Classic wired vs wireless dilemma - cost/insurance/home automation

magformer

Hi all

Having house fully rewired but neglected to include prewire for an alarm system. This means that there will be extra cost to me if I proceed with that option. I've been reading threads here on wired vs wireless and I get that "wire if you can" is common advice, and I'm inclined to agree but I'm wondering now if just fitting a wireless system later will be the better option.

Originally I thought wired would be better - more stable, no batteries, cheaper components (excluding the likely high electrical pre-wire cost). I'm quite keen on integration with Home Assistant too ultimately and was looking at Konnected.io but I'm now wondering whether that makes more sense for retrofit use cases where people want to repurpose existing sensors.

Maybe wireless is going to be cheaper and easier and batteries and signal won't be material issues in reality. Some wireless sensors seem lower profile/better for interior aesthetics too. I have seen pre-wire jobs that tend to be messy. I will have loads of radio "noise" - WiFi, tonnes of Zigbee sensors and various other things. But I don't see why that should be a problem with modern systems.

Despite my enthusiasm for automation, I think - whatever option I choose - I would need a professional/certified install for insurance purposes and because this is a security-critical use case. I worry that would limit options for wireless compatibility with Home Assistant. I have read here and elsewhere that the Siemens/SPC system has a Home Assistant integration but I can't work out if that applies for wireless variants.

Votes for wire vs wireless at this point? Any good professional wireless systems that work well with home assistant? Would be v grateful for any advice.

bk

I’d suggest that wireless has advanced far enough now, that I’d just go wireless.

Most of the modern alarm systems now are going wireless, so if you go wired, you are looking at typically older and less sophisticated systems. Though even some of the wireless systems have options to integrate wired sensors.

Batteries, on decent modern systems now last at least 5 years and some are hitting 7 to 10 years, so much less of a concern then in the past when might have needed yearly replacement.

Cost, while wired sensors are typically cheaper, you could just do a DIY install of a wireless system yourself and it will likely be a lot cheaper then getting an installer to do it and run cables, etc.

On insurance, I just wouldn’t add the alarm to it. The discount they offer isn’t worth the risk that they won’t pay out or pay less if you forget to arm the alarm or don’t get it professionally maintained yearly, and there is a break in. The discount isn’t enough to cover such maintenance and I feel not worth the risk. I found that just shopping around for insurance will give a similar discount anyway.

Funny story time, I use to have my alarm on the insurance, until I realised the downsides. So I called them to take the alarm off the insurance, they said fine, but I’ll have to pay 10% more, I said hold on so I’ll shopping around for other insurance companies, she said hold on, let me talk to my supervisor, when she got back, she said because I was such a good customer, that they would take the alarm off and give me a 15% customer loyalty discount instead :)

So anyway, the point is, if you don’t put it on the insurance, then you can go down the DIY wireless route instead, which should be cheaper.

BTW modern wireless systems use 868Mhz radio frequency, while Wi-Fi and Zigbee use 2.4GHz and higher, so there shouldn’t be interference between them.

You should check out he Home automation forum here on boards where there is a good thread on Smart Alarm Systems and some of the Home assistant integration folks have done. Two popular DIY wireless systems worth looking into are the Ajax system and Hikvision AX Pro.

Irish Steve

A caveat to anyone looking to do a self install, HKC are making it impossible to get access to their software and upates unless you are a member of the PSA rip off. which means you can't get the software updates, or take backups of the configuration of the panel, and you also can't have access to IP based monitoring, and to add insult to injury, they no longer make the essential installation manuals available, the information in the box with the panel is pretty much a sales boiler plate, and so is their web site, there's no decent technical information available from them on line.

Unfortunately, most electrical suppliers tend to only have HKC on the shelf, and they neither know nor care about things like manuals or access to software to support them, and even some of the security suppliers are not being overly helpful in that respect, they'll sell the product, but then look at you blankly when you ask about support post installation.

HKC also won't provide support to Irish users if you're not in the PSA, so despite the fact that it's totally legal for someone to do their own install, actually getting the information to do the job properly is becoming increasingly difficult.

On the wired/wireless debate, if you have usable wiring in place, then use it, the difference in price between wired and wireless sensors is significant if you need things like window sensors, and another caveat, be very careful if you want sensors that will detect if a window has been left open, some of the more modern PVC windows make it impossible to get a tidy mounting of the sensor body within the range of the magnet that needs to be on the opening part of the window, due to the curvature of the frame, the magnets don't have the range to reliably operate the reed switch, and that's unfortunately the case for both wired and wireless sensors.

2011

No dilemma necessary, simply install a hybrid alarm which can take both wired and wireless devices. An example of this is the HKC SW10270. This gives you the best of both worlds. Or if you select a system that is designed for wired sensors only a Quick Bridge could be added to allow for the connection of wireless sensors.

https://www.homecontrols.com/homecontrols/products/pdfs/GE-GESecurity/GE606600195R-Manual.pdf

My home was wired for partially wired for alarm system so I used the wiring where possible. This saved me a lot of money. However, to get the level of coverage I required I added wireless detectors with ease so I didn't have to rip my home apart.

I agree with the above points on home insurance. I find it is too costly and too risky to avail of the insurance company "discount". This often ends up being a far higher net cost to the homeowner.

phormium

Know nothing about alarm systems but re the insurance I would agree with advice not to take any discount for having an alarm, as sure as hell the one time something goes wrong it was not turned on for a million reasons! Not worth the risk for the small discount and I processed house insurance applications for years and that was the advice we always gave customers.