House Security

In the 40 years that I have owned this house there has never been a burglary.  The only thing that has ever been removed from my property was an old wheel barrow that was stolen shortly before I moved back into the house after returning from the circumnavigation.  This is remarkable given that the house was always predictably empty when I was at work and I had guard dog.  Nevertheless I have decided to beef up the house security as part of the renovation effort.

RAC PIR Security

The RAC (Royal Automobile Club) now offers home security as well as car and house insurance.  Yesterday they installed one of their systems in he house.  There are now 4 motion detectors inside of the house and one covering the rear porch.  There are also two alarms: and external one that also flashes a blue light and an internal "screamer" with a piercing sound that will encourage an intruder to leave quickly.  The alarms will shut down after 5 minutes but will keep going off as long as motion is detected.  There is a standard key pad for arming and disarming the system.  There is also a reed switch at the front door and I must use only that door after arming the system to leave the house.

RAC controller at top of kitchen cupboard

RAC Keypad

Keypad

The security is monitored.  If one PIR (ie motion detector) goes off then the monitoring center in Adelaide begins calling people in my notification list (starting with myself).  If two or more detectors go off then the monitoring center knows that there is definitely an intruder in the house and calls the police before calling the persons on my list.  I can also give authorization to have a private security person visit the house when a alarm has gone off, at a cost of $100 per visit.  So, for example, I can authorize the security company to send somebody to the house if an alarm has gone off while I am overseas on a trip.  I can either have them check the house from the outside or make an arrangement for them to go into the house.

I now have an app in my Android telephone where I can see the state of the system and arm/disarm through the telephone.

Now I could have gone down to the electronic shop and purchased a DYI system for around $600.  It all looked OK until I started asking questions.  I would have to purchase and maintain my own SIM card for the system.  The claimed range of the PIR's was only about 4 meters.  At all cost I had to avoid false alarms, and I was not confident that an off-the-shelf system would be able to deliver that level of reliability.  And of course such a system would not be monitored.

The RAC system components are all manufactured in the USA.  The claimed PIR range is 15 meters.  Every component is automatically checked every 12 hours for functionality.  The controller and key pad are hard wired for electrical power, with rechargeable battery backup.  The batteries in the other components will last about 2 years and both the central monitors and myself will be notified of low battery levels.  Brett the RAC representative assured me that PIR failures and false alarms are very rare.  We'll see about that, but RAC is a reputable company and will always be within reach if I start getting problems.

The system cost $2400 plus $400 pa for the monitoring service.

Camera Security

I had asked Brett of RAC about what they offered in camera surveillance.  He gave me an estimate of around $1500 for the base unit plus $750 for each camera.  This seemed high and I figured that I could do better by putting together my own system, knowing that I would be relying on the RAC system for the basic security of the house.

Fortunately JB HiFi had a sale of 30% off on security systems, running until the next Sunday.  That gave me 3 days in which to make a decision.  I purchased Swann "WiFi Security Kit" (model 460KH2) for about $483.  It is a 2-camera system with the capability of adding 2 more cameras.  The cameras require house power, which is what I wanted because I did not want to deal with the effort and expense of regularly changing the batteries on each camera.  But electrical power is not a problem because I have so many power outlets all over the house.  The data transmission to the controller is wireless, meaning that I don't have to have cables spanning the house.  Communication between the camera controller and my router can be either wireless or via ethernet cable.  I have placed the controller next to the router and connected them with an ethernet cable.  The controller has 500 Gb of storage for recording.

To set up the system I moved my small TV set onto my office desk and connected it to the camera controller via an HDMI cable.  Stephen gave me a lot of technical support in working my way through the traps and gotchas of the setup and on the second day I had the system up and running.  Stephen then helped me set up web access to the system and soon he was having a look into my house via the security cameras.  One camera is on the dining room wall covering the kitchen, through the hall, and into the office.  The other camera is in the lounge, covering the front door and through the bedroom door.  

Monitorin cameras directly via TV and though the internet via laptop

Wireless Camera

The cameras look very, very good.  They offer a range of resolutions and adjust themselves very nicely to dark conditions, switching to infra red in very dark conditions.  They can pick up and record sound and detect motion.  We set up and tested the email facility so that when a camera detects motion a snapshot is emailed to me.  I've been so impressed with the cameras that yesterday afternoon I shelled out another $300 for 2 more cameras.  I'll set one up in the verandah to cover my fuse box (which will be padlocked) and front door.  I'll set up the other one in the back porch, covering the vulnerable French doors. 

The accompanying photo shows me monitoring the house via a direct HDMI connection to the TV and via the internet to my laptop.  The left camera covers the lounge with the front door on the right and the bedroom door on the left.  The right camera covers the kitchen and into the office.  If you look closely you'll see me through the office door taking that photo.  The "video loss" at the bottom of the screens indicate that those cameras have not been installed.

Today I'll have a go at setting up an app so that I can see the camera images from my Android telephone.  I'll probably also purchase a small TV monitor so that I can easier manage the camera system and, for example, see who has rung my door bell.

My principal goal of this camera effort is to be able to look into the house if an alarm goes off.  During my visits overseas I will still be able to look at the camera images via the web, but I'll have to rely on email  to be notified of alarms because cell phone roaming charges are prohibitively expensive.  In that case I'll have to rely on the friends on my security list to peer into the house.

It's been a tough three days with a steep learning curve.