House alarms

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#701539 15-Oct-2012 15:25

Also text message notification is another monitoring option. Last check this was approx $15 per month through AlarmNZ (charged via partnering ISP). So a good in between option from full monitoring Vs dial out to mobile monitoring.

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timmmay

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#701540 15-Oct-2012 15:27

Getting notification of an alarm isn't really all that helpful to be honest. There's not much I can do about it, and $15/month is half the price of proper monitoring.

dolsen

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#701546 15-Oct-2012 15:47

timmmay: Getting notification of an alarm isn't really all that helpful to be honest. There's not much I can do about it, and $15/month is half the price of proper monitoring.

I have my alarm dial me if it goes off (residential dial option). It uses the voip line I have to ring my cellphone to let me know it has been activated. I press a number on my cellphone to acknowledge it.
No monitoring charges, but, I still get notified.

wallop

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#701557 15-Oct-2012 16:04

Looking at the link it only has 2 pir's. Personally I believe in 1 for each room. That way they can't come in through a bedroom, flog your jewellery etc and then exit without setting the alarm off.

Also I believe in monitoring and it comes in handy if you have a hard wired smoke detector, they will send the fire brigade around if they cannot get hold of you if it goes off. Depends on the cost of monitoring of course, mine costs $26 per month with free call outs (guards not the fire engine) but some charge you a lot each month and a call out fee. Don?t forget your alarm can scream for hours and no one will pay any attention to it so if a guard comes around they can at least let you know if you have been burgled or not and if need be arrange for your house to be secured. Also if you set it at night or hit the panic button you will know that help is on the way while you wrestle with the scum who have broken in.

richms

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#701634 15-Oct-2012 17:17

no insurance discount for unmonitored makes it pointless.

Richard rich.ms

DarthKermit

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#701668 15-Oct-2012 18:10

To any burglars reading this: I had to disable our house alarm system after it kept beeping and flashing a fault on the keypad. Might have to get an alarm tech in if we decide to get it working again.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Pock

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#701707 15-Oct-2012 19:07

I'm an alarm tech and I say monitoring isn't a '"waste of time". Domestic dialing or SMS notifications can only go so far. With a monitored alarm, your monitoring company will get detailed information from your alarm, telling you what has activated, when and how many times. They also get detailed fault information such as low battery warnings, AC fail warnings, zone troubles / tampers, bell siren disconnection, who has armed / disarmed the alarm and when etc etc etc. Knowing which zone has activated can be very useful, especially if you have smoke alarms / heat sensors, as knowing that your house may be burning down rather than an intruder in your house helps you react differently.

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timmmay

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#701736 15-Oct-2012 19:39

I can see the benefits of a monitored alarm, but given I got on fine without an alarm for years I think you're hitting diminishing returns there. If there was a significant insurance discount then maybe, but state told me my $1400 odd home and contents insurance would go down by $17/year with a professionally installed, monitored alarm, and barely at all without monitoring.

I have the disadvantage I have no home phone, and by the looks of things IP adapters (which I would really expect built in this day and age) can be quite expensive. It should make things cheaper at the monitoring end too, no expensive phone lines for them to maintain.

I would get at least one more PIR sensor. Four would cover the entire house including all rooms with valuables in it, three would cover almost the entire house depending on placement. I'd probably get a couple of smoke alarms, but we set the one in the kitchen off twice a month so not sure it'd be a good idea.

bigal_nz

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#701741 15-Oct-2012 19:50

+1 for not bothering with monitoring.

Lets say I am in the industry - and yes the guards do take about 15 min to arrive (min) and they (the burglars) dont hang around once it goes off. The key is getting it to sound quickly so that the entry delay isnt long enough to grab the laptop and other easily moveable items.

This is normally done by having 0 delay on all PIR's except main entrance etc.

One with night arming may also be handy.

biddle: I like the idea of IP monitoring - is there an android app for that!

-Al

stuzzo

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#701757 15-Oct-2012 20:36

I'll give you a bit of an idea why alarm responses can take so long. I worked in the security industry for over 20 years so I know a bit about it.

Patrolmen get most of their income by patrolling commercial premises which tend to be in fairly compact areas. When alarms go off they are more likely to be near their commercial clients whereas residential alarms can take much longer to drive to. With houses alarms, a lot of time is used up phoning key holders first as patrols are often sent as the last resort.

Commercial alarms can leave burglars vulnerable because either they have to be on the sites longer (yards, ceilings, warehouses) or they are out in the open making a lot of commotion (smash and grabs). I have caught or helped catch dozens of offenders at commercial premises but struggle to recall one at a house from an alarm. That doesn't make alarms a waste of time, of course.

Security alarm responses went to hell in a handcart in this country when security companies started centralizing their monitoring centers. When your alarm goes off it goes into a queue with all the other alarms from other towns and cities. It wouldn't have been unusual for an alarm to take more than 15 minutes to be even despatched if the operators were busy. The police found the same problems when they centralized their despatch system.

B1GGLZ

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#701811 15-Oct-2012 22:01

richms: no insurance discount for unmonitored makes it pointless.

Really? My alarm is unmonitored and I get discount. The only requirement for discount was having an Alarm.

kingjj

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#701944 16-Oct-2012 10:49

In the mid 90's the Police did some extensive research and found that something like 96% of residential home alarm activations are false alarms, hence the decision was made to not respond as a matter of course to residential activations. This helped to accelerate the use of private security firms to respond to residential activations. The 90's and early 2000's were arguably the heyday for private security firms and alarm monitoring, with a noticeable decline over the last few years as technology has changed and allowed residents to monitor their own alarms. Commercial monitoring is still important and will usually garner a faster response from private security firms (as stuzzo mentioned) as well as Police as the chances of catching an offender are increased significantly.

Pock

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#702170 16-Oct-2012 17:22

B1GGLZ:
richms: no insurance discount for unmonitored makes it pointless.

Really? My alarm is unmonitored and I get discount. The only requirement for discount was having an Alarm.

Yup. There is a discount for having a professionally fitted alarm, and a further discount for having it monitored.

mattwnz

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#702176 16-Oct-2012 17:35

B1GGLZ:
richms: no insurance discount for unmonitored makes it pointless.

Really? My alarm is unmonitored and I get discount. The only requirement for discount was having an Alarm.

Same here, I get the discount just for having the alarm, and I was never askjed if it was monitored or not, for a further discount. But it probably isn't a big price difference I don't think monitoring adds anything, as there is quite a big delay in them getting to your house. Burglars are usually in and out within 10 minutes. Getting the alarm to dial to your own number is a better idea I think, where you can then phone a neighbour. It is probably better to be friendly with your neighbours so they also look after your house while you are away.

They used to give away alarm systems with a monitoring contract.

timmmay

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#702285 17-Oct-2012 06:21

I met a SafeGard rep yesterday, apparently a big firm in Wellington. The run down was:
- Bosch 8 zone system recommended ($1100 with two PIR sensors, internal/external screamer)
- 3 extra PIR sensors for full coverage, $125 each
- Smoke detector $100
- Extra internal screamer $50
- GSM kit (more practical than IP monitoring here) $300 odd from memory
- Remote activation/deactivation $375 odd from memory

It came to about $2325 for all that, or $1675 without the GSM kit and remote activation. It includes a year of free monitoring.

It seems to me that a remote and a GSM kit is something that should probably be built into a modern alarm, even if you have to pay a bit more for the base unit, I got the impression they're add on modules.

I'd really like a decent quality alarm with GSM built in that will alert me and other people when the alarm goes off. That price isn't awful for quality, but it's quite a lot for a few sensors, a siren, and a remote.

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