Home Security Systems

[smiticans]

Hybrid of wireless and wired. House is framed but not drywalled yet. Windows are installed. I would prefer not to drill near a window or into a window frame so I believe wireless may be a better option. Presence/motion and glass break alarms I imagine can be either wire or wireless. Two additional keypads beyond the master bedroom keypad (so three keypads total) should be wired together.

I want the option to central station monitor but there may be a time in the future in which I don't have it centrally monitored and I want that option.

It would be preferred to be compatible with alarm.com but is not a requirement.

Must be able to acquire and install the products myself as a DIY but if there is a fantastic product that is dealer network based then I'm happy to pay a professional a reasonable amount to sell and install a system.

My recommendation would be to go with the Qolsys IQ Pro. The IQ Pro supports hardwired and wireless sensors and is based on alarm.com. The wireless sensors are PowerG which are two-way encrypted with frequency hopping. Frequency hopping will make it harder to jam the signal but can't entirely prevent a jam depending on what the attacker is using. PowerG smoke detectors also support one-go-all-go so if the fire alarm is activated, all of the PowerG smoke detectors will sound their internal sounder in addition to the system sirens. The IQ Pro can also be purchased with dual frequency support, (daughter card to support legacy Honeywell wireless 5800 series sensors and PowerG).

Unfortunately the IQ Pro does not support 3rd party modules so if you wanted to self-monitor you would still have to subscribe to alarm.com (which would still be cheaper than paying for full monitoring). If free self-monitoring is something you want, than the Honeywell Vista 20p would be the better choice. The 20p is less capable than the IQ Pro and does not support encrypted wireless sensors. The Honeywell communicators run on the Alarmnet Total Connect 2.0 platform which I absolutely hate. I used Total Connect 2.0 for over 10 years until I switched to the IQ Pro which runs on the alarm.com platform. Total Connect 2.0 is fine for notifications but if you need to send an arm/disarm command, turn on/off a light, its sluggish, slow and sometimes can take up to 45 seconds to send the command if it doesn't fail completely. I will never willingly go back to Total Connect 2.0. The Vista 20P is compatible with the alarm.com SEM module which will allow the Vista 20p to run on the alarm.com platform, however, I've never used it so I can't comment on its performance.

There are a couple of alarm companies that will support a DIY alarm install. Take a look at AlarmGrid and Surety Home.

Hardwired sensors are always better than wireless. My recommendation is to hardwire as much as you can. Use glassbreaks and door/window sensors to cover every entry point and motion detectors on every floor. I recommend using Honeywell or Bosch dual tech motion detectors to reduce the chances of a false alarm. If you need high security motion detectors, look for the Bosch detectors that support anti-cloaking but just keep in mind those detectors will not support pet-immunity.