House Security - alarms

I suggest you just get a simple alarm with a box on the house if you are not tech savvy. I have one and I have a contract with an alarm company. I pay £70 a year, they do an annual service and replace the battery every five years which is included in the service charge. Also, should there be a problem I have access to a 24 hour call out engineer and as the phone number is displayed on the box, my neighbour could call them out if it kept going off and I was out.

We installed the Ring alarm system at mums yesterday with three floodlit security lights with motion detectors and a camera door bell. We are paying £8 a month for their app sp we have live view and recorded shots. But it was not easy to set up using the app and we are having teething problems with one of the motion detectors. We chose this system so we can monitor her house from our homes to protect mum ( she has Alzeimers ) from cold callers and scammers, also make sure she gets home safely after her daily walk to a local shop.

It’s something I think about as well, we were burgled a few years ago, and as my husbands sometimes away, I’ve never felt really safe since.

We have good locks on the main doors, but I know they wouldn’t stop a determined burglar, I’m just worried the cat would set off a sensor, and frighten me out of my wits!

We have an alarm system and CCTV with several cameras around the outside of the house, we still see people come on to the drive and try to get into the car. They are either incredibly stupid or do not fear getting caught. We have put up warning signs stating 24 hour CCTV recording so now I am assuming they either can't read or do not understand English.

Alarms can be adjusted to allow for pet movement in the house.

Sara65 You can get pet-friendly sensors. I had my sensors changed so I can set the alarm but my cat can still have the run of the house. They have been fine and it's been a few years now.

We have had professionally installed alarm systems in both our previous house and our current home. Nearly 40 years in all and we have had no problems. It is serviced annually and batteries replaced as necessary. We did at one point have remote monitoring but it was expensive and when there was an attempted break-in. The neighbours responded far faster than the monitoring service.

The mjority of break-ins are opportunist. No-one is going to target you and smash doors down unless they know you have something worth stealing.

We had two break-ins before we installed the alarms and have had two attempted break-ins since (the last one was over 20 years ago). None of them happened when we were in and not much was stolen as we had nothing of value in the house to be stolen. So I have never worried about it.

My alarm is a professionally installed one and has bee problem free for 20 years now. I have pets and that's never been an issue.

Like Monica we have had professionally installed burglar alarms in both our previous and current home. It gives us peace of mind. Most people think they don't have anything of great value in their houses but when you add things up it is surprising what it all comes to. Our installer says it is amazing that people won't spend a few hundred pounds to protect perhaps a few thousand pounds of belongings. A few thousand yes easily computers, jewellery, furniture, garden tools just to name a few.

harrigran
A lot of people put up dummy alarms because they're cheaper. Ditto dummy CCTV
If they're successful in stealing a car they're away in less than a minute so they chance it.

We had a nasty break in earlier this year.
We have CCTV and an alarm, I’m ashamed to say the alarm wasn’t on.
It was a targeted burglary and the Police said the perpetrators would have continued even if the alarm had been activated.
The insurance company paid out but be warned they often don’t pay if the alarm isn’t on!

Thank you, everyone.
Really appreciate your responses.
Sounds like many of you have alarms that are not attached to app on your phone.... that’s what I want ( I think!)... I cant cope with too much technology!

I have my mothers security system connected to an app on my iPhone and iPad. Although the initial setup can be a tad confusing especially if several people are linked up to the system - in my case, my brother and sister are also connected. You will need to check with your broadband provider that your connection is good enough to support the number of cameras you want before you go ahead, each camera needs a certain amount of download speed, I googled the requirements but cannot remember them now!

Also if you want to save the camera footage or view things retrospectively, you will need to pay a monthly fee for the app ( if using the popular Ring setup) as you only get live views for free. We decided to subscribe and I think it is worth the £8 a month as we got a discount on our cameras and I have used the historic data to check a few incidents.

You will need to carefully consider where you plan to site the cameras as even though you choose what levels of motions you want each camera to detect, they are still very sensitive. One of mums needs relocating as it views the back door and side path but is constantly activated by the steam from her boiler outlet!

Good luck in deciding what to buy.

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If you have an alarm system fitted make sure it has a noise that goes off in the house as well as outside . Also fit panic buttons at front door and your bedroom so that that sets the alarm off too . you can deactivate it if it is a false alarm but good to have. Have a spy hole in your front door and a chain. we never leave the house without putting the alarm on though we are not in a high crime area . It only takes a minute and well worth it .