Home Security Systems - Wired or Wireless?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>More frequent home break-ins in the neighborhood have made us finally decide to bite the bullet and add another monthly charge to our bills (yippee) by installing a security system. (Last month our neighbor across the street had their house broke into at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon!)</p>

<p>We had one company out last week who is sending a bid. They suggested/pushed the “wired” system. H is having someone else come out who says they can match or beat the competitors prices and offer wireless for the that price. </p>

<p>We are looking at having entry door sensors, a motion detector in a main traffic area and a “glass breaking sensor” - I forget what the actual name is - in a sun porch. </p>

<p>Any comments, suggestions or experiences good or bad with either???</p>

2

<p>I had a wireless one for a while and it worked fine in wireless mode. I don’t know of a good reason for a system to be wired vs wireless.</p>

3

<p>abasket, how quick are the police in your area to respont to a burglary report? It literally takes a burglar a few minutes to wreck your house and escape with a few valuables. The best deterrrents are (in random order): lawn signs that say “Protected by…”, a yippie dog, a (fake or real) CCTV camera trained at the front door, bushes trimmed so there are no obscured windows, a couple of pairs of worn size 15 men’s shoes by the front door, a dog house by the side yard fence clearly visible from the street…</p>

<p>We had both wired and wireless systems, and I do not know if one is better than the other. I do not recommend getting glass breakage sensors that react to vibrations of the glass - they can be set off by a “boom car” driving by your house, someone dropping something inside the house, etc. just about anything that will make the glass shake. If you have indoor pets, motion detector in high traffic areas is useless, as we found out, since pets can find creative ways to trigger it.</p>

4

<p>I have a wireless system and it seems to work fine. Over extended periods, the batteries in the sending sensors eventually need replacement, but they apparently send some type of signal that alerts the system that their voltage is declining. Haven’t had one go bad in the first couple of years here. </p>

<p>The obvious advantage of wireless is that all you have to do is mount the sensors in the proper places. No need to have the installer snaking wires behind walls, (or sloppily staple them to the outside of the house as an alternative routing method).</p>

5

<p>Actually the best crime deterrent is a gated community, we are striving to get that in our neighborhood, but that is pretty difficult unless it is planned by a developer.</p>

<p>We are also working on a security camera monitoring system for the community, there are problems from local authorities to make that happen either.</p>

<p>A home security can be wired or wireless, I have both in my house and they seemed working fine, I would not go for a battery operated wireless system as it is not reliable. My home security sytem came with a sound alarm and a link to the police department, I think both are important. For outside survillance, I have installed IP Security cameras, motion sensor security lightings and sound alarm system which recently staved off an intruder who was 50 feet into my front yard.</p>

6

<p>Well, a home in a gated community is not in the cards here. :)</p>

<p>We have decent lighting outside - but again, the robbery recently across the street was in broad daylight. </p>

<p>We live on a corner so that helps a little with visibility (front and back) but also provides easier escape I suppose.</p>

<p>We have a dog. He would probably go up and cuddle with a burglar. Would not buy a dog for the purpose of security. We discussed the motion detector and dog and our dog is well under the weight they recommend for not setting off the detector. </p>

<p>Our bushes are low enough and not butted up to the house. </p>

<p>We’re not talking about spending oodles of $$$ - our initial quote was for around $600 installation and then under $20 a month for their fees. </p>

<p>The security is also for when we are home, at night or when youngest daughter might be home alone.</p>

7

<p>“We discussed the motion detector and dog and our dog is well under the weight they recommend for not setting off the detector.”</p>

<p>Make sure the security system is configured in such a way that you can selectively disable just the motion detector, because what they say is not what really happens in real life after the install. Been there. :)</p>

<p>Or ask them to install the detector in a room to which the dog does not access (and where a burglar would definitely go), like a master bedroom.</p>

8

<p>Installing a wired system in an existing house can be difficult, depending upon the house. What are the contractors who want to install a wired system telling you will have to happen to install their system? Do they think all of the wires can be pulled or will they have to break into walls?</p>

<p>Our home had a wired system installed when the house was built. Later, when we wanted to expand the system, we expanded with wireless components so that we would not need to damage walls to do the work. The two can and do work together in many systems. </p>

<p>In addition to entry door sensors, I would recommend sensors on any first floor or basement windows, as well as any second story windows that are easily accessible from a roof, the roof of a car or van (i.e. over the driveway), or in hidden or poorly lighted places. Glass break detectors are great for sliding glass doors and other large glass areas, and motion detectors are nice to have near one or more main areas of the home where you would expect someone to enter. You may also want to consider having your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms wired into your system, and adding a heat detector near something like the garage or anyplace where paints, chemicals, etc. are stored (a work bench?), which will alert you when a fire begins, even before there is enough smoke to set off a smoke detector. </p>

<p>Things you can do to protect your home include installing motion sensor lights outside, putting some lights in your home on timers, keeping shrubs and bushes trimmed back from the house, and being friendly with your neighbors. </p>

<p>There are limitations to how effectively an alarm system will protect you. First and foremost, you must turn the system on (set to “away” when you leave and “stay” whenever you would like when you are home), remember to pay your monitoring bills and test your system regularly, as suggested. You would be surprised how many systems don’t work because they are not connected to electricity, turned on or monitored, and how many people are surprised when they don’t work as a result. Second, know that in many places, the monitoring company will actually call you first before alerting police/fire, etc. to go to your house. This is both to prevent you from getting charged for false alarms (as you will in many places) and to prevent the multitude of unnecessary calls to emergency services. Please don’t forget to file whatever paperwork is required with your local police and fire departments once you have a system. Finally, any system can be circumvented by a professional. Phone lines that communicate trouble calls can be cut and systems shut off by professionals. Generally, that doesn’t happen, though. Please note that if you get your phone service through your cable provider or through another electricity/service based provider, if that service goes out or if you have no power, you will also have no way for your alarm to communicate a trouble call. Most alarm systems themselves will have 24-hour backup batteries installed in case of power outages.</p>

9

<p>Wondering how many of you have dealt with false alarms and $$ charges you have had to pay to local police etc. for their response when there was no problem.</p>

10

<p>We have never had a false alarm. I don’t think our local police charge for the first false alarm; they may for repeated issues. I did get a call one night at 2AM from the monitoring company telling me my motion detector was sending a signal (system was not armed at the time). They said it was probably the battery and I should replace it. Of course, we were leaving for vacation that day, and I got a call at the same time the next night when we were away for the same problem. I told them to ignore it, and never had it happen again.</p>

11

<p>We built our house with a wired system. We have door alerts and glass breakage sensors. We did not opt for motion sensors- too many times someone would want to get up at night. The glass sensors are set to respond to all windows in a range, green tiny light turns yellow with vibrations from central vac nearby sometimes- it would be red if the alarm went out. We had to replace a door contact after 18 years when it malfunctioned (wear and tear broke it we discovered). We opted to not have our smoke alarms connected- every time we burn a pizza … We started with a conventional land line phone but when we went to internet for that we had to have the cable company add a device to their system at the house entry point. We also have to register with the city every year- check on that aspect. We have all doors- front, to garage, sliding and service doors within the garage alarmed. The basement windows and first floor windows are alarmed. We choose when to alarm and if instant or a delay so we can turn off the system when we return. I put all of these details in to give you ideas for things to consider no matter which system works best for you.</p>

12

<p>2 questions for anyone who might be security system savvy</p>

<p>1 - can/do home security systems work with a cell phone versus a land line?</p>

<p>2 - can an existing hardwired system take on some added wireless options?</p>

<p>comment - if you will be gone for an extended period and will have someone come in to check on your house, make sure that they know the location of a non portable phone. Our portable was left off the charger and BIL couldn’t locate a wired phone in time so he got a nice visit from the police.:p</p>

<p>We had a false alarm at our home about 4 years into having the system installed. Our phone rang at 4 am and since it was an unknown number we did not answer it. Then the police/fire and ambulance showed up at our house. H answered the door and swore up one side and down the other that we did NOT call for help or punch the emergency button on the control panel. They would not leave until they physically saw me. (In case H had killed me and was busy chopping up my body). </p>

<p>It took several days and I would not rest until the problem was solved. It turned out that my address and phone were linked up to a security panel in Jacksonville Florida - data entry error. Even though many days had passed I begged the security company to please check on the Florida family .</p>

13

<p>kajon, yes, a system can be ‘wired’ to work with a cell phone. We have cell phone back-up on our system. I agree with all that sallyawp posted. It is a good idea to have your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors connected to your system. We also have cameras that are connected to a dvd system so that we can check them from inside the house as well as online when we’re away. As for motion detectors, we have four dogs and don’t use them when we’re here (they can be separately controlled) but we got them for when we’re away on vacation, etc. when the dogs won’t be there.</p>

<p>It’s important to have your system inspected annually to make sure that everything is functioning properly. We’ve never had a false alarm. Another thing to remember is to notify your insurance company so you can get a discount on your homeowners’ insurance.</p>

14

<p>You can typically avoid any motion detector problems by having that feature only work on the “away” setting - meaning when you are not home. Most advanced motion detectors today can be set to recognize pets so that the motion detectors do not set off the alarm when your dog, cat, etc. walks past the sensor while the alarm is set.</p>

15

<p>We’ve updated our wired to wireless, as the wired systems failed over the years. Mice, etc, eat through the wires and knock out zones. Problem to fix as everything is behind the walls. </p>

<p>Get estimates from different companies. You may want to keep costs down by doing some areas first and others later.</p>

16

<p>I was robbed today. Have for years lived in a place where you could leave you keys in the car with the engine running and not worry but the borders are more porous and well, I lost a lot. Poof. I am moving but had planned to do that for the past year. Just didn’t get out in time. But I don’t want to have to have such a security system.</p>

17

<p>overseas, Don’t know what this has to do with “Porous boarders” but am sorry to hear about your robbery. That is devastating. Glad you are safe though and were not hurt.</p>

<p>The economy stinks and I think there have been an increase in all kinds of robbery and theft.</p>

<p>Someone tried to break into my house last summer. Alarm went off, or at least the 30 sec warning beeps to turn the system off. They did not enter, but our alarm co called us and I found the front lock tampered with.</p>