Aftermarket Home Security System

[poertner_1274]

I'm wondering if anyone has used an aftermarket security system in their home? I am deciding if it is something I want to invest some money and time looking into. I probably don't need the professoinal systems with monthly monitoring, just something that will give my wife and I peace of mind.
So being aftermarked I'm assuming it would have to be a wireless setup, as I don't want to go cutting holes in my walls to get everything installed.

Thanks for looking, and I look forward to hearing your results.

 

[poertner_1274]

bump...
Nobody has used an aftermarket home security system before?

 

[s3xynanigoat]

I have installed one in my previous home, wireless technology was not out at that time so I can't really help you in that area. The one I had worked great, it was basically just an alarm hooked to all the doors and the ground level windows. I did not bother with the second story windows.

 

[Thrudd]

The aftermarket systems that are sold for consumer use only are to be leary of.

There are enough suppliers out there who do not shy away from selling a commercial unit to an end user directly. Those commercial systems are not expensive and the technology is 1970s at best. The only high tech gizmo in mondern systems are the voice annunciator systems and the cellphone dialers, both of which are add on options for any system.

Wireless sensors are not, wireless unless they run on batteries and then you have to replace the batteries on schedule or else....

Running home security sensors uses the same wire technology as the phone systems in a house. If you are creative in how you hide phone wires then you should have no problem with a wired system.

Oh and always, always, always use a 3 wire system so that if you have a sensor failure or a wire break then you know about it. (aka rodent chew issue)

Also always check your backup power for the system regularly, just like you do with your smoke alarms.

The variety of the various types of sensors out there, pluss the ones you develop yourself, can make for very unobtrusive security setups.

Everything from photocells to a clapper on a timer and set on sensitive.