Help requested: home security system

[Werewolf1976]

Hi all

Looking to tap the collective wisdom of Team Lexus

We are moving to a semi-detached house in West London W3 - the area is generally safe but suffers from car theft, petty theft and is near a main street

The house has a backyard, sideyard and private car drive so plenty of places to jump fences and the street does not have CCTV

I am looking for recommendation for a home security / alarm system

Ideally, the system would contain motion sensors (inside), motion lights/cameras for outside and a decent remote monitoring system (app)

Budget ideally under 2k gbp with minimal ongoing service charges

On a thumbsuck, I would look at Banham, Yale, Ring, Simplisafe systems

Thanks in advance!

[First_Lexus]

From an insurance perspective I believe alarm systems have to be NACOSS approved (and there’s another accreditation option I think).

Personally I’d find a good local alarm company and go down that route. Anything ‘DIY’ may do the job but - with my insurance as an example - likely won’t lead to any premium reduction. I’d rather have a professional advise and install as they tend to know the pitfalls.

I had ADT a few years ago and it was hopeless. ‘Monitored’ - what a joke!

[Herbie]

I can highly recommend HikVision CCTV systems, with a Network Video Recorder (so that you can access and view from anywhere) and ColorVu cameras.

We've had ours in for about 3 or 4 years now so the equipment has most likely been superceded by now, but this is how they look in both daylight and darkness:

 

[cruisermark]

Hi Herbs

What spec are the cameras?

[toffee_pie]

Forget ADT - I have an IP Camera - I fitted it myself, its a standard PTZ job with night vision and alarms and all the usual bells and whistles

I found out from my research that many cameras are the same and just re badged - so that £400 PTZ camera may well have the same lens as the boggo eBay job that costs £130 - what you really pay for is conmnnectivity and software.

I have a Synology NAS which acts as a HDD but my camera is one of the boggo cheap ones (£150 or so) but with essentially the same lens as higher priced models - the unit works fine, remote access and app etc but if I was picky I would say that its IP functionality - ie communicating with Synology and NAS devices is a bit weak but I can live with it for now - it is easy enough to upgrade if I want to - this was really just a tester to see how they work out

 

[Cotswold Pete]

I would add to make sure what ever set up you end up with make sure you can whitelist access to to the cameras, so that no unwanted IP addresses can access your system.

I do not have CCTV, but college at work has his set up so when someone hacks the camera they get a message and he gets an email.  He gets a couple of hits a month, so people are out there poking around

[PCM]

+1 for HikVision CCTV.

AJAX alarms are also brilliant, reliable, self monitored via an App and NO monthly subs.

https://www.cctvaware.com/ are great.