Oct 25 2009
Alarming
Sure, I’ve always done things bass-ackwards. We’ve had a perimeter surveillance system for the past three years, but only recently did I actually get around to installing the more common and conventional alarm system.
Now generally speaking getting a security system installed these days is a snap. Make the call and some guy will show up in a marked van, will attach a large number of wireless devices to your walls, window and door frames with double sided tape and be gone fairly quickly. The cost of the alarm hardware (plus a nice markup for the security company) is included in the $30/month monitoring fee.
Just two problems here. I’m not big on wireless, and I’m not keen on paying thousands of dollars amortized over three years. Other than that it sounds great, no?
So first we need a quick assessment to determine what hardware we need, where things are going to go, if and how we’re going to get the wires where we need them and so forth and so on.
I shopped around and picked up two keypads, two motion detectors, 1 glassbreak detector, 1 smoke detector, two door contacts, three tamper contacts, two remote pendants, two integrated siren/strobe devices, one outdoor strobe and two 12vdc relays (along with the less interesting alarm board, SLA battery and power supply) for approximately $250 CDN all in (pretty good pricing to be honest).
Installation was fairly easy. I’ve already got a bit of experience with DSC systems, and what I didn’t know I could ask about over at the DIY Security Forum, a great source of tips and tricks. I picked away at the installation over the course of a week or two, and fine tuning was a week or two more.
Once installed I contacted The Monitoring Center to arrange for them to monitor the alarm system. Their going rate right now is $9.99 a month, with six months free and a $99 set-up fee (that makes the monthly monitoring cost $12.21/month for the first 18 months, very competitive compared to monthly costs of approximately $20+ everywhere else I looked).
So here we are. $470 later we have a hardwired system configured specifically for our home,the monitoring is paid in advance for the next 18 months and there are no contracts to worry about.
I’m satisfied with the outcome, I really should see if this justifies a further discount on our insurance.
-GRIN-
(Oh, BTW if you’re looking to switch alarm monitoring companies drop me an email, seems I get a free month of monitoring for each referral.. works for me).
I’m not a fan of wireless either. I have one wireless point that I’d love to get hard wired; it’s just too much of a pain to do these days.
Wireless may be secure, but it’s relatively easy to jam.
In all fairness, in defence of wireless, the level of sophistication required to jam a wireless alarm point is beyond the near complete total of all potential intruders. The average intruder simply ignores the alarm and does a smash and grab.
As well, if you’re dealing with a person that can defeat an alarm point by jamming it, they pretty much de facto have the technical know-how to beat a hardwired point as well. Few people that can beat a wireless would not know how to beat a hardwire.
The real gold standard, in my opinion, for alarm systems is the activation to transmit and constructive response times to said activation. In other words, a system that takes 5 minutes to dial out the signal and a processor at the station that takes another 5 minutes to decode that Alarm Site 1234 has had an activation in Zone #1(Downstairs Pooping room), then another 30 minutes to have some form of constructive response…what’s the point?
Sadly, the technology exists to get that down to around 90 seconds, but the industry seems to be less interested in generating actual effective results than meeting illusory standards that are of no importance.
I won’t bore you guys with the current industry standard numbers on that(Plus, no need to share further info with shitrats)
CM I’m no fan of wireless, but that stems from the hassle of dealing with batteries, poor adhesive and the general sense of sloppiness that seems attendant with most wireless installs.
In the grand scheme of things I still say if you have to run power wires, then why not run the rest.
-GRIN-
Greg: Oh yes, I think most of us are more than passingly familiar with the inherent weaknesses in digital dialers (the fact that the same technology we chased 15 years ago with the same weaknesses is still the bread and butter of the industry).
By the same token however, we all know the point of a burg system is not to actually protect the property. It’s to limit the bad guys time on the ground and/or warn occupants that something is amiss. In these respects the old hardware still works adequately.
As for protecting the contents of my home while I am away, well any security system MUST involve a layered approach, and if the high value items are not hardened somewhat then the bad guys will make off with them. But if they’re hardened and the clock is ticking, and the cameras are rolling then the bad guys have to make a serious of decisions as to where their priorities lie in the next 10-15 minutes. They can crack the hardened valuables container OR search the residence OR locate and compromise the digital video recorder, but not all of the above in the time allotted.
Ultimately even if they manage all of the above, there is still insurance to mitigate the loss. Damned if I’m going to make it easy for them though.
-GRIN-
And that is the ultimate value of the system.