Advice On Burglar Alarm Please

[matthew.brough]

Thank you very much for the very detailed answers.

 

I admit this is very new territory for me so I am thankful for your advice.  Please could you tell me what you mean by a monitoring station?  By this do you mean a monthly payment monitoring scheme or like a PC somewhere that I would monitor myself? When you say monitoring station I picture a security guard sitting back on a chair with their feet on the table keeping an eye on a grid of monitors eating crisps - or it just could be that I watch too many films ) 

 

Sorry for these simplistic questions, just trying to get my head around it all, its a minefield with all the options available.

Monitoring centre is a very secure building where alarm dispatchers sit and wait for alarms to pop up and then an action is taken to that alarm. See example below from my own monitoring station. These do incur a subscription but this can be quite low. You have been watching too many films, the alarms only pop up on the screen when something triggers, in your case the pir when the alarm is set.

 

Your correct it is a minefield but ask away. We are here to help

[GalaxyGuy]

Paul, as suggested, the Galaxy internal PSTN dialer cannot be configured to dial your phone (with the exception of SMS via TAP, but I wouldn't advise that).

 

As far as installation goes, there are hundreds of DIY'ers who have successfully fitted Galaxy panels - it's far from rocket science. There's plenty of help on various forums (including this one).

 

Also, as far as messaging goes with the Galaxy range, there are other add-on options such as GSM and IP modules which enable DIY based self monitoring via SMS/Voice/E-mail.

 

If you do decide to go ahead with a DIY install, I would suggest using the Galaxy G2 range for a general domestic purposes.  It's cheap as chips and very good quality.  It doesn't support the cameras, but you'd probably be better off with a separate camera system (like suggested above). The Galaxy camera detectors will double the price of your system!

[matthew.brough]

 

As far as installation goes, there are hundreds of DIY'ers who have made a complete screw up of fitting Galaxy panels -

I agree

[matthew.brough]

www.securitywarehouse.co.uk

[Paul Lewinski]

So do I understand this correctly, the Galaxy G2 can be used as a 'stand-alone' alarm, or it can be used in conjunction with taking out a monthly contract with a monitoring company?

 

I was actually trying to avoid paying a monthly fee which is why I was originally looking to monitor it myself.  Are there any options for self monitoring out there that work well?

 

I think I need to keep it as a simple system for now. It will be wired to the consumer unit  and would have 4 PIR sensors (two downstairs, two upstairs), two door sensors (front and back).  Would need aa keypad and at least a couple of phobs. Then later on I could expand it and add features.

 

With this in mind, do you think the Galaxy G2 would be suitable for this, or would it be overkill?

[matthew.brough]

you recommend them then?

Funny enough as I posted the link, yes

So do I understand this correctly, the Galaxy G2 can be used as a 'stand-alone' alarm, or it can be used in conjunction with taking out a monthly contract with a monitoring company?

Correct

I was actually trying to avoid paying a monthly fee which is why I was originally looking to monitor it myself.  Are there any options for self monitoring out there that work well?

I think most of the self monitoring systems are pants to be honest. The question is, how devastated would you be if the alarm triggered and the message never got through to you. If you are prepared to take your chances, self monitoring is the way to go. If you want the assurance it will work and if theres an issue someone will let you know then an ARC is the way to go. The cost of proper monitoring has become so cheap now makes the self mon ideas look a bit unattractive.

With this in mind, do you think the Galaxy G2 would be suitable for this, or would it be overkill?

Perfect fit for both features and price.

[GalaxyGuy]

I think most of the self monitoring systems are pants to be honest. The question is, how devastated would you be if the alarm triggered and the message never got through to you. If you are prepared to take your chances, self monitoring is the way to go. If you want the assurance it will work and if theres an issue someone will let you know then an ARC is the way to go. The cost of proper monitoring has become so cheap now makes the self mon ideas look a bit unattractive.

 

 

For keyholder based response, the end result is pretty much the same with SelfMon, but at 1/10th of the ongoing cost and probably more than 1/10th of the initial install cost - not to mention no binding contract. If you only have the ability to look at a list of contacts and attempt to contact them, then this can be automated.  The only difference is where you can contact a separate local entity to attend, and with a self installed system, you cannot.  Adding in police response increases the price to a point of not being comparable with self install.

 

OP,  buy your G2 system from Ebay.  A company called source-security sells them for around £30 new.  The keypads sell new also for around £30.  An IP module will cost you around £45 and self monitor over IP for £1 a month with no contract.

 

Self monitoring is growing in this country - especially now that IP based systems can give up to the minute path status, while applying machine learning to determine how and when to contact you. Why pay Matt to sit at a desk eating crisps waiting for your call to come in...

 

And Matt, as to your mis-quote above: Equally, on this site, we have seen many cases of poor professional installs.  I've seen many instances of poor installation from both DIY and professional.

[matthew.brough]

Not sure I share your view. If you can buy a G2 on ebay, new for £60 this is less that what Honeywell sell the stuff to a wholesaler for suggesting to me this gear is nicked? Not convinced a security forum is the best place to advertise nicked gear.

 

The main issue with this self monitoring idea is its a complete unknown. The software approved? Is it redundant? Is it operating on a laptop connected to a talk talk broadband in someone’s kitchen?  At £1 a month the investment in the kit and it's redundancy is going to be pretty low at best due to simple maths. Forgetting MAS the minimum investment a proper ARC would need to make to receive alarms and get up and running is £30k.

 

To break even on the self monitoring idea that would need such a volume of customers that I don't think is possible to achieve therefore there has to be a hole in the system. I have no doubt you would maintain northward of 98% uptime and the difference between £1 a month and £10 a month might be attractive to accept the potential of a failure and you can use the extra £9 to buy a bottle of wine.

Doesn't mean it is as good as.

[GalaxyGuy]

If the equipment is stolen or illegal origin, then the supplier has unlimited supply on an ongoing basis.  Find it difficult to believe that Honeywell's stock control wouldn't miss a few hundred panels a month.  There's also a competing supplier on Ebay, so this suggests the wholesale price list you have just aren't getting the breaks these companies are. Either that, or the wholesaler is adjusting the price list for your eyes.

 

As you say, it's a volume game and although a majority of customers stay at the non contract £1 a month, about 10% opt for event reporting of various SIA events (setting/unsetting/external sensor status Etc.) and are happy to pay more for this. Since the software is written in-house, the only overheads are the scalable cloud based services with full inter continental redundancy of databases / receiving servers and any third party messaging services.

 

And I target six sigma based uptime. Accepting 98% uptime on polled systems would cause big headaches.

 

Since you are comparing both types of system, can you confirm that the £10/mth IP based ARC connection has no other cost to the DIY customer to install and commission themselves ?   Do you have details ?

[matthew.brough]

James do you wish to answer his accusation you're rigging my pricing

 

Don't get me wrong, what you are offering for the money is a steal for the end user. Just don't see where you personally pay for your house in the Bahamas at that rate but as the end user that wouldn't worry me.

 

Well I wasn't using the discussion as a pitch as it isn't the reason why I'm here and we sell to the market that want's low cost self install via another route but we would supply a dual path webway and poll at grade 4 levels for that kind of money. Customer choice of IP/GPRS/BOTH. They would pay £40 for the board and then £10 a month for unlimited email/fax/sms/calls from the alarms. Ironically we sell at this price point more to alarm companies / sparkies than end users