Next step in securing your home!

Hound Dog 911 said:
I'll go with the zwave. I'm not so worried about home automation. Not many windows and doors in the house. Just something that doesn't throw as many false events like camera's.
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What is your goal with this system? Do want want professional central station monitoring or self-monitoring with text/email alerts to your cell phone. Do you plan to add Fire and/or CO detection to this system? A lot of people overlook fire detection when it comes to home security.

If you have a lot of cats and dogs you might be better off placing contacts on all your doors/windows and backing them up with glassbreak detectors and adding a motion detectors where the cats most likely wont go (If possible). I like the Honeywell Dual tech 100lb pet immune motion detectors (DT-8035 for hardwired or Honeywell 5898 for wireless) or the Bosch Tri-tech 100lb pet immune motion detectors. However, in order for this pet immunity to work, the motion detectors have to be placed in areas where the cats and dogs cannot climb on top of items in the field of view of the detector.

If you're looking for a system that will turn a light on/off when you open a door or walk into a room than z-wave is the way to go. If you're looking for a security system that monitors for burglary or fire DO NOT USE ZWAVE
 
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I don't think I want to go that far with a full on system. Some window and door protection. Maybe motion. Last 5 years of my firefigher career I was at the 911 center as a dispatcher/call taker. Man I hated all of the automatic home fire alarms and commercial alarms. I can actually say I saw it work. Alarm company called back to advise they were still receiving the alarm. I said, yeah unit's are on the scene with a working fire. Needless to say for now I can't go that extravagant. I want to add a few more cameras for car coverage and a spot or two I'd just like a few more eyes on. Perhaps when we build the kennel area I will go a little more high tech.
 
Hound Dog 911 said:
I don't think I want to go that far with a full on system. Some window and door protection. Maybe motion. Last 5 years of my firefigher career I was at the 911 center as a dispatcher/call taker. Man I hated all of the automatic home fire alarms and commercial alarms. I can actually say I saw it work. Alarm company called back to advise they were still receiving the alarm. I said, yeah unit's are on the scene with a working fire. Needless to say for now I can't go that extravagant. I want to add a few more cameras for car coverage and a spot or two I'd just like a few more eyes on. Perhaps when we build the kennel area I will go a little more high tech.
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I'm also in the emergency service field and I've seen and had to respond to my fair share of faulty alarm installation. Large cooperation's come to mind, some of them start with an "A" and end with a "T". The reason for all these false alarms is improper system installation (pointing PIR motion detectors at heating units, installing smoke detectors in improper locations etc), not educating the homeowner on how to use the system and having improper procedures set at the central station (Central station should call residence to confirm a fire alarm before dispatching) etc.

If you're going to start small and add on at a later time I would recommend a hybrid system such as the Honeywell/Ademco Vista 20p. You can usually find good deals on ebay for the Vista 20p with a 6160RF keypad. The RF keypad adds wireless capability to the system, the keypad itself is hardwired.

You should hardwire what you can, and use wireless on the rest. If you use wireless sensors, you must stick with the same manufacture for the wireless sensors. The vista 20p only accepts 5800 series wireless sensors (there are plenty to choose from).

With the Vista 20p you can use the system as a local system only without any type of monitoring, use a 3rd party device called the Envisalink 4 which allows for remote control and text/email alerts without any monthly fee or you could go with full blown central station monitoring.

The system is also capable of monitoring hardwired and wireless smoke, heat and CO detectors.
 
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Price isn't to outrageous on the 20P. I definitely want to stay wireless whatever choice I make. I do like the smoke and co detector option.
 
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No problem! Don't hesitate to post back if you have any questions

The model number for wireless smokes= Honeywell 5808W3, Wireless heats= Honeywell 5809. wireless CO= Honeywell 5800CO

The wireless heat is rated to alarm at 135 degrees which is not suitable for installations in the attic. If you don't want to run a wire for a heat in the attic the workaround is to use a 195 degree hardwired heat detector and wire it to a Honeywell wireless fire transmitter. I can explain further if you that situation arises.
 
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smiticans said:
If you decide to use the Envisalink you will also need an Ethernet cable at the panel
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I used one of these until I was able to find a way to run an Ethernet cable to my Envisalink.
 
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logbuilder said:
I first got into security with Webcam7 about 10 years ago. Six months ago I switched to Blue Iris. Then I got interested in home automation. My first requirement was that any system run totally locally and not rely on any outside system such as the cloud. I'm on satellite with a data cap and significant latency. I also wanted it to be able to work whether the internet was available or not. That eliminated several systems. Secondly, I wanted to make sure it was likely to be able to control most any device that I might get. I researched all the solutions and decided on HomeSeer. I'm very please at this point. It integrated well with BI. Either one can trigger the other. Additionally, from HS3 I can control BI profiles.
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Homeseer looks awesome but out of my budget. Man that looks nice.
 
smiticans said:
I'm also in the emergency service field and I've seen and had to respond to my fair share of faulty alarm installation. Large cooperation's come to mind, some of them start with an "A" and end with a "T". The reason for all these false alarms is improper system installation (pointing PIR motion detectors at heating units, installing smoke detectors in improper locations etc), not educating the homeowner on how to use the system and having improper procedures set at the central station (Central station should call residence to confirm a fire alarm before dispatching) etc.

If you're going to start small and add on at a later time I would recommend a hybrid system such as the Honeywell/Ademco Vista 20p. You can usually find good deals on ebay for the Vista 20p with a 6160RF keypad. The RF keypad adds wireless capability to the system, the keypad itself is hardwired.

You should hardwire what you can, and use wireless on the rest. If you use wireless sensors, you must stick with the same manufacture for the wireless sensors. The vista 20p only accepts 5800 series wireless sensors (there are plenty to choose from).

With the Vista 20p you can use the system as a local system only without any type of monitoring, use a 3rd party device called the Envisalink 4 which allows for remote control and text/email alerts without any monthly fee or you could go with full blown central station monitoring.

The system is also capable of monitoring hardwired and wireless smoke, heat and CO detectors.
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@smiticans Have you ever used this system before or heard of anything about it. What do you think

Buy Gsm-D Vea 3G/4G GSM Deluxe Pet Kit Online
 
smiticans said:
See my comments in this post Remote property broken into...

How cheap? what's you're budget are you looking for just intrusion detection?

I don't like SimplySafe but it's a lot better of a choice than that other system you showed me.
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300 to 400 looking for motion sensors, support for 3G service, to text my phone,loud siren that's about it really just something to make noise and send me a text maybe a monitoring service later on. I have only installed Honeywell systems, so don't have any experience with these in the box kits.
 
How many entry points are you trying to protect? Are you willing to pay a small fee for the text messages to your phone or are you trying to get that feature without a monthly fee?
 
Camit said:
@smiticans Have you ever used this system before or heard of anything about it. What do you think

Buy Gsm-D Vea 3G/4G GSM Deluxe Pet Kit Online
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That's just sad. An alarm system with a 3.5mm jack for the siren, exposed sim eject slot no tools required, and a power button to turn off the entire system. Same junk is < $100 on aliexpress.
Camit said:
What about simplisafe ? Any thoughts on this I'm just looking for a cheap system for my mother nothing with tons of features SimpliSafe: Home Security Systems
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Stick with what you know? Why not just use a honeywell or maybe a 2gig.

Size of house is highly relevant.
 
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