Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - New home, need advice.

I just closed on a house and we are planning on moving in next week. The house is prewired for alarm, all the wires going into the attic space close to the AC unit. The house is two story with a walk thru attic. I am not new to electronic or wiring, but have zero alarm experience. I need suggestions on a nice alarm system that can grow some. I am thinking about cutting out monitoring, just dont see the point in paying $25 a month for someone to call the police. Is there an alarm system that can call my car phone or pager. Or would you suggest paying the alarm company to monitor ? Just seems like a waste.

Snoop,
Frist, congrats on the purchase of your home. Also congrats on it also being pre-wired, half of the work is done for you, most other new homes are not pre-wired. As you will soon see being a diy'er life will be simpler being that it is pre-wired. As far as your question, about monitoring vs. non-monitoring the real queston is that monitored systems do call authorities when an event occurs as apposed to comming home to mon-monitored and finding that you've had a break-in and then notifying the authorities. Of course some companies are somewhat outragous on their monitoring fees and some are reasonable. But if you are comfortable with it not notifying anyone, then a good diy system is recommended. Other Industry professionals in this forum(Safewatch-Brandon, MrRonFl, among others) have really, really great recommendations on systems that are very diy friendly and some of those systems do have pager notification or the ability to attach a dialer to call choosen telephone numbers. As far as my recommendations, I'm an experienced tech with a company that monitors their accounts. But mainly do your homework and coose a reputable company and/or products and good luck.

-- Troy

First of all, you have to decide what you want the system to be able to do.

Your prewire is probably all homerun which is good for giving you flexibility. You want pager output. I like monitoring, your needs may vary. If you are away for extended time spans, a monitored system can be worthwhile for the peace of mind. If you just want to harden the target, especially if you have good neighbors, pager only will do nicely.

Most of the brand name systems are pretty expandable. The main question is whether you want to use options like wireless keys, x-10 connection, and a few other options.

From what little homework I have done the Ademco brand seems worthwhile. It even seems to do some things that i did not even think an alarm system would do.

The Ademco Vista panels are excellent panels - but they can be difficult to program, even for professionals who have been working on them for years. DSC is about the same, maybe a little easier to work with. But, I have to agree with MrRon - you absolutely cannot beat the ITI Concord line when it comes to ease of programming.

As for the options and add-ons - most of the systems have about the same expandibility options, just figure out what you want to do with the system and make sure the panel you get supports it.

Good luck!

I see alot of these suckers are going wireless, will it affect my wireless networking ? Also what is the difference between the ITI Concorde and the Express model ?

No, it won't affect wireless networks - however, some of the cheaper systems (read: Linear, Visonic, etc.) do not use proprietary frequencies (and even some of the professional systems) as ITI does (319.5Mhz as opposed to 433Mhz.) So, it is possible for the signals to get crossed from <i>some</i> devices - but I have never had this problem with ITI or Ademco. I simply don't use DSC wireless - it's not reliable.

There are several differences between the Concord Hybrid (which includes the RF Integrated systems) and the Concord Express systems - the main thing being expandability and add-on options. The Concord Express does not (and will not) support X-10, Voice Annunciation, and a few small other features. It also only supports up to 24 zones total (hardwire or wireless zones.) The Concord line supports up to 72 zones hardwire or wireless and X-10 - as well as Voice Annunciation and some other features.

Take a look at www.itii.com if you want to read up on the systems.

Good luck!

If i put in the Concorde system and use like a paging feature would a place like ADT monitor it, or am i stuck monitoring it myself after that. The reason i am big on picking my system and wiring it myself is that i do not like the idea of some moron roaming in my house screwing crap up. I COULD get a good installer but with my luck the guy will be an idiot and screw my house up. Also the generic system a company like ADT may give me might not have the features i want.