Please advise me on what I should buy - Home alarm System

Final Approach

Hi Guys,

There seems to be some very knowledgeable people here whose advice I'd really appreciate in picking a home security system for our house. I have looked through the pages on this forum, but am still a little confused as to what we actually need. A few of our neighbours had their cars broken into last night, after us having had one of our cars broken into on the drive just a few months ago, so its time we alarmed the house before they move on to the houses themselves.

So, moved into the house three years ago, it is wired for an alarm but one was never installed by the previous occupiers. Its a 2 storey detached, with 3 upstairs bedrooms, 2 downstairs bedrooms with Kitchen/dining/living/utility.

Our requirements as I see them;

We would prefer not to have to pay monthly payments, my logic is that If I have an app that notifies me of the alarm activating while we are away I can call the Guards myself, or a neighbour.

We would therefore like an app controlled alarm.

We would like to zone upstairs and downstairs separately.

We would like panic buttons to be able to activate the alarm from the bedroom if we hear noises during the night.

Key fobs would also be handy instead of punching in numbers every time.

Internal/External Alarms would be good

So, what would you guys recommend? Heard horror stories of thieves spraying expanding foam into Alarm Boxes to disable them, etc, so I really would appreciate your advice on a good, all-round system (that can't be easily externally disabled) to suit our needs above.

I would also like to install an outdoor CCTV camera, are there any alarm systems that include this?

I appreciate any advice anyone can give us on this. Thank you!

kub

First up your suggestion about ringing Gardai if your alarm goes off, well you can but you will get a better response from a neighbour as you are not an alarm monitoring centre calling Gardai.

Free apps are available from i think manufactures such as Siemens/ Vanderbilt and GSD, there may be others. HKC have a brilliant one but that has to be paid for.

No issues whatsoever zoning your upstairs and downstairs, most systems in houses have at least 6 zones anyway as no zone can have more than 10 non powered devices on them, such as windows etc.

No issue with the Panic Button in the bedroom, but don't be too quick to press it if the local cat knocks over something in your back yard.

Most systems offer keyfobs, just be careful here that convenience does not win over security and you put your fob on the same keyring as your front door key, if the set is lost then the guys can open your door and switch off your alarm.

Any reputable installer would specify both internal and external sirens anyway, an external siren should never be regarded as an optional extra.

With regard to expandable foam, yes that is true, historic but true. It was effective on alarm boxes 20 years ago that had bells inside them. You are looking for notification anyway so don't get too stressed about the culpability of your external sounder.

CCTV, you are as well off to get a seperate system installed and hooked up to your phone via an App.

So with regard what i would specify for your alarm, inertia shock sensors and contacts to each and every external window and door, hopefully as wired and i would also specify perhaps 2 beams to common areas such as halls and landings.
For an installer, get yourself 3 written quotations, in the EN50131 format from at least 3 PSA licenced installers.

gogreen81

For an installer, get yourself 3 written quotations, in the EN50131 format from at least 3 PSA licenced installers.[/quote]

Any reason for 3 quotes please

KoolKid

It's good toto shop around for advice and price.

kub

gogreen81 wrote: »

For an installer, get yourself 3 written quotations, in the EN50131 format from at least 3 PSA licenced installers.

Any reason for 3 quotes please[/QUOTE]

As Koolkid said and just to ensure that you are getting a quality system. For example i have come across installers who say they are putting 'sensors' on peoples windows, when in actual fact all they are doing is installing contacts which do not actually detect the glass being broken.
So the units are called 'inertia shock sensors with reeds' a reed will monitor a single opening on a single frame, so extra reed contacts may be necessary if there are extra openings.
So i suppose the best advice i would give is to study the most competitive quote to make sure you are actually getting what you require.

KoolKid

I would also recommend you do your own research here re alarms and their features etc.
There are lots of lads out there with limited experience & will want to sell you the system they want to install rather than what might suit your needs.

Final Approach

OP Here, I appreciate all your responses, and thank you Kub for those pointers, big help!