What type alarm system for home?

[Old Paths]

Well, happened on Sunday night, a retired widow's house and pole barn were both broken into, she is in Florida. We are new to the neighorhood, so we don't yet really know her. Her house is about 1/4 mile from ours. We live in a VERY rural section of a rural county. The next neighbor is a 1/2 mile away. I just finished my pole barn (24 x 24), I have another little shop (12 x 16), a chicken coop, and our house, a timber frame cape with cathedral and balcony. We just lost our dog, and my wife is not ready for another one. I work 2nd shift, often getting home at 1 or 2 in the morning.

Looking for advice on an alarm system. a few points...

1...We are the last house on the electric line, lose power often. Have a generator, pull start 5,000 watt, manual transfer switch.

2...No cable on our road, probably never will be as density of homes is too sparse.

3...Town just installed water on our road, which means that the trench from the road will be dug Fri am or next Monday.

4...I will be getting better half her pistol permit application next week, she used to work in a Prison until our daughter was born, had ample opportunity for training in firearms use and safety, got her to go hunting first time last year!

5...Driveway is about 150' long, can not hear anything coming in until they are to the house.

6...Wife is worth her weight in wildcats (which isn't much, BTW), and once armed, look out!

7...There is a lane into a cornfield next door that kids like to "park" in and party at, threw kids out of several times this summer.

8...Sheriff and trooper patrols are very seldom, have no recollection at all of seeing one this year. We have great sheriff and deputies, just not a profitable place for their patrols.

8...Buried telephone lines are usually very static filled, as field mice build nests in the tombstones (junction boxes) and chew wires all winter long

9...Cellular is great here, I use Verizon MIFI for our internet and love it (MIFI is a wireless hotspot that works on 3G network, allows up to 4 devices to connect at about 100' range

All these points bring me to my question,,,
What type of alarm system are you folks at TBN using, and why?
I am in awe of the depth and breadth (sp) of experience and knowledge you folks have, and I covet your input and advice in this. I want to protect the house, pole barn, and driveway. I would like to be able to check on the house remotely if possible. I want to spend less than $500 if possible, and have the opportunity to bury cables now for driveway and barn now due to new water line installation.



I am an electrical engineer, having learned first as an electrician, and just an old farm boy as a kid...

I don't shy away from any project that I can afford, so wired, wireless are both on the table.

Also, on the subject of wired or wireless, what sensors for the house and barn?

Thanks so much guys,

Jerry

 

[dex3361]

Let me say I am sorry for what happened you feel violated and like you lost feeling safe in your home. I have been through what you are going through now. Happened about 12 years ago. Do you have a dog? They are the best security system. The only issue is if its someone that they know they are ineffective(that is what I run up against it was my nephew that broke into my house). The answer if someone asks if your dog bites is not usually or not if I am here. I saw this system and it would help protect the home when its unattended.
https://www.stopthecrime.com/default.htm
The other thing that I did that you are doing is getting the wife set up with the concealed carry permit. My break in was in the middle of the day and I shutter to think what may have happened if the wife had been home. One of the tools the thieves use is to knock on the door and see if someone is home before breaking in, so if you have a strange visitor knocking at the door with out a good reason it should raise a red flag.

 

[DennisArrow]

I have a very similar situation being at the end of the road with neighbors not being close by or the simple fact that they dont pay attention to much but their own situations.
There are 2 entrances to my property. One is an easement that is seldom used by 3 neighbors that back up to my land. On that entrance I put a cable with a combination lock. Has totally kept out the "cruisers" in the middle of the night for about a year now. My other road, the one we USE is a half mile long from the paved road and entirely private. This road goes next to and through heavy woods and our goat pastures. When driving along it one gets the company of our pasture guard dogs greeting you. Several times folks have commented and wondered if they are going to get through that electric fence. I tell them yes, if they get excited enough.

Anyway, some thoughts.

Get your house wired (door and window hard wire, IR motion detector, audio, and smoke)with an alarm company that monitors your home and property. Yes, one can put your whole house on internet monitoring to even turn on the stove.....Not gonna go into that.......LOTS of articles on HOW.........Get the cell phone back up besides the land line. My monthly cost for monitoring is $19 with the cell back up an additional $10.

GET A DOG

Outside Lighting with motion detectors

An electric gate and fence line do wonders for keeping out folks. We have this on our entrance on the main gate. Totally gives the message of STAY OUT............

We use 4 wireless IR sensor/transmitters to alert us of movement on the roads or property. Barns, sheds, paths, and easements.

Dakota Alert, Wireless Alarms and Security

Our gate is around 600 feet from the house and I tend to move the transmitters around every now and then so for me......TOTALLY PREFER the wireless........Yes, the reciever at the house can easily alert the house alarmsystem.........Falses that do happen are mainly from the "aiming" of the sensors and truly do seldom happen.

At the minimum I would put a driveway alarm sensor across your road. A magetic one that is wired into a simple alert device at the house would work nice especially since you are getting dirt work done................Yes, these pick up on movement ON your road from a vehicle; but NOT someone on foot, nor if they go "off road", thus, for me the wireless IR are better.

For most, folks this last thought is a bit "unneighborly"; but to be known as the ol boy who greets you with a shotgun out on the road is truly effective. Meeting strangers who drive up to your yard, after your alarm system alerts you, with a .38 pointed towards the ground or a 12 ga. in the crook of your arm is a great deterent for future problems. What happens is, is that the word get's out, among the ol boys down at the coffee shop/store, that you have some kind of alarm system that works and you are there prepared to greet them..................

Anyway, just thoughts........God bless.......Dennis

 

[Old Paths]

DEX, Dennis,
One More point with the Infrared alerts, how well do they tolerate snow (false triggers), as we are near Buffalo, NY (about 45 miles away) and today are expecting 5-10 inches.

The dog is not an option, wife is absolutely against. Concealed carry is great option, and we are pursueing at this point. I will dive into the links tonight, thanks and keep em coming.

I have a daughter that is being courted at this oint, young man wants to be a missionary. I always told my daughter I would have the cleanest shotgun in the county when she got to be a certain age (I don't have a rocker on the porch yet!) But to your point, visibility is great deterrent. Speaking of which, we also do not have area lighting, there is one on pole in drive, I sleep better in the dark. I should have motion triggered floods, ???

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm ten years out on my knowledge of these things, but will offer what I know.

The Alarm companies sell systems that are wireless. The put them all over the house, but rely on radio signals. This works fairly well, but there are some serious drawbacks. The advantage is the ease of installing them, and how cheap they are. The negative is that they rely on a battery to keep working and that battery can fail at any time. When asked how long the battery lasts, the answer varries from a year, several years and from 2-3 years. Again, when the battery fails, it's not working anymore.

The best way to go on your sensors is to hardwire them. It's allot of work, and if you hire it out, it can be expensive. I did it myself an can tell you that the hardest part is getting the wire from the edge of the attic to where you have your system mounted. It's allot of back and forth up there, and if you have good, blown insulation, it will be ruined by the time you are done.

You will have to have it monitored. There is no point to having a system witout a company monitoring it. Before buying the components, find out what company you want to use, and what components they use. They are not interchangable, and some companies wont let you buy your own stuff. I found one that did, and was very good about telling me what to buy and even suggested what works best. The money is in the monthly monitoring, so it makes sense for them to do whatever it takes to get you to sign a monitoring contract. Instalation costs them money, so allowing me to install the sensors and run the wires was a win win for all of us.

I called every company I could find before deciding on the one I went with. I found that the national chains hire salesman to tell you about their services. They all came across as part timers, or guys who get a new job every six months. There wasn't anything about them that led me to feel comfortable with them. The local companies that I talked to were different. In all three cases, the owner of the company came out and met with me. I chose one of them. They were very knowledgable and offered numerous suggestions. They were all open to me doing the wiring myself. The national chains all wanted wireless sensors, and only their guys could install them. They said that if I hardwired the place my self, that they couldn't use what I used. The local guys all told me the same store to buy my supplies from, and what to buy.

Like most things, talk to as many people as you can and make your decision after you have finished talking to all of them. Take notes on what they offer. It will get confusing and hard to remember if the process takes a few weeks. In my case, I believe it was a few months from start to finish. Mostly because it was such a pain to run those wires!!!!

Eddie

 

[dmccarty]

Dennis,

Thanks for the link. Are you using the MURS system? How well does it work for you.

I don't worry about the security of the house per say but I would like to know when someone is on our road. We have a gate which is locked most of the time but if one of us leaves or we are expecting someone we open the gate which is when we have people just drive up.

The gate is a maybe 1,000 feet away through the woods as the crow flies. The wireless products I have seen in the past would not work at that distance. And to make it more difficult there is no power by the gate so everything would have to be battery powered. The power company said we would need a power pole down there with another meter that would cost $10 a month plus whatever power was consumed. MURS sounds like it might work because of the batter power and transmit distance. And I like the idea of being about to put a sensor at certain places a good distance from the house.

I just read of a "sensor" that is made in the UK that is man portable and able to track hundreds of man sized critters. It is a tripod mounted radar. Not sure how well it would work in the woods. But it sure would be interesting to track the deer herds from the living room. I could not find a price though.

MURS with the driveway alarm might work for us.

Later,
Dan

 

[zeuspaul]

I installed my own security system. I was going to go the IP camera route. After installing one camera I changed my mind and installed a basic system with sensors and alarms.

I opted for Ademco (Honeywell) after frequentling the alarm forums.
http://www.diysecurityforum.com/ The *real* alarm systems are designed for pros. Programming is not very user friendly and the forums will help you get started.

Sheriff response time here is a minimum of fifteen minutes and more likely thirty. Burglars are typically in and out in less than that. I just didn't see the benefit of monitoring in my situation. I don't need someone to come out and note that I have been burglarized. I need to stop it before it happens. I wanted to own and control my own system.

Most pros will sell you a *quiet* indoor siren and monitoring. The theory is the burglar will hear the alarm and know he set it off. I opted for the deterrent of a LOUD exterior siren and strobe lights and no monitoring. My thinking is they will know they set off the alarm AND they will also fear that someone else will hear it too. They are looking for easy targets. They know alarm response times.

I used hardwired where I could but also made use of wireless. The 5800Micra is a nice little wireless sensor designed for windows but can be easily installed in the top of a door. It has a ten year battery life. The Ademco 5890 motion sensor has *up to* 5 year battery life.

Wired sensors are interchangeable between systems. Wireless sensors are not.

I started with an Ademco 20P kit. Products in Ademco\Honeywell on Safemart.com Then I added components from Ebay at less than half the price of online retailers.

Currently I monitor traffic along the street and in my driveyway with a cheapo X10 motion sensor. A few lights go on when when something goes by. My plan is to upgrade this.

Don't use exterior sensors in your primary alarm system. You will have too many false alarms.

Zeuspaul

 

[DennisArrow]

DMMcarty......I have the WMA 3000.....the MURS system was NOT available several years ago. Looking at it, I think if I had to make the choice NOW I probably would pick that; but I think I am going on the 4th year with my system.

Yes, hardwiring the house is the only way to do it. I forgot when I gave my thoughts about the video deal. Yes, by all means that is a valid option. We have that down in the goat kidding barn for monitoring the babies and for just checking it out. Down at the electric gate though we have a phony motion detector camera that moves and a red light comes on. Fairly cheap and comes with a sign.

Actually my detector on the gate is not really on the gate, though one could make that part of the electric gate with solar power. The first one they encounter is about 100 yards up the road back on a tree disguised as a bird house. Then the second one is about 100 yards up from the house to alert us just in case they got by the first one. I use the same 2 detector system on the easement cable across the road.

YES.......Motion detector lighting is just great to have and cheap. I have one on each of the exteriors of each barn and on 2 corners of the rear of the house. Also down in the equipment barn I have one inside. IF that one is on......I get out the M1 Garrand and wait for target practice.........

Yes, mentioning to your neighbors about your security measures, keeping in mind that most of it is "not common knowledge", really does work. Being known as the "crazy ol guy" up on the hill hurts me none the least..........Especially with the crack dealer down the road and the meth addict next door.

That is a very funny story. Before I put a cable across the easement; both of the ol boys at different times came up the road checking things out. "Oh, this is a private road, I didnt know that"...........As I stood there with my 12 ga pump in the crook of my arm, and advised about the cameras and alarm system. Funny how when I talked about the reality of burglars in the area, my precautions for them, and how this ol Viet vet WELCOMED them coming for a visit, the light went off in their heads to NEVER try the system........Havent seen or heard from them on my property since. Except when a sheriff task force of 5 cars pulled up the road lost and the cable stopped them as they were trying to serve a warrant..........

Oh yes, about the snow falsing it.......Really have no idea as we have it so seldom. I do KNOW that leaves falling which we have a LOT of DO NOT do anything........

Anyway, God bless..........sorry for the long winded versions........Dennis

 

[2manyrocks]

Remington 870 in 12 gauge or 20 loaded with alternating rounds of buckshot and slugs. Just ate up a good part of $500 budget.

Gate and driveway alert for balance of budget for now.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

As Dennis already mentioned there are many wireless options and a drawback is of course the batteries. Let me add this. Many of the homes I take care of have atleast some wireless sensors. These particualr systems will trigger a "trouble" alert and inform the alarm monitoring service of low battery power. It will also trigger an audible alert within the house.