Not very long ago having a home security system required expensive equipment, extensive wiring, and an outside company to install the system and monitor your home for you. Usually, this was a system that didn’t even include indoor or outdoor cameras since they were too expensive for most people to afford.
And even if they could, they couldn’t monitor their cameras, alarms or sensors from a mobile device. But today, DIY wireless home security systems are the norm with a growing number of companies offering a variety of affordable easy-to-install security packages depending on your specific needs.
Installing a wireless DIY (do-it-yourself) security system allows you to add individual components easily at any time, to monitor your own system on multiple devices or choose the level of outside monitoring you want, and to simply remove the system and take it with you in the event that you move.
Selecting the Right Security System For You!
Unless you are already able to purchase a comprehensive system for your home, it’s much better to start small and add to your system over time as opposed to waiting to buy it all at once. With only outside cameras or only sensors on the doors, you will know if someone were to enter your home.
Plus, as I allude to below, having the security company’s logo on window stickers (and other ways of notifying passersby that you have a security system), will deter potential intruders as they have no idea how extensive your system is.
So, start with the most important items you can afford and add to it from there. A typical start-up package will include a few sensors for main entrances and/or windows and a motion detector placed in the largest traffic area in your home. From there you may want to add a camera or two, such as a doorbell camera, one for the back patio, or even one or two inside.
Of course, some people choose to start with a doorbell camera or some other kind of camera and build from there. It’s a matter of what works best for your home and your family’s needs. Remember, this stuff goes with you if you move and it’s easy to install or uninstall.
Installation For Dummies
Not to oversimplify the do-it-yourself installation aspect of these systems, but most of them are amazingly easy to install and uninstall. Some products will not even require tools to set up. Within minutes, you can have your DIY wireless home security system installed, armed and ready to protect your home.
More on this at a later time as we look more closely at a few of the most awesome home security systems on the market.
Monitor and Control Your System From Anywhere!!!
In your home, you can have an “at home” setting that doesn’t send you alerts or set off alarms every time you pass through the living room or check on your kids during the night but will alert you if someone comes to any outside door that is equipped with a camera or passes any other outside camera.
An alarm could also be triggered with the opening of any external door or window on which a security sensor is installed.
In addition to your “at home” setting, you would have an “away” setting that would activate all parts of your security system while no one is home. There is an almost unlimited number of settings that could be arranged depending on the manufacturer and package you choose.
Although you can control your wireless home security system from inside your home, you can also control your system from anywhere on the planet. See, it’s very likely that you now carry your “home” phone in your pocket or purse (since most people use cell phones these days).
And in the same way that you’re able to conduct complex personal or professional business from your smartphone or laptop, you can monitor your wireless home security system on the same mobile device or laptop?
You and/or any other family member or roommate (of your choosing) can monitor the system by receiving alerts on your mobile device or laptop. Depending on which system you choose, those alerts could include the following:
- Someone at your front door….delivery? intruder? ????????
- Motion in the vicinity of any indoor or outdoor camera (which you could then view on your device)
- Motion inside your home sensed by a motion detector
- The opening of any door or window
- The breaking of glass
- Dangerous levels or carbon monoxide
- Smoke/Fire
- Water
Be Smart About Home Security – Tips and Ideas
There is a clear difference between being alerted and being alarmed. With today’s high-tech home security gear, if you were to be alerted by a security monitoring company every time the mail carrier was near your house, or when a package was being delivered, or when any number of events would trigger movement in or around your house, you’d have little time for anything other than responding to the monitoring service’s calls.
That volume of alerts would drive anyone crazy. Fortunately, with the DIY home security system, not only is the installation DIY but so is most, if not all, of the monitoring.
Primarily, you want to know when to contact the authorities and when there’s nothing to be alarmed about. But never take chances or put your family at risk. Certainly, if you are notified of an intrusion into your home, you will be alarmed, and you should be. And that is the time to alert the authorities of a possible intruder at your home.
You can also set up certain criteria with many home security companies stating the circumstances where you want them to automatically respond. This would take you out of the equation if something were to happen and you were out-of-pocket. The monitoring company would respond according to what you have set up with them.
An example would be if your system were on an “away” setting and an exterior door were to be entered without the person entering having the code to disarm the security system. The monitoring service would be immediately on top of the situation and dispatch the authorities to investigate the situation. And if you have cameras, there would be a back-up potentially revealing the identity of the intruder.
Here are two nearly fool-proof deterrents to nefarious activity at your home as proclaimed by law enforcement and notorious burglars:
- Leave some lights on outside. It’s cheap insurance. Every intruder has choices of homes to invade. If 10 homes in their neighborhood of choice are dark and 3 have some lights on around the exterior (even low lights), they target one of the 10 that are dark. It’s almost 100%. Unless you house the Mona Lisa or some huge ticket item that is known, your home is not a usual target for thieves and burglars if you have a light or two on the outside.
- Purchase the cheap flower bed signs and window stickers offered by your security company. They will state something like “This Home Protected By XYZ Security”. Some people have cameras. Some have only an entry sensor or two. Some only have inside motion detectors. Seems more and more people have a comprehensive security system with today’s affordable DIY wireless home security systems, but the scum bags wanting to get into your house don’t know the difference and aren’t willing to take that risk when the house down the street has no lights on and no apparent security system. It’s an inexpensive way of letting intruders know you have something in place to bust them on the spot, or worst case, identify them later.
Hopefully, you never have to deal with the trauma of a break-in, theft, or any other unfortunate situations, but if so, you are light years ahead of the game with a DIY wireless home security system.
Conclusion
Never has it been so affordable to protect your home with your own DIY home security and alarm system. The components available to protect your home have never been better, and it’s never been easier to install a comprehensive system without paying for expensive professional installation. And the best part, it will look like a professional installation. Save Money and do it yourself!
You’re able to monitor your system from your mobile device. You can keep an eye on things even when you aren’t there. You can decide when an alert is nothing to worry about and when a call to the authorities is in order. And you can have it set up to automatically alert police when certain alerts are made, such as a back door being entered by someone who doesn’t have the code to disarm the system.
If you need to start small, then start small. Buy the most important components that make sense for your needs and add to it as you go. If you move, within a few minutes, you will have your entire system in a box ready to go with you to your new home. Don’t’ put off securing your home and family. The key is to start now.
This is very, very good advice. Yes, often times, all a person has to do to avoid a home invasion is make their home a less appealing target than the one down the street. (Not that you want your neighbors to get robbed…)
And starting right away with what you can do and adding on to it as you are able is spot on. GG
Thanks for your comments. A homeowner can start small with their systems and upgrade as funds become available. Meanwhile, we should all make use of the make-sense things we can do to to enhance our family’s security until all of the elements of a system are in place, just as the philosophy you were referring to.
Thanks again!