Home Security On my mind again

[pennwalk]

We are still in shock. Saturday one of our neighbor families was murdered. Mom and Dad and the 16 year old son. Their college age daughter got out. It has the whole neighborhood spooked. The Police said thet the murderers are at large. One thing the police suggested was to leave lights on at night. I have an array of lighting choices. What do you guys use?

Chris

 

[schmism]

what the h3ll! Theres something in that story that is missing

what kind of area are you trying to light?

I hate generic HID "nightlights" as they produce so much light polution, but realisticly that is your best option for large area lighting.

For slightly smaller area i like a 500w halagon,

much better coverage than these

the upshot for the second set is you can mount them on a corner of house and go 2 diffrent directions.

motion detection is good....


but IMHO all the above is a "feel good" measure. While good lighting can be an effective deternat for a burgler not wanting to be seen entering your home, someone set on much more heinous intent isnt going to care weather or not you see them walking up to the front door.

 

[MossRoad]

I have some X10 motion sensing lights. The nice thing about these is that if the motion sensor on one of them detects motion, it can send a signal through your house wiring to any other units to turn on. Soooo, if Joe Badguy sneaks into your front yard and triggers the motion senor, the lights on all four sides of your house go on. He has no place to run and hide around your house and will probably seek darkness in someone else's yard. If he sees one light come on, he knows its a motion sensor. If all of them come on on all sides of the house, he's thinking someone has hit the panic button and is more likely to leave. And that's what you want.... scare him away.

Also, get an alarm system AND ARM IT, even when you are home. Ours has gone off once in 22 years and that was because someone broke into the garage on a cold, snowy night. The footprints in the snow indicated they parked down the block and went house to house and vehicle to vehicle until they found our weak overhead fiberglass door. They broke it, lifted the door, the alarm shrieked, and by the length of the stride in the snow, they ran real fast back to their truck and drove away.

 

[Soundguy]

I like the 500w halogens.. but also like a real sensitive security lamp with a couple halogen PAR's in it.

soundguy

 

[shaley]

There is a great alarm system for $229. Easy to install and comes with several wireless door and motion sensors accepts 2 wired zones. I bought 2 of these for elderly relatives that live alone. You can add the emergency medical pendant. Fully monitored for 9.95/mo. or calls your cell. Unit has X-10 output 2 way speaker phone monitoring, chimes, you name it. I'm really impressed.
Safemart.com
Visonic Powermax plus
Visonic PowerMax Plus Home Security and Control System Kit - PowerMaxPlus - POWERMAX-PLUS

 

[texasjohn]

I have an X10 system installed both at my house and that of my parents..91 and 94 years old, including pendant. If they push the pendant, the system will dial as many as 4 phone numbers, in sequence if nobody answers. Ideal since I live 15 miles away ans son is about 4 miles away. BUT, don't be fooled, this is just an alarm system, no actual protection. Humans must be the ones that provide the protection.

Here is the link to the site I used to get the stuff. No monthly monitoring fee. I consider this to not be a true option for me. It would just have somebody call 911. I can do that if need be. With 4 phone numbers being dialed, certainly either I or my son will be able to answer mobile phones and/or house phones 24/7.

 

[texasjohn]

If going with a lighter shot... stay as large as you can... I'd go no smaller than #2. I've used #4 and #6 on large animals... penetrates, but does NOT provide immediate stopping power... and you want immediate stopping power. Remember, the VP shot a fellow in the face (albeit with dove shot) and he not only survived, but didn't look too bad...and he was elderly and more frail than your usual home burgler.

 

[MossRoad]

Well, I'd install motion detectors connected to your lighting.... that way there is a surprise element, also, hook to an alarm so you are alerted whevever the lights turn on.

That alarm triggered by the motion sensor get's old, fast. Racoons, dogs, a slight breeze the pushes the heat from under the car hood, etc... can trigger motion sensors.

I probably mentioned this a few times on TBN, but I'll mention it again. I installed motion sensors to trigger a VCR and camera. If triggered, it would record for 5 minutes after the motion stopped. I went to work and came home and the tape was full and ejected. Hmmm... investigation reveals a Robin flying up on my gate, pooping, and flying away. Then 5 minutes of nothing. Then he'd come back, poop, and fly away, etc.... 8 hours of that!

 

[George2615]

I haven't heard about this yet. It'll probably be on our news tonight.

First, I have 3 sets of 500W motion detecting floodlights that will come on if a small cat walks by. 2 cover the front and side of the house and 1 for the back.

Second, I have a good dog that hears much better than I and will alert me to anyone he hears in the yard.

Third, The house has an alarm system.

Fourth, I am armed.

 

[DieselPower]

Here's a little gizmo I installed in my staircase going to my upstairs in my house many years ago. It's just a regular exterior motion detector with 1 flood light bulb. The kicker is the little noise box mounted under it that is wired to the light. It's a Edwards Adapta Horn out of a industrial plant. This thing could wake the dead up from 1/4 mile away it makes so much noise. I have it wired to a light switch in my bedroom and when I'm ready to knock off for the night I flip the switch and turn it on. If my outside motion detector lights don't scare them off, the normal house burglar alarm fails, I have this little baby hooked up to a backup power source and is the last resort warning device. You can buy the Edwards Adapta Horns from most any industrial supply store. Click the thumbnail pic for a larger picture.

 

[RonMar]

Here's a little gizmo I installed in my staircase going to my upstairs in my house many years ago. It's just a regular exterior motion detector with 1 flood light bulb. The kicker is the little noise box mounted under it that is wired to the light. It's a Edwards Adapta Horn out of a industrial plant. This thing could wake the dead up from 1/4 mile away it makes so much noise. I have it wired to a light switch in my bedroom and when I'm ready to knock off for the night I flip the switch and turn it on. If my outside motion detector lights don't scare them off, the normal house burglar alarm fails, I have this little baby hooked up to a backup power source and is the last resort warning device. You can buy the Edwards Adapta Horns from most any industrial supply store. Click the thumbnail pic for a larger picture.

Oh god I hate those things! They are even worse when pulsed. As a watchstander at a LORAN station, we had those in the duty technicians bunk room, about 6' from the bunk. Any alarm in the control room would set this thing off. Ours were controlled by a relay/timer to pulse once per second(sounded like the reactor was about to go critical) My heart wouldn't start beating again untill I was half way to the control room. It was so bad I found I couldn't go to sleep in that room on my duty nights just thinking that it might go off. I would bring a sleeping bag and sleep in the next room(tv lounge) on the couch and it still scared the **** out of me when it woke me up.

 

[DieselPower]

Yep, they don't get much louder or more annoying do they. That's a good thing in this case though. If I'm way off in lala land I want it to wake me up.