Home automation vs. dedicated security system

[garrisont]

I'm a newbie to the home automation and home security world and the google searches are coupling with my ADD issues to slow progress. I'm hoping someone here can give me a couple of quick pointers to get me moving in a productive direction.

Here's my situation:

• 1970's split level home
• Hodgepodge wiring
• No landline
• DSL cable modem

My Goals:

1. Avoid adding more monthly fees (willing to spend a little more up front to achieve this)
2. 2-4 video cameras for front and back of the house
3. 5 door and 5 window sensors
4. Front and back door motion sensors
5. Email or sms notification of activity
6. Archival of video activity (based on motion, window or door sensors) to web account (exp: dropbox)
7. Zwave (or similar) control of lights to create lived in look when away

....this has to be a pretty common situation right?

Specific questions:

1. Is it a bad idea to lean on something like HomeSeer or Vera 3 and a series of zwave door/window/motion sensors for all my security needs? If so why? (is there a lag in response time? not robust enough? expensive sensors?)
2. For the cameras, is it generally recommended to use something like blue iris or zoneminder? Why? (I haven't seen any specifics on the HS or Mi Casa Verde sites regarding how they use and store incoming video)
3. Is there a recommended way to use something like HomeSeer or Vera 3 to auto archive camera data? (either native or by triggering blueiris or zoneminder)

Many thanks...the search is getting overwhelming and I'm drowning in options at the moment.

 

[cooljoe04]

2-cents from a professional security sales/installation professional:

If you called our company and I came out to your house, I would recommend a GE Concord-4 panel for your security needs. I would quote you wireless door sensors for all of your doors, a couple wireless motion sensor(s) to cover the main areas/hallways of your house, wireless glass break sensors for the areas with windows, a keypad to arm/disarm the system, and a siren. I would attach a cell/GSM based autodialer to the panel. (Use pre-paid cell card or add a line to your cell phone plan to get the sim card for the autodialer.) This would protect the doors, glass breaks would protect the windows (without needing one sensor for each window), motions would protect the whole home if someone got in without setting off any of the door/glass break sensors, and the autodialer could call or send you a message should someone enter your home and not disarm the system.

Regarding the security cameras, just some standard analog dome cameras which I would connect to a network-enabled DVR located at your house (our company would recommend a Clinton Electronics DVR). Many of the reputible DVR manufacturers have/coming out with iPhone and android apps, and most will allow access via the internet on a computer. Set the DVR up to record on motion or all of the time, either way would be fine. Get a 4-port fused power supply to power the cameras.

Use zwave products to control the lighting, giving you the ability to change it remotely as desired.

Connect all the power supplies, power cords, network products, DSL modem, etc to a decent sized battery backup so that you still get notification and control of the system if power goes out. Cameras would also still record.


With this setup, you would:
-Have little or no montly fees (if using the prepaid phone option in the autodialer, no monthly fees. If you add a line to your cell phone plan and use that sim card in the autodialer, then you have the cost of a phone line from your cell provider.)

-Have notification immediately upon alarm activation via text/email/phone call (depending on how autodialer capabilities and how you set it up)

-Wireless alarm sensors will keep wiring cost of alarm very inexpensive while still being reliable and having long battery life.

-Cameras are either recording on motion or always recording and always accessible via internet/cell phone. If alarm notifies of intrusion, pull up cameras on phone or computer to view live and recorded images and save images of intruder to your phone or computer.

-Analog cameras will be much cheaper than IP cameras and the internet-enabled DVR will still give you control of all 2-4 of them.

-Adjust your lighting at will via internet or cell phone app to create the desired look of being home.

Hope this helps.
-Joey

 

[Rupp]

CoolJoe nailed it. I would add to the mix a software app like HomeSeer which will allow you to integrate all the parts and have remote control of the security system as well as the cameras and lighting.

 

[sic0048]

You definitely want an approved UL alarm panel to handle security needs. You may desire to tie that panel into a larger automation system (like Homeseer or CQC) to have the house react to different alarm states. But don't use an automation system for core security related tasks. It's not really much cheaper and it certainly will not have the reliability of a real security system.

 

[JimS]

CoolJoe,

Could you tell us a bit more about low cost options for cell monitoring (probably with prepaid card)? I have a caddx system that uses a POTS line and have thought about converting but always thought it would mean higher monthly fees. Can you give some specific equipment recommendations or where I could look for more info? The prepaid cards I have looked at had expiration on the minutes so you needed to recharge them every few months.

Thanks.

 

[cooljoe04]

Jim,

For cell monitoring I typically install United Security Products becuase I have had very good luck with their reliability and happy with their performance. I use either their autodialer which operates on a land-line phone (AD-2000), or their cell phone autodialer kit (CVD-2000P) which comes with the cell phone and no SIM card. I usually recommend to our customers to simply add a phone line to their existing phone account and then use the sim card from the free phone to put it into the one that came in the United Security Products kit. If you purchase the pre-paid phones, the system will work but as you mentioned there are time limits on those phones, and no way of knowing if it works or not. (Plus I don't really trust them anyway.) If you add a phone line to your existing account, you don't need the data or messaging plans so it only runs like $9/month with AT&T, which is a pretty great bargain compared to most monitoring companies and then you can call it and verify it is operational at will without wasting your prepaid minutes, etc. If its just the autodialer that the customer wants, we generally put a 7ah battery in the alarm panel for backup power, then just power everything off of the alarm panel. If you need the cell phone one, we use their power supply and put a backup battery in that panel as well.

I'm not 100% familiar with the outputs of the caddx system, but with any of the United Security Products, they operate off of a dry contact. With our Concord 4 panels, we purchase the 4-output snap card and program an output to operate the same as the siren. You can have multiple pre-recorded messages and trigger them with the different inputs on the autodialer, so you could have one output for fire alarms, one for burg alarms, one for medical alarms, etc and have different messages play when it calls you to alert you that the system is going off.

The United Security products; however, will not email or text you. They are simply call-only. I had located another manufactuer which I was going to try out and see if they would work or not, which indicated they would do text, call, and or email. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the manual I had downloaded to see who the manufacturer/model number was. If anyone else is familiar with a product that will do this, please post it so that I can look into it. Near as I can find with a quick internet search, it may have been an AGM GSM autodialer made by RISCO. ( http://www.diycontrols.com/p-6195-agm-gsm-cellular-remote-alarm-module.aspx ) But I do not know for sure, if anyone has used this then please let us know your thoughts on it!

Thanks

 

[Del91574]

Rather than steering someone into self-monitoring, which is all an autodialer will do, I'd rather move someone into a real cell backup of some form, then an appropriate CS.

If the alarm goes off and you're away....what are you going to be able to do if it dials you with a canned message? What caused the alarm? What sort of response are you going to be able to provide or give? I think many people don't think of the true logistics of self monitoring and what it truly means vs. a real monitoring setup.

The honest fact of the matter is for the same basic cost of the hardware listed above, a true cellular or dialer capture unit to dial a CS, barring the recurring cost of a cell and the monitoring via CS, which is generally easily deducted from homeowner's insurance costs, would be a far better solution for many over what equates to a car alarm with a loud siren that dials you, for the same cost you're going to be paying for the added line to any existing cell or via a prepaid card from most carriers.

 

[JimS]

CoolJoe,

Thanks for the good detail and all, but I was really asking about a cell connection to a real monitoring service. Perhaps I used the wrong words...

Jim