned about being away from home for such extended periods.

She asked my opinion only because she knows about 1,000 years ago I was doing work with FLIR cameras and Vistascape surveillance software, building my own copper to fiber converters for long range remote camera placement. But that was industrial type stuff. I'm familiar with what seems to be available for home use, but I haven't had my hands in that much.

The demands, basically, would be for a reliable, remote-capable system that could stream to cell phone and be monitored and controlled from cell phone. Remote sensors (I would prefer hard wired power but that would be impractical) would have to run for a long time before batteries should be replaced. So for glass break and doors maybe lithium battery powered devices. Oh, things like flood sensors would be needed too. Cloud or cloud and NVR (cloud and NVR preferred). Alerts and warnings able to be delivered to cell phone. The system must be both dependable (it does what it's supposed to do, preferably with low false alarm rate) and reliable (not requiring a lot of care and feeding - reboots or restarts for example).

There are companies like Frontpoint that I've read about. For someone like her maybe a delivered and installed solution would be better, but I may help her do this herself if such a system could be done effectively DIY.

Do a two level system.

Get a monitored alarm system installed. inside motion detectors, door and window sensors, garage door sensors. Loud sirens in side and out.

At the second level cameras inside and out that are recording to an NVR. Set is so the NVR is accessible to the internet for viewing.

Do not use the cameras as an unattended alarm system, two many false alarms.

Do not use wireless.

Hmm, I hadn't considered a two stage solution. Any rec's for a monitored system?

I have a similar situation with a property I can't easily get to (1000 miles away). From a peace of mind standpoint, the cameras have really helped (but it is empty, so nothing much to steal, so no alarm system yet). Every time I left the place (before cameras) I could only go about 30 days before I couldn't help but wonder if it had been ransacked or was even still there. Now with cameras (and wish I had a few more around the perimeter and in the basement and first floor), I can go months because I can have it up on any computer or iPad in the house in a minute.

I found the sensors to be the hard/expensive part. Insurance wanted it to be 24 hour monitored for natural gas leak/flood/smoke/fire/temperature and the sensors to do all that really add up. I ended up with a $6 digital thermometer positioned in field of view of one camera and am trying to figure out if there is a Raspberry Pi or Arduino solution that might fit the bill (more projects!). However, I can tell from the thermometer the temperature has been between 52 and 54 degrees for the past 30 days. Last time I was onsite was about 4 months ago.

There are probably cheaper options, but possibly see if @fenderman can confirm if something like the RING Alarm system might be a good fit here (I'm thinking that could solve some of the monitoring, cloud access, internal security concerns), combined with possible an NVR or Blue Iris machine and a few cameras around the perimeter and internally accessible only after connecting VPN. It's definitely possible DIY, but depends a lot on cost/timeline and your skills (since you will be helping). I don't have experience with conduit etc, so my wife jokes everything takes TWICE as long and costs TWICE as much as if we hired it done. You might fair better.

For a property that's unoccupied that long you need more than just a security system. You need people to remove fliers, newspapers, run some water down all the drains, flush the toilets, clean the gutters, mow the grass, and just inspect the property occasionally. You don't want to have all the water in your drain traps evaporate and have sewer gas in the house or ice damning on the roof.

FYI, many homeowners insurance policies have clauses that let them off the hook if a property is unoccupied for more than 60 days.

That stuff would be covered, tangent, but thanks for mentioning it. It is important. She's got good neighbors who will take care of a lot of that stuff, and regular lawn and gutter service for those things.

tony22 said:

Hmm, I hadn't considered a two stage solution. Any rec's for a monitored system?

Click to expand...

Yes best way to go. Lots of wires to run... I put my own Ademco Vista 20P with Fire and Intrusion detection back in 2005 when we bought this house new. One thing I did do is go with a Cell Wireless Dial-er (No Wires to Cut) I also installed an 16 Ch DVR system which I'm now replacing with an 32 ch NVR. What's nice also you can wire up alarm switches into the DVR/NVR so if the Alarm System goes off it will cause the DVR/NVR to do what you programmed it to do. Like lets say you are recording on Motion Only then switches to full time recording... I suggest recording all cameras all the time but to each there own. Just used that as an example.

Which NVR are you using, Kendive?