It looks like after 30 years of crime free living, next leave I will have to consider having a monitored alarm system put into the house, as recommended by the local crime prevention officer after my recent brush with car-key thieves................................. so I'm sure those of you living in the sarf (that is sarf from Scotland not Watford Gap!) must have had some experience of having burglar alarm systems fitted so any advice for somebody with no experience of them?

I have been looking at companies like ADT who do some pretty sophisticated systems that include CCTV that is monitored. So what is necessary, what is window dressing and what is hyped up but not really required? In order to satisfy my insurers the installers also have to be approved so that rules out self installed systems like the (claimed to be excellent) BT wireless system which you self install. I'm looking to cover 2 (one for the house and one for the garage back door) Up and over garage front door, a lean to greenhouse that is built onto the back on my house, one floor to ceiling fully glazed back door/ french window and 5 windows. Are motion sensors still as bad and set off so easily as they used to be? I already have powerful security lights at the back and front of the house but obviously they weren't much of a help this time. I also think that something like a CCTV watching my drive might use useful.

Thoughts please - any companies to steer clear of too! 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

this might be worth considering tim, has network monitoring and you can even watch on your iphone..

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=454337 ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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Tim give ADT a call and see what they`ve got to suit you. thats who i would go for. oh and they install it  ONE LIFE LIVE IT

I own a hotel and have full a full CCTV system fitted a few years ago by a bunch of cowboys.

We recently had a theft, member of staff helping him self to the safe, with everything recorded onto CCTV.

So we think we have got him and call the police.....

Unfortunately the CCTV footage of much of the theft is not sufficient quality and it is unlikely that a prosecution will result. Bummer.

What ever you go for make sure that the cameras work in both day light and at night, and when they say they do as for some reference sites with the same system and ask the operators. They often have a different opinion, as I have found to my cost.

If I was to start again I would go with some one like ADT or CHUBB. There are many excellent independents who can supply better service etc, but having had my fingers burnt I would go with piece of mind from a "branded" supplier, although this goes against my principles of purchasing from local independents.

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I have been looking at companies like ADT who do some pretty sophisticated systems that include CCTV that is monitored. So what is necessary, what is window dressing and what is hyped up but not really required?

Quote:

In order to satisfy my insurers the installers also have to be approved so that rules out self installed systems like the (claimed to be excellent) BT wireless system which you self install.

Quote:

I'm looking to cover 2 (one for the house and one for the garage back door) Up and over garage front door, a lean to greenhouse that is built onto the back on my house, one floor to ceiling fully glazed back door/ french window and 5 windows. Are motion sensors still as bad and set off so easily as they used to be? I already have powerful security lights at the back and front of the house but obviously they weren't much of a help this time. I also think that something like a CCTV watching my drive might use useful.

If I was doing a system design proposal, I wouldn't be quoting for window contacts or inertia shock sensors, basically, for a pretty average run of the mill system, I would advise things like front door to be fitted with a door contact that are on an exit/entry timed zone and PIR's (passive infra red/movement detectors) for the rest of the house as they usually have 90 degrees coverage and up to 15m range, that way the whole room is covered including windows and french doors etc. Plus it saves having cables ran round to each window then fixing devices to the window and door frames.

You'll find you will get very little trouble with any new alarm system be it wirefree or hardwired, PIR's are nowhere near as unreliable as they once were, they're basically fit and forget items now.

For your situation, you could install either of the following, assuming your garage is detached from the house but not too far away.

1, Hard wired system in the house, and another separate hardwired system for the garage
2, 1 Wirefree system for the house and garage combined
3, Hard wired system in the house with a wirefree receiver unit and wirefree devices in the garage. That way you can have everything on one system which would probably work out alot less than both of the above, plus you would only need to set the 1 system.

As for the CCTV, void the likes of a Maplin system, the camera quality might look fine when you're up close to them in the shop, but once fitted, they sometimes haven't got the resolution to produce decent images when it gets dark. Also, some of the IR bullet cameras might sound good on paper with 10-20m IR night vision range, but what people forget is that they're likely to be fitted 4-5m up then angled down, so really, they're pretty pointless, most of the time, it will only light up the reg. plates on your car.

In fairness, the kit linked by Scarey does seem ok, but just to let you know, most of the time, we pay more than that for a decent quality DVR alone from one of our wholesalers, basically, you get what you pay for. A customer of mine wanted his existing CCTV replaced by us as he had bought one of the Makro specials for £400 and was suitably unimpressed by it, (it was though!) If you're only wanting a camera system to cover the driveway, I'd recommend something like a decent low light anti-vandal dome camera, a small 4 channel DVR with a 250GB hard drive. That really should suffice. Most decent vandal domes have a very low lux level capability, the ones we supply and fit go as low as 0.0001 lux with a feature called 'sens up' enabled, basically, it digitally brightens up the image so you can see in almost pitch black.

The majority of DVR's (digital video recorders) now have LAN connection so you can view them remotely, (in fact, I've just been setting one up for a customer today) The only extra thing you will need is a monitor, a standard TFT computer monitor will do the job no problem as long as the DVR has a VGA monitor connection, they it doesn't, you can buy a BNC to VGA converter which will allow you to use a standard monitor.

If you would like any more info, just ask and I'll do my best to offer some guidance.  2006 Mercedes CLS
1991 Retro-style Mini
But really finding it hard to fight the urge for a S/C...

We turn out to a lot of ADT activations. They are always graded as an immediate response (10 min) and we always get there well within that time. Yet to catch anyone on premises though- they're in and out in seconds.

I looked into an ADT when we got done last year. The rep explained how it worked. Basically, two PIRs have to trigger for it to register at the ADT control room as a confirmed intruder. One PIR will alert them, but they'll wait for the second one to activate before contacting police. So we know when ADT contact us, it's genuine and every available officer will turn out to it.
In my case, they told me they'd use the existing cables/ power unit/PIRs and just fit a monitor that connects to the police control room. They quoted £500 "fitting", plus a monthly fee for the monitoring of about £25. I thought they replaced the entire system for that money. Quickly told them to do one.

A good mate of mine has a family alarm business and he fitted a monitor that alerts me via my mobile phone. If it were to go off, I'd just dial 999 and tell them I've got a monitored alarm. The police will still (or should) turn out to it as if it were an ADT unit.

Due to spiders in PIRs, power cuts, general faults etc, House alarms falsely go off all the time. It's so common that police won't go to them unless it can be confirmed it's genuine. . When you hear an alarm sounding and wonder why the police aren't coming, remember one thing- that alarm is probably one of many going off at the same time in various parts of your town/city. There aren't enough officers on duty to attend them all. It would be great if there were! 2010 MY Vogue SE TDV8 3.6 Stornoway Grey- fully loaded

I've got an ADT Redcare 999 system installed at my business and very happy with it,came out best on price when I asked for quotes,serviced twice a year to get around false alarm issues.
As already explained it needs 2 positive alarms from 2 independant sensors e.g. door and PIR before it rings 999 otherwise they just ring me at home .
It has a landline phone link and a mobile backup in case that is cut or faulty.
My engineers are great but clearly that could be a problem elsewhere.

Whatever alarm you buy make sure you get the engineers code for when you need to remove a panel etc for decorating.

I never use mine, i have a bulldog and a baseball bat...  2004 black Vogue TD6

Redcare & Redcare GSM is fine for commercial systems, but I still say it's overkill for domestic systems, you'd be better off having a digi communicator which essentially does the same job, but is a lot cheaper.

Remember, with Redcare, you have to have the system maintained twice a year plus there's the annual monitoring costs of £400+ depending on which receiving centre is used. Then there's the added ball-ache of having a DD243 dual conformation system installed which is basically double the devices than what you actually need if the insurance companies ask for police response. Personally, I only ever recommend Redcare if it's absolutely necessary and the insurers specifically ask for it. 2006 Mercedes CLS
1991 Retro-style Mini
But really finding it hard to fight the urge for a S/C...

Thanks for the guidance and advice guys some very useful stuff there. Sorry i haven't replied earlier as I dropped and then stood on my wireless dongle that connected me to the local wireless broadband now have to wait for the next boatload of stores etc that will be delivered to the anchorage before I can get back online on my own laptop.... O2 has also stopped my internet roaming on my iPhone as I have reached the 40 pounds limit imposed under EU regs, so borrowed one of my officers' netbook computers for a few minutes 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

Hi Tim, O2 can remove the limit if you ask them to! You may be able to get a roamed data bundle on your Iphone as well. You shouldn't really need a dongle as well, the data plans should be pretty transferrable whether on dongle or phone!

Cheers,

David Range Rover-less at the moment - Pining!