[gregfisk]

I just bought a vacation house in the mountains and need an alarm system. ADT came out and gave me a quote, but the tech, who seemed very honest, told me that the response time for the police to arrive was around 30-45 minutes as they are 26 miles away. By the time the police arrive,  the thieves will have been able to load up my hideously expensive home theater system ($150,000 +) and be long gone. Most of the value is tied up in the speakers and electronics, all very easy to disconnect and load in a van.

I thanked the tech and decided to conduct some research. Having video cameras might help IF the person has mug shots on file at the PD, but that is not a great solution - I want to prevent the thieves from attempting to smash up my home if they are brave enough to ignore the alarm signs I will put up around the perimeter of the large, secluded property.

I remember reading about a "sonic canon" and wonder if any readers of this forum have experience with this device. Basically, it is a type of specialized siren that puts out such a high level of noise that it can literally damage your ears and body.  Reportedly, a few seconds after this siren goes off, the thief would attempt to block the sound by covering his ears while running out of the building. Attempting to stay in the building more than a few seconds will result in pain and nausea. More than 10 seconds of exposure will result in a painful migraine headache and temporary deafness, along with vertigo. Installing four of these sirens inside the ceiling would prevent an intruder from attempting to find and deactivate them. The system would be battery operated so cutting the power would not shut off the system. I plan on installing sensors on all doors and windows. The control panel would turn off the sirens in 30 seconds and rearm it. A remote fob would enable me to shut off the system when I come and go.

Does anyone here see a potential flaw with this plan, and  would there be a better way to keep intruders from entering get the residence?  I was quoted $1,800 for the equipment and installation.  Monitoring fee is $30 per month with no long term contract if it seems worthwhile in the light of the extremely long response time.    Any opinions or alternate suggestions?

Albert,

The way I look at alarms is this, the siren(s) are the deterrent. When someone breaks into your home, the average time they stay is 3 to 4 minutes, that's if you don't have an alarm system. Burglars as a rule are already nervous because they are breaking into a home they don't know anything about. When the siren goes off they get freaked out because they are already on high alert. Loud is good but remember you or someone you know is going to trip your alarm system by accident. Almost always, like 99.9% of the time when the siren goes off the burglar runs away. they have no desire to hang out in a house with a loud siren going off as they can't hear anything else that might be going on, like someone coming home. It is extremely rare for a burglar to stay and try to dismantle the system. Never buy a system that has the control panel and keypad combined. All you have to do is smash the keypad/control and that's the end of the alarm. The control panel should be somewhere in the house hidden, like in a closet or in  an attic or crawl space or furnace room. That way the system cannot be compromised. Cellular monitoring is the best because the phone line can't be cut. All alarm panels have back up batteries so if the power is cut to the house you have a minimum of 4 hours and usually much longer that the system will operate.

Never rely on the police department to get to your house and catch anyone, they are too busy as a rule and alarms on not a high priority like they used to be. And like I mentioned above a burglar only spends a few minutes at your house. Cameras are fine but like you mentioned they only work if you or the police or someone else knows who the person is. In my opinion, the reason to have a monitored alarm has nothing to do with the police. The whole point of an alarm is to notify you that you have been broken into. Nothing is worse than having your home or vacation home with a broken down door or broken window and not knowing about it. With your home, if you have animals and your door is broken into and you don't know about it you could lose your pet. With a cabin it could be open for weeks and no one would know. Monitored fire protection is also important, for your pets and for you. If no one is home and a fire starts your pets can't get out and you are relying on your neighbors to see smoke coming out of your home before anyone gets called.

In addition to contacting all of the doors and windows I highly suggest a motion detector or two as an interior trap. The idea behind them is that if someone breaks the glass of a window and doesn't  open it, they have just beat the security system. This is not common as breaking out a window and cleaning out the glass is dangerous, takes time and it's just easier to reach in and open the window. Since this sounds like a place that is away from people I would also consider a siren strobe on the outside of the house. Use a blue strobe because people relate that to a police car so it makes the burglar even more nervous.

And finally, the reality is that alarm company signs and stickers do really work. If you have signs and stickers and your neighbor doesn't, your neighbor is most likely going to be the target. It is nice to know however that those deterrents are backed up by an actual alarm.

Hope this helps...

Greg

[randytsuch]

My finance director said no (maybe later) to my plan, so no funds to buy the parts I need 

So looking for even cheaper ways to do this.

Since I already have a Arduino Mega, and a Raspberry pi that are sitting around, I may be able to make use of them.  I think I can do the garage door sensor/opener fairly cheaply, under the radar of the budget director.  I may even have relays and a spare door alarm sensor I can use for this. 

It will be more work to figure out the software end of things, but I think there is stuff for the pi that kind of supports what I want to do.  The problem is that the pi stuff will be working with linux, and I'm never comfortable when I have to work in linux.

Randy

[Albert Von Schweikert]

Hello Greg,
Thanks for your input. I agree with you and the other poster that the home owners are going to trip the alarm. That has happened numerous times at our main house in the city.
However, we had several family members visiting and they could not get used to the alarm. My wife and I don't ever trip the alarm, so that is not an issue at this point.

I was intrigued about the first poster's statement that a burglar might sue if he ended up with hearing damage. I have not spoken to our lawyer, but I did read about a case where the burgler was apprehended by the home owner after the home invader got into the house. In self defence, the home owner hit him numerous times with a baseball bat. The burglar sued and won a large settlement against the home owner. Some of our laws treat the criminal better than the victim. I do not understand these laws and am not a bleeding heart liberal, I'm a conservative. I hope that the "political correctness" laws will be abolished. It's time to stop making the victims into the bad guy.

[gregfisk]

Hello Greg,
Thanks for your input. I agree with you and the other poster that the home owners are going to trip the alarm. That has happened numerous times at our main house in the city.
However, we had several family members visiting and they could not get used to the alarm. My wife and I don't ever trip the alarm, so that is not an issue at this point.

I was intrigued about the first poster's statement that a burglar might sue if he ended up with hearing damage. I have not spoken to our lawyer, but I did read about a case where the burglar was apprehended by the home owner after the home invader got into the house. In self defence, the home owner hit him numerous times with a baseball bat. The burglar sued and won a large settlement against the home owner. Some of our laws treat the criminal better than the victim. I do not understand these laws and am not a bleeding heart liberal, I'm a conservative. I hope that the "political correctness" laws will be abolished. It's time to stop making the victims into the bad guy.

Hi Albert,

I'm happy too help any way I can. Some of the alarm companies care little about the customer and only their bottom line. As an outside party perhaps I can put some things into perspective for you or anyone else seeking alarm advice.

I too have heard of people being sued by an intruder and the intruder has won. I consider myself left leaning but (NOT a bleeding heart Liberal). I couldn't agree with your statements more. I think it's outrageous that someone protecting their own home, self and family from an intruder has to worry about being sued. The home owner isn't the one that put the intruder in that position, he did that himself. The home owner has no idea what the intruders intentions are and has to expect the worst. My Dad was a Seattle Police Officer for 25 years and he always said if you shoot someone in your home make sure you don't shoot him in the back and make sure he is dead.

I think a loud siren in the AV room and a blue strobe would be a good deterant. Disorient them so they can't think and can't tell what's going on. Another idea is to have an over ride switch on the lighting in that room so if it's at night or it's a dark room they won't be able to turn on the lights and see without flash lights. That will make taking equipment apart much more difficult.

If you have that much money in your AV room I'll assume you don't mind spending some extra money on an alarm. I would suggest contacts on all of the doors and windows that are accessible or perhaps all of them period. I would also put glass break detectors in all of the rooms that have glass that can be gotten to from the ground or a deck. With glass break detectors you are adding to your perimeter protection. This way as soon as the glass is broken the alarm will go off, even if they haven't entered the home or opened the window yet. Most burglars that are on the outside of a house will not enter if they have already tripped the alarm. I would still put in some motion detectors just in case they do come in a window that is up high or a skylight from the roof or if somehow a perimeter device doesn't work, it's always good to have a couple of motion detectors as a back up. 

Take Care,

Greg