my wife and i just bought a house. it is prewired for security, but no security system is installed.

if anyone has any experience with different kinds of systems/providers could give their opinions, that would be great.

anyone used ADT? Time Warner? others?

how about the x10 "do it yourself" kind?

thanks.

7/24/2006 9:46:49 AM

i have ADT, and we get it on a large discount since the wife works for the parent company (tyco)... we're very happy with the service and the hardware... just make sure it's laid out well and you have the right components in the right places as that'll make all the difference in the world.

7/24/2006 10:02:23 AM

We have a large dog.

Unless you live in a sketchy area, I see security systems as a waste of money. In all seriousness, if some one did break in, A dog would do more to scare off an intruder than an alarm, as long as it's not one of those yappy ass barking cats.

7/24/2006 11:49:10 AM

The advantage to a security system though is that it can automatically be wired to police/fire/medical help.

7/24/2006 11:55:25 AM

yeah, it would certainly be beneficial if there was a fire and no one was home to call the FD.

Me, personally, I'm too cheap.

7/24/2006 11:58:28 AM

i think it's only worth it if the deduction on insurance is more than you pay monthly

7/24/2006 12:03:58 PM

I too am a cheap bastard. My house came prewired as well but $25/month sounded crazy to me. I didn't have one at all until my Dewalt drill and Laptop were stolen out of my work truck 10 feet from my front door.

I went to http://www.smarthomeusa.com and got the GE NetworkX system. I've been very happy with it. Right now I just have it setup to call my cellphone, then my work cell phone if it goes off. No voice messages or anything. Pretty easy to tell if it goes off because my house doesn't usually call my cell phone. They have dialers that do a better job. I spent a couple hundred and some change up front but haven't had any problems. This same system is also used frequently in comerical systems.

http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Security/networkx/
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Security/networkx/Networkx-fastpacks/Item/NX-8-FP-8/

7/24/2006 1:18:51 PM

i've got the networkx system too.

great. no monitoring fees.

still gets a insurance discount.

oh yeah bitches.

7/24/2006 2:13:41 PM

our main reason was that I work 24 hour shifts 10 nights a month and the wife is home essentially alone and we're in a more rural area where the FD and SO takes a bit longer to get there, so it's nothing to have to pay for the peace of mind that I have when I'm not home. We still have to get a couple more sensors added for the garage but as for the house we have smoke in the living areas, heat (rate of rise) in the attic, burgler and medical. being in the public safety world they do get annoying to go to false ones, but if only once it works for what it's meant for than it's worth it to me tenfold

7/24/2006 3:05:35 PM

seotaji and cornbread - how much did you spend on the entire system?

7/24/2006 3:07:30 PM

i'm a little worried about motion sensors since our damned cat might set those off

7/24/2006 3:14:40 PM

you should be able to have settings for stay or away... for example when the dogs are in the house it's in stay mode where the motion detectors are not active, but the doors/windows are. they do say however that the motion detectors can be set so they are not sensitive enough for a cat or small dog to trigger them.

7/24/2006 3:32:26 PM

You can have it bypass certain zones but a german shepard sized dog who jumped his gate didn't set my motion detector off but me walking past it one day sure did. They are all pretty much pet freindly so I guess you only have to worry if the umpa-lumpas break in your house. I still need to get a glass break sensor and expand wireless to some windows and such.

Total price I paid was around $220 with one of those starter packs an extra keyboard and some sensors. Oh yeah don't get the plunger type door sensors unless you plan to mount the sensor on the hinge side door jam.

What I like most about the GE NetworkX is it's expandability to more zones, wireless, cellemetry, x10 and plain old relay outputs as well.

Oh and my insurance premium only went down like $17/year monitoring it myself.
You can download the software to program them from their website but you'll either need to buy a cable or figure their cable configuration out.

[Edited on July 24, 2006 at 9:01 PM. Reason : oh]

7/24/2006 8:59:54 PM