Spec me a cheap yet efficient Alarm System

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2013
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Rotherham
Just bought my first home, and got a provisional completion date for the end of the month. Can someone spec me a decent house Alarm system ideally below £300 if that's possible. As you can probably appreciate budget is tight.
 
Soldato
OP
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Rotherham
Sorry. I meant to add that and got distracted. I recently got some Blink cameras which were about £200 for 3 cameras and the hub, worth looking into to see if they suit your needs. Totally wireless, batteries last a very long time, good night vision, no subscriptions.
sounds really good thanks
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
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38,372
sounds really good thanks

Yi cameras

£20 - for 720P (perfect for internal)
£35 for 1080p (good for pointing out windows)

you can add an SD card for buttons these days which means no subscription. they send auto alerts to your phone. will record movement only, etc.

they are powered by USB cable so no need to buy batteries. you can also buy cheap waterproof covers off ebay for outdoor installation rather than buying the more expensive outdoor version of the camera.

personally i'd buy a yale smart alarm. costco do them for a good price as does amazon, etc.

i'd then buy a few cheap YI cameras to cover driveway and entry points.
 
Associate
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Near to Overclockers
How many rooms do you want your alarm to cover and do you want wireless or wired? Are you looking to self-install ? Do you want a decent alarm or are you looking for lots of bells and whistles ?
Word of warning on cheap CCTV cameras, check what frame rate and resolution they record to the SD card at, most of the 4MP cameras only actually record to the SD card at 1MP or less which makes their images almost useless.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
10 Mar 2013
Posts
7,900
Location
Rotherham
How many rooms do you want your alarm to cover and do you want wireless or wired? Are you looking to self-install ? Do you want a decent alarm or are you looking for lots of bells and whistles ?
Word of warning on cheap CCTV cameras, check what frame rate and resolution they record to the SD card at, most of the 4MP cameras only actually record to the SD card at 1MP or less which makes their images almost useless.
Kind of thinking one camera outside front and one camera back of the house not really bothered for all bells and whistles wireless would be better and easier to install.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
10 Mar 2013
Posts
7,900
Location
Rotherham
Yi cameras

£20 - for 720P (perfect for internal)
£35 for 1080p (good for pointing out windows)

you can add an SD card for buttons these days which means no subscription. they send auto alerts to your phone. will record movement only, etc.

they are powered by USB cable so no need to buy batteries. you can also buy cheap waterproof covers off ebay for outdoor installation rather than buying the more expensive outdoor version of the camera.

personally i'd buy a yale smart alarm. costco do them for a good price as does amazon, etc.

i'd then buy a few cheap YI cameras to cover driveway and entry points.
Again sounds good I'll take a look thanks
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
How many rooms do you want your alarm to cover and do you want wireless or wired? Are you looking to self-install ? Do you want a decent alarm or are you looking for lots of bells and whistles ?
Word of warning on cheap CCTV cameras, check what frame rate and resolution they record to the SD card at, most of the 4MP cameras only actually record to the SD card at 1MP or less which makes their images almost useless.

i used the 720p footage for an incident to the police and they complimented the quality. i've since upgraded to 1080p and it's ridiculous how good these are for the money.

they record at full quality.

yale smart alarm the sensors are all wireless and the batteries all last 2-3 years
 
Soldato
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18,300
Location
Birmingham
I installed a yale smart alarm just before christmas (the older version, not the Alexa enabled one).

Only took me a couple of hours to install 3 PIRs, 2 door sensors and the keypad and siren, seems to work well enough, easy to set up, and the pet safe PIRs haven't been triggered by our 3 cats yet
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
10 Mar 2013
Posts
7,900
Location
Rotherham
Ordered the Yale smart alarm (older version £250 through amazon prime) with an extra door contacter paid the little extra to get it directly from amazing instead of 3rd party, good price however. Thanks for the advice
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Jun 2006
Posts
38,372
Has anyone got a link to the Yi cameras you are using? How do you view footage? Can you connect via wifi like the dashcams?

YI Home Camera Wireless Wifi IP Camera Security Surveillance Camera with Motion Detection Alert Night Vision for Baby Pet Elder - Remote Monitor App & Cloud Storage Available

Type above into Amazon

They have 6 different types.

720p single point
720p can rotate automatically to follow movement
1080p single point
1080p rotating

Then the outdoor ones.


You can view footage using any smart device like a phone, tablet, etc. You download the app maybe some smart tv's too.

Or you can use a pc.

They record to sd card or you can also buy a cloud subscription for peanuts.

When I go on holiday I buy the cloud subscription it's like £3 for 5 cameras for a month.
 
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