Your Basic Complete Home Security System And How To Install It

Lots of people are going wireless these days, including in their own home security system.

We’re going wireless because what you’ve been told is true. Unless you’re a fully qualified electrician wired systems are completely impossible to self-install. So if you want to avoid those installation costs, you’ll go wireless. Not recommended for folks who live in areas where there’s a bad wireless signal but to everybody else, welcome to the brave new world of creating your very own fortress. It’s easier than you think.

Take a look around

First you need to have a good look around your house. Chances are you won’t have enough money to secure every room individually but you will be able to secure the outside and you’ll be able to prioritize certain rooms. Make a list of the three most important rooms in your house. These are the ones you need extra security for. Later you will be focusing on these.

Open the Box

Practically every home security system comes with something called a home security panel.

This is the hub. It’s the center of all operations and you’ll be connecting up almost everything else to this panel.

This is the first thing you take out of the box. So pull it out and place it by a door and make sure it’s positioned near an electricity source. You need to get one with enough connections for you to install extra cameras and sensors. Even the cheapest ones come with the ability to connect 3 cameras and some sensors. However you can get panels with up to 50 sensor and camera connections, and these are becoming very affordable. Look out for these.

There’s two installation options for the panel:

  1. Drill some holes in the wall and mount it.
  2. Get some adhesive strips and plant it down.

Couldn’t that be more simple right?

Take out your sensors and cameras

You’ve already been for a walk around your house, so you know which rooms are the most important to you. You know better which rooms to protect. So, go to them and place your sensors and cameras where you wish. Whether you’ve got active, passive, dual technology or microwave sensors the installation is basically the same. You’ll have a little patch to peel off and this will reveal a sticky edge that’ll hold your equipment in place.

Depending on what system you bought you’ll either have: box cameras, dome cameras, PTZ cameras or bullet cameras. If you bought extra camera’s you may have more than one type but the installation is the same as with sensors. You just peel and stick. Preferably you want all your security equipment in high places and most won’t stick straight onto a wall because of their shape. So if you want to go buy wall-mounts then that would be perfect. If you don’t have these then it’s fine. Drill holes, screw some screws and you’re done.

Outdoors

Next go outside of the house. This is where your best motion sensors come into play. You’ll also be installing Cameras out there too and the installation is the same as inside the house but here you need to pay attention to other matters.

What cameras and Sensors do you have? Do your cameras pivot tilt and zoom? A PTZ Cam does all three so having one of these means the positioning is very simple. One just above the front door.

From here you’ll have a good view of the surrounding area. If you have a 360 degree camera place it in a tree. You’ll be able to see around to the back of the house from up there. If you just have fixed cams, don’t worry, just use your common sense to work out the most likely direction home invaders might be coming from. Roads, railway tracks, wooded area’s; place your camera facing these.

With sensors you want one giant grid starting at the front of your house and going as far out as possible. Look at the range of your sensors and at the range of your Panel. This is how far you’ll be able to detect movement in the outside area. As long as you place one Sensor above the front door or just to the side of it, you should be positioned perfectly to achieve this. Place the other Sensors around as you wish. Near windows or any other openings to the home would be a great idea.

Synchronization

Go back inside the house to your panel, and it really depends on what type of panel you have but there should be a step by step guide on there for syncing all your cameras and sensors together with the central unit. It should take no more than five minutes.

Testing – Important

Test time depends on what state you’re in and which insurance company you’re with. In the worst case scenario you’ll need seven days of testing to comply with state regulations and insurance company policy.

Unless you’ve tested for the specific amount of time required then your insurance company won’t pay out in event of a home invasion. So give them a call and ask what their policy is.

Also, ask them what the rules are in your state for Wireless Home Security System testing.

Conclusion

There you have it. What used to be a nightmare is now one of the easiest things you can do. Follow all the steps carefully and remember to buy a system that has room for more connections at a later date. As you expand your home security, you’ll want a system in place that’ll be able accommodate new additions.

And most importantly – have fun! Doing things like this doesn’t have to seem like work. And at the end of the day when your done your home will be a formidable fortress — safer and more secure than ever.