OT - Home Security Systems
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I installed security systems for a while. It depends a lot on the house, but right now I'm using Samsung Smartthings to put it together myself. It's all wireless and allows you to do home automation too. For cameras, I got a Samsung kit on sale at Sam's that I've been pretty happy with.
I have not ventured into cameras yet. I have a wink hub 2 and an army of motion sensors around the house that assist with both automation and home security. I get alerts on my phone when motion is detected. They act as triggers for lighting around the house as well.
My only advice with cameras is keep an eye on the hidden costs that comes with the camera. Some brands require payments to their monthly service to actually record footage.
My only advice with cameras is keep an eye on the hidden costs that comes with the camera. Some brands require payments to their monthly service to actually record footage.
I say get the cheapest thing that covers the main doors and a motion detector. Then a big dog takes care of the rest
Agree. Get a camera system that has a DVR. Mine has a DVR but also includes free access from the internet.
Also, wireless cameras are still a pain. Wired are superior.
Also, wireless cameras are still a pain. Wired are superior.
I have had SimpliSafe for about a year. I like it because you buy the equipment up front and have no contract. The monitoring is only like $25 a month. I can use my phone to set it or turn it off..and I can give up to 20 pins to people, aka the maid and it texts me exactly when those people put the pin in. I’ve got a cheap WiFi camera that alerts me when there’s movement.
+1 for SimpliSafe by far the best value I could find for alarm/sensors. As far as I know they do not have any outdoor cameras though if that is something you want. I just added Arlo cameras around the outside of my house and so far they work well.
Also there is some guy that will be along in a minute that is going to tell you to move to the middle of Idaho. Just a heads up**
I have always worried about how easy it is to kick in a door. Most modern homes have a pine jamb and maybe, if the deadbolt is long enough a small section of pine 2x4, to prevent a criminal from kicking in the door. Not stopping anyone.
One day I saw a truck drive down the street with a door devil logo. Simple idea. It's about a 1/8 piece of 3"x6' steel you slip over the jamb and put about 8 screws into.
Anywho, it's legit. The most common entry point for criminal is front door, second is back, third is garage. 3 of these bad boys will give you plenty of time to load up the ole double barrel if you are home. Check it out.
https://doordevil.com
One day I saw a truck drive down the street with a door devil logo. Simple idea. It's about a 1/8 piece of 3"x6' steel you slip over the jamb and put about 8 screws into.
Anywho, it's legit. The most common entry point for criminal is front door, second is back, third is garage. 3 of these bad boys will give you plenty of time to load up the ole double barrel if you are home. Check it out.
https://doordevil.com
SimpliSafe is indeed the way to go if you have a small to medium sized home. I love it. Paid $400 (w/$15 per month monitoring) for two motion detectors that cover the entire general living space, plus entry sensors on all the perimeter windows as well as all 4 doors. This was after throwing down close to $60 per month to ADT just for 3 entry sensors plus monitoring.
Only drawback is you can’t easily set an exit delay when you leave the house but other folks are still home. You have to either open the door before arming the “home” setting, then closing it behind you officially arms the system. Or, you have to set remotely after leaving using one of the fobs that comes with the system. I do the door trick every morning when I leave for work, just because I don’t have any feedback that the system is actually armed when I try to do it remotely.
Only drawback is you can’t easily set an exit delay when you leave the house but other folks are still home. You have to either open the door before arming the “home” setting, then closing it behind you officially arms the system. Or, you have to set remotely after leaving using one of the fobs that comes with the system. I do the door trick every morning when I leave for work, just because I don’t have any feedback that the system is actually armed when I try to do it remotely.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion. I too live in the same area, have for almost 15 years now, and have never done anything more than lock my doors. An alarm system is kind of overkill. The three break-ins in my neighborhood during that time frame all involved people the homeowner knew, which probably wouldn’t have been helped by a security system.
Not popular.... Yep. Uninformed... Yep. According to these stats Flowood Mississippi has a property crime rate 45% higher than the national average.
http://www.areavibes.com/flowood-ms/crime/
For reference, there are about 6000 home burglaries per day in the US. This is roughly the same number as the number of auto accident injuries per day. So if you live in an area where there is a 45% higher property crime rate than average, it could be a fair assumption that you are more likely to have your home broken into than you are to be injured in a car wreck.
I would love to know where these crimes are occurring. I live in a neighborhood where roughly half the people work and the other half are retired. In most neighborhoods in the Brandon/Flowood area an intruder just can’t walk up and break in the front door or your house because 4 people will have reported it by then.
We also have Rankin SO regularly patrol our neighborhoods. The last “crime” committed where I live is when the nutjob on a killing spree shot the jogger on Castlewoods Boulevard after he killed his girlfriend at the vine street apartments.
I will also add that Rankin County probably has the highest number of concealed carry permits in the state, especially if that person work across the Pearl River, so the odds of a successful heist just aren’t in the criminals favor.
My advice to this guy is simple. Know your neighbors and watch their back and they will do the same for you. Or just do what most young people do and spend the money needlessly because it’s cool tech or just because their friends have one too.
ETA: after further review of your link I would probably add that those results could be skewed by the number of people that claim burglary to collect on insurance after they overextend themselves. Insurance claims won’t pay without a police report. And all this site looks at is police report numbers
We also have Rankin SO regularly patrol our neighborhoods. The last “crime” committed where I live is when the nutjob on a killing spree shot the jogger on Castlewoods Boulevard after he killed his girlfriend at the vine street apartments.
I will also add that Rankin County probably has the highest number of concealed carry permits in the state, especially if that person work across the Pearl River, so the odds of a successful heist just aren’t in the criminals favor.
My advice to this guy is simple. Know your neighbors and watch their back and they will do the same for you. Or just do what most young people do and spend the money needlessly because it’s cool tech or just because their friends have one too.
ETA: after further review of your link I would probably add that those results could be skewed by the number of people that claim burglary to collect on insurance after they overextend themselves. Insurance claims won’t pay without a police report. And all this site looks at is police report numbers
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A home security system is not frivolous spending. A Yeti bucket is frivolous spending.**
This is especially true in a high crime area like Flowood. Alarm systems can save you an average of 10-15% on your home owners insurance, so a big portion of the cost is offset. According to a study conducted by Electronic Security Association (ESA), 83% of burglars would first determine if a house is fitted with a security alarm before breaking in. And 60% of burglars would avoid homes with security systems.
I am a cynic myself. I love to talk **** about people who buy stupid stuff, like a $70 bucket. A home security system doesn't fall into this category. It's in the smoke detector and seatbelt category.
This is especially true in a high crime area like Flowood. Alarm systems can save you an average of 10-15% on your home owners insurance, so a big portion of the cost is offset. According to a study conducted by Electronic Security Association (ESA), 83% of burglars would first determine if a house is fitted with a security alarm before breaking in. And 60% of burglars would avoid homes with security systems.
I am a cynic myself. I love to talk **** about people who buy stupid stuff, like a $70 bucket. A home security system doesn't fall into this category. It's in the smoke detector and seatbelt category.
Even with those stats, you're looking being the victim of a property crime maybe once every 30 years. Per Bureau of Justice stats (link), the median loss is only $600 and the average is only $2,000. So, even if a home security system could prevent 100% of crime (it can't), the risk you're covering is only about $70 per year.
Well I’m quite happy in my “high crime rate area” of Flowood and I still make runs to town and don’t even lock my front door when I am away unless the wife and kids are home. And I have never had anything stolen. The day I feel the need to buy an alarm system is the day I need to be thinking about moving.
I hope you are trolling me. If so, bravo. If not you are living in a bubble and your ability to reason is affected by the methane from your stinky farts that are trapped by said bubble.
So the statistics are from the FBI uniform crime report, which as you stated is derived from police reports. This is because the criminals do not self report.... Even if they're was better data available, your argument doesn't hold water. If insurance fraud is an unrecognized flaw in the data, it would apply to all cities. Unless you can explain why it would happen in Flowood only.
So what I see is a city (Flowood) that is extremely low in violent crime. But high in property crimes. Thats okay. It could be the other way around. This would suggest if you can't justify a few hundred dollars for the home alarm, the residents should sell the concealed carry weapon that is extremely unlikely to ever shoot anyone other than themselves, and buy a home alarm.
I will add that the alarm is a personal preference and I would not argue against not having one if that is your choice. But this started when it was suggested that it is "overkill." It's an extremely practical home expenditure. It provides peace of mind and protection for much less than most spend on coffee.
Dude! Do you even Pinelake? That place is full of 17’ers trying to outspend their neighbor with money they don’t have. Hartsfield doesn’t pay for itself! When the tuition is due, something’s got to disappear...
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A fence with a gate that locks and an alarm system that makes a **** ton of noise will suffice 99.9% of the time.
I bought a system through Pennington and Trim and have them monitor it. Sensors on the doors and windows where the motion detector can't reach. I didn't really find it all that necessary but my wife wanted it and I didn't feel like that was an argument worth having. I managed to talk her into getting the wireless Honeywell thermometer because I wanted something cool but unnecessary as well.
I bought a system through Pennington and Trim and have them monitor it. Sensors on the doors and windows where the motion detector can't reach. I didn't really find it all that necessary but my wife wanted it and I didn't feel like that was an argument worth having. I managed to talk her into getting the wireless Honeywell thermometer because I wanted something cool but unnecessary as well.
A lot of these home security systems can be coupled with a home automation setup, thus expanding the purpose of the equipment. Even if I can safely leave my door unlocked 24/7 (I'm in a low-crime neighborhood in Ridgeland, but still think that is dumb), having a home security setup would be of interest to me.
And for those that don't need the equipment immediately, you can always wait out for a price drop and snag a great deal. Just circle a few brands of interest and keep an eye on them. Setup price alerts using slickdeals, IFTTT, and Google and you can put the searching on auto-pilot.
And for those that don't need the equipment immediately, you can always wait out for a price drop and snag a great deal. Just circle a few brands of interest and keep an eye on them. Setup price alerts using slickdeals, IFTTT, and Google and you can put the searching on auto-pilot.
Don't try to use logic here. Some people just love their technology and their security system helps them feel safe. If you and your neighbors have no history of break-ins, then the investment is frivolous considering that your home insurance will cover most of your costs in the unlikely event that your home is invaded. The return on investment is not there. If you want the system because of personal preference, that's fine, but there is no need to imply that is a life saving measure like smoke detectors or seatbelts...that's just silly. To each his own.
Well, if you are talking about paying for private school... I stand corrected. I would put nothing past people willing to spend 10 grand per year for private school on a 2nd grader that still eats a booger now and then. If you can justify that, the moral compass has no issue with insurance fraud.*
Even in a small city, there is going to be wide variation based on area that aren't picked up by city-wide statistics. Plus, the virtually universal tendency is for people to overestimate how likely they are to be a victim of crime, because memories of crimes in their neighborhood tend to be relatively vivid and standout amongst all the time that nothing happened.
If somebody tells me they don't need to lock their door, I tend to believe them.
Somewhat OT, I once left town for a three day weekend with my front door open. Not unlocked, but wide open. Friend grabbed something from the house after I left and she didn't realize you have to pull the front door all the way shut. Door came back open and stood wide open for three days. As far as I can tell, nobody went in nor bothered to check why a door was wide open for several days. This wasn't a particularly nice neighborhood, probably right at middle class, but real middle class in Mississippi, as in household incomes generally in the $40k's-$60k's, but also probably a decent number of single parent households. Plenty of vehicular and foot traffic. Surprised the hell out of me that we didn't at least have teenage idiots go in and cause trouble. Not really here nor there except to point out that while crime happens, for a lot of neighborhoods, even when you're asking for it, it's not about to happen at any time.
The standard stained glass insert in most people’s front entry door can be pushed in with less than 5 lb of pressure. Don’t believe me? Walk up to one and with one finger, right in the center of the insert, and press in slightly. Then they have a 2.5 x 5 hole to simply step right through. Reinforced door jams would be useless for those.
When we bought our house that was one of the first things I noticed. Before closing I had the builder replace the insert with a tempered glass one.
When we bought our house that was one of the first things I noticed. Before closing I had the builder replace the insert with a tempered glass one.
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i got a Samsung kit from Sam’s too and couldn’t be more unhappy. Never worked out of the box and I’ve sent off the DVR box 3x and now I’m sending them everything including cameras. I’m glad to hear somebody’s works because mine has been a total shitshow
OK. Here’s your synopsis. If you are scared of people then by all means get yourself an alarm system. Because no one is going to break in to your house in the 39047. Keep in mind though that most alarm systems will be obsolete about 3 months after installation. Which is probably still a month longer than most people’s willingness to actually use their new purchase before they get bored with it. If you just want to spend money on something unnecessarily, I would suggest buying a DJI Firewheel 550 drone kit and build and customize it yourself. You will get far more enjoyment out of it, and if you put a camera on it, will be far more likely to catch a burglar breaking into your house.
Question for those who believe home security is frivolous spending: how many hand guns do you own? I have a few myself but have never used them for their intended purpose.
Stained glass? Still? Man, time to update.**
Very true. I have not lived in Mississippi for a while so this setup is foreign to me, but I would not worry about any of this if I had a big section of glass in my front door. In that case I would probably not lock the door because there's no stopping anyone from coming in, might as well not have to pick up the glass.
Very true. I have not lived in Mississippi for a while so this setup is foreign to me, but I would not worry about any of this if I had a big section of glass in my front door. In that case I would probably not lock the door because there's no stopping anyone from coming in, might as well not have to pick up the glass.
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