This is an obvious question that gets asked of me frequently.
The obvious factors to consider are;
- property type
- property location – is it in a high crime area, or is it isolated in a rural area
- what will you need to be securing; do you have usual household items, such as TV and jewellery, or are you protecting higher worth items, such as top end electrical equipment, musical instruments, artworks etc
- how often are people home?
- do you have a budget?
These are basic questions that will need to be answered if a professional quote is going to be supplied.
There are some additional points to look at as well, that you may not initially think of, but a qualified installer might want to ask you about.
- do you want a system that is set and forget, or will you be able to (or willing) to make adjustments to the system for different reasons
- what sort of alerting is appropriate to your circumstances; local siren and lights, alerts sent to your mobile phone, or a physical security presence dispatched from an alarm monitoring facility.
- equipment that you might find appropriate or preferential
Let’s look first at the most typical scenario, utilising the most common technology for the average case use.
Your average alarm installation for a home consists of;
- an owner-occupier (ie, you own the home you are installing the alarm in)
- you have the usual number of appliances and items to protect
- you work during the day when there is unlikely to be anyone in the house, and you are away for work or holidays for a few weeks a year
- the house has door and window locks that are used when there is no one home.
- you have an average degree of technical understanding, and your home has a standard internet connection
- you live in an area that has the occasional break in
The set up that would be required for such a property would be 2 internal motion sensors/cameras, and 2 external sensors/cameras. If there are blind spots in the home, additional motion sensors.
The cameras should connect to a hard drive to record when motion is detected, as well as send alerts through to your mobile phone.
This allows you to check the feed from the cameras, and then decide if it is appropriate to trigger a local alarm and lights. options are available to trigger these automatically during certain times of the day or extended absences.
If an intruder is actually seen on the camera feed, you can also choose to contact the police directly.
This set up is fairly cost-effective, and forms the backbone of a system that can be added on to in the future.
It is most common, however, that once external cameras and associated signage is installed, that house is the least likely in the street to be broken in to.
If you want to upgrade the system for a more at risk property, I would recommend adding up to 4 additional cameras to cover the entire perimeter of the property as well as the main interior rooms of the property (as well as the garage).
Sensors can be added to the larger windows and doors to detect if they are opened.
And you could also install motion sensors into the roof cavity – to detect a person attempting to break in through the roof (it’s easier than you might think).
The use of apps and your mobile phone make the whole process of setting up, maintaining and monitoring a security system so much easier. Get a professional installer to set the system up for you, advise and install cameras and sensors int he right positions, and show you how to use the software, and the average person can look after his own system.
If you think of something else that should be included, or if you have any questions about this article, you can contact me directly on twitter (@GsecSecurity)