Fiat Coupe Club UK

Home Security system (Bingo!)

Posted By: Jim_Clennell

Home Security system (Bingo!) - 16/01/2021 17:43

Assuming all goes according to plan, Mrs C and I will be moving into a modest house of our own (well, a share of it...) in a few months.

We will be building a shed/home office in the garden and the location of the property makes it slightly vulnerable to opportunist burglars.

The time has come to research home security systems.

I think I'm mainly after CCTV, rather than alarms and I reckon 3 outdoor and 2 indoor cameras will suffice.

I'm probably leaning towards a cloud-based storage option, though the ability to store recent footage locally would not be a bad back-up option.

As ever, I'll be on a tight budget, so I'd love a bit of advice before investing.

The system doesn't need to protect us from Bond super-villains, so we won't need anything too sophisticated, but if it all integrates in a Smart Home style, so much the better.

A little online reading suggests that Wyze kit is good, but hard to get hold of in the UK at the same low prices as in the US.
I recently bought a couple of TP-Link Kasa Smart plugs, which are pretty good, but their home security equipment doesn't seem to get rave reviews. TP-Link's "even budget-er" Tapos range looks OK too, but (deliberately) won't integrate with the Kasa stuff.

I can see benefits to both battery and wired equipment as well as wired/wireless.

For reference, the house is a small, 7-yr-old, 2-bed end terrace and the shed/office will be within 20ft of the house. Cars will be parked on the drive (no garage) and it's a cul-de-sac, so any vehicle that enters has to drive past our house (I'm thinking number plates).

I know this subject was discussed a couple of years back, but I imagine tech has come on in leaps and bounds since then. Any knowledge on what is essential, how the systems are set up and what is a gimmick would be very welcome.
Posted By: bockers

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 10/02/2021 11:25

Jim
Have a watch of this video. He's a bit annoying but still informative. It may help what is a minefield. I have the Amazon Blink and it works well and have free web storage, although new customers now have to pay. I have lots of footage of foxes digging up our garden frown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBnBBS3N1xI&t=172s

Then there is the CCTV solution which seems to involve a lot of pain and expense.
Good luck!
Posted By: DaveG

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 10/02/2021 16:01

I clicked on the link expecting to see footage of foxes digging up your garden, imagine my disappointment looking at cats' ar$es instead frown

PS: long time no see, hope you and the family are well?
Posted By: Jim_Clennell

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 11/02/2021 18:44

Thanks for the linkage, Bockers. Interesting opinions and a fair bit of useful info.
I'm not sure the wake-up delay bothers me that much, but then again, if someone clouts your car as they walk past, they'll be long gone before the camera has finished yawning.
I'd much rather avoid mains power of I can, but the cost and performance arguments are quite compelling...
Still confused!
Posted By: Gunzi

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 11/02/2021 19:10

If you go for a cloud based version be sure to protect the phone cable that serves your router where it enters your home. If that is cut the cloud based security system is useless.

I live in a terrace house in the city and was sick of the cars getting bashed by people when parallel parking. We bought a Ring Stick Up Cam as we have Sonos One's and Hive heating, it keeps with the Alexa ecosystem. It sits on the 1st storey of our home looking at the cars parked below. It's good enough to make out number plates of adjacent parked cars, although moving cars you can tell make and model, but not the number plate.

£69 for battery version (not mains powered) and bought the wall mount for approx £15. Battery lasts about 5 days precovid and about 10 days during Covid. If you have a driveway I’d imagine the battery would last a hell of a lot longer. We bought a spare battery to switch out.

The night vision is decent although it's slightly harder to make out parked cars number plates.

£2.49 per month for the 1 camera subscription to Ring.

Does the job and was pretty cheap from a big company like Amazon I'm happy with it.
Posted By: Jim_Clennell

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 12/02/2021 13:27

Cheers Gunzi, it's all good info.
Posted By: Jim_Clennell

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 05/04/2021 18:54

Nearly 2 months on and the solicitors are playing a game of pedant tennis, despite us and the vendor wanting to move by Easter.
However, we're still hopeful the move will go ahead eventually.
I'm now looking favourably at the eufy 2c pro cameras and hub. A little more expensive and no cloud storage, but plenty of local capacity and acceptable quality for the local constabulary.
Posted By: barnacle

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 06/04/2021 08:10

Cheer up Jim, we hear there's a possibility that the moving company picked up our goods from store this morning and headed for the channel!

Neil
Posted By: Countrycruising

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 06/04/2021 08:38

Originally Posted by barnacle
Cheer up Jim, we hear there's a possibility that the moving company picked up our goods from store this morning and headed for the channel!

Neil


Fingers crossed thumb
Posted By: Jim_Clennell

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 06/04/2021 11:49

Best of luck, Neil, hopefully you'll soon be rummaging for things that "must be here somewhere"!
Posted By: Nigel

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 07/04/2021 05:44

Originally Posted by Jim_Clennell
now looking favourably at the eufy 2c pro cameras and hub.


I fitted a pair of these cameras after I got really tired of the delayed motion alerts on the Blink cameras (when people called at the front door, I always heard the doorbell long before I got an alert...)

Eufy quality is much better - battery life is impressive (180 days!). The image is very clear and the sound quality is pretty good too. Pricy, but worth it IMHO
Posted By: Jim_Clennell

Re: Home Security system (Bingo!) - 07/04/2021 06:47

Thanks, Nigel, good to hear positive reviews. Also good to hear from you! Hope all is well with you and yours?
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