Hi. I am very new to Hubitat. About to order one actually.
We are building a new house on the Mornington Peninsula and I am going to add a fair amount of smarts to it.
Does anyone here use the Hubitat as the primary alarm system?
TIA
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I do.. But I have a lot of cameras as well.. But you will get a lot of opinions on that I’m sure..
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Almost forgot.. Welcome to the community..
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Welcome.
If I was building, I would hardwire for a standalone system. Even if you don't start off with a standalone, wiring after the fact is usually not practical.
I'm a conservative sort when it comes to security / safety items.
- A standalone had battery backup for all the sensors and alarms.
- It is a dedicated processor that has little / no possibility of being "hung" by an input
.
- The Hubitat is the most stable home hub I've had. However with updates and the operator (me) fiddling with it things can break. Not what I would want for a safety system.
Just my 2¢
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But if you're going to have a hardwired system, isn't it going to also have to have professional installation with a monthly monitoring fee? I haven't found a DIY hardwired solution that is anywhere near practical as far as cost goes. All of the diy solutions out there are wireless.
Then what do you do with all the wires sticking out of the wall/ceiling?
Any standalone system, if not one of the wireless DIY solutions, is either going to cost you a long contract or several hundred dollars to purchase.
What you described is one possible solution but there are many more, depends on your motivation, creativity and technical expertise.
I have a standalone system I purchased on line and installed my self. It is a brand name commercial version. If the wires are already in place the main panel wiring is simple. I will admit the programming of the panel while not overly complex is tedious.
Option 1:
I do not have monitoring on my panel. It is mostly for our security and benefit of knowing immediately if someone has broken in. I have flashing lights and loud alarms both inside and out. It is currently not connected with Hubitat.
Option 2:
If a standalone alarm is not in the cards (at least initially) you could connect the contacts to something like a minimote and monitor the doors window with Hubitat. My doors have the contacts in the frame, nothing can be seen from the inside or outside. Sounds complex but it is a 5/8 magnet contact pushed into the upper door frame and a magnet on the top of the door. After some putty and paint they are practically invisible.
Option 3:
Perhaps use only the smoke and CO alarms. Notification of what is happening in the basement (if there is one) while sleeping is additional time to react / get to safety.
Option n:
Don't use the wires now. You may change your mind later of if selling your home is may be a (small) selling point.
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I understand what the options are, that isn't my question. My questions were:
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What do you do with the wires that are sticking out of the wall at every door, window and motion sensor placement if you don't wire them to an alarm?
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Where would you advise someone to buy a wired security panel that won't cost an arm and a leg?
Well beyond the scope of the OP's question, however just to placate you.......
What do you do with the wires that are sticking out of the wall at every door, window and motion sensor placement if you don't wire them to an alarm?
The few I don't have connected are behind the trim.
Where would you advise someone to buy a wired security panel that won't cost an arm and a leg?
I'll assume you've heard of the internet?
Not an answer to my question. All of the ones I've found are well over $500. Which if you're not getting remote monitoring is a complete waste of money.
$500 for just the panel or all in? In the USA you can get a Vista 20p panel for $40 or a combo with a keypad for $120. A DSC panel starts at about about $60. A Konnected panel is $89. This is just the main panel though. Outfitting an entire system with keypads, sensors and other accessories can easily get up to $500 or more. Depends on what you need. I recently upgraded my system replacing the main panel, 3 keypads (2 are touchscreens) and adding 5 zones to the existing 8, along with some other accessories including the wire and that cost me just over $1k. Had I not gotten the touchscreens it would have been about $250 cheaper. I installed everything myself and have reasonable professional monitoring with no contract. The monitoring can be had for as little as $8 a month. Typical is around $10-$15. This doesn't include your insurance discount either so it could end up only being a few dollars a month.
Regardless of how it's monitored, it's about reliability. If it's triggered you want to know without fail if you're self monitoring or having it professionally done. If it's not mission critical and you're just doing something casual then you can most certainly use HSM. You get what you pay for.
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You can totally install a hardwired system yourself. The hardest part is just running the wires which is not hard if you're building or renovating.
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I have a bunch of RING cameras outside of my house monitoring it from all sides, I also have Philips HUE lighting and outdoor motion sensors etc (This could be done with HE). Every downstairs door and window has a smartthings multipurpose sensor on it. In short, if you come close to the house a light comes on and the cameras record you, if you open a door or window once HSM is armed an internal alarm goes off. That is the limit of my security but it works really well, deterrents externally are the best thing really and something as simple as a floodlight coming on is normally enough.
Cheers
Steve
I'll second that Greg. I love my Elk M1G system which I installed 100%. This was back probably 8-9 years ago and Elk was more accommodating of DIY installation. I think today they prefer dealers.
There are usually Elk systems on eBay, or I have had a long time account with Worthington Distribution who were always fair with prices and offered help if you get stuck.
I have never heard a bad word about Elk.
However Ryan is correct - you will probably spend $700 to $1000 on an Elk system with sensors and modules.
I’ve been using just Hubitat with the Noonlight monitoring and am very happy with it. We have accidentally set it off about a dozen times in the past year and they call and text within seconds. Great service and only $10/min. I get about $7/month discount on my insurance so it’s only actually costing me $3/month.
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$1000?!? Thank you for proving my point.
Not everyone can and wants to spend that kind of money but that's where it's at for a wired security system. You can still do reasonable things that are better than using HE for your alarm. The goal is still reliability and to that end I think the most important principal with something like an alarm is to make it a completely dedicated system that preferably is designed to be an alarm. It should be able to operate independent of anything else. That doesn't mean you can't connect it to another system like HE but it should not be dependent on that connection nor should it be effected if that system is not operational.
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I still don't understand what you're getting for that amount either. And it doesn't come with wiring. It's ancient. Sorry, you are never going to convince me that going that route is a good idea.
Hi Steve. Your solution is pretty much what I was thinking and in my case will be enough. Cameras and a siren will deter 99% of unwanted. I was looking at using the 6 Way Aeotec Recessed sensors as motion detection. We are building a new house (should be at lockup in the next week or so (CV19 dependent). I am going to add a load of CAT6 cable to the house and can add alarm cable if required but was trying to remove the requirement for a dedicated alarm if I can. I don't see the need for back to base monitoring etc. I have 2 police living 2 doors up anyway.....hahaha
These two concepts are not related. Monitoring can be had or not had with any system dedicated or not. It only depends on your desire to have police and fire services called automatically. The premise of having a wired dedicated system is all about reliability. I totally get budget constraints but if you have the cash to do it and your building a new house it seems pretty silly to not run the wires and setup the sensors. Typical wired sensors are not dependent on any particular system so you can use them with anything that can monitor a contact (including a ZWave device) and do it from a single location in your house. You also don't have to worry about changing batteries.
Me too and it means nothing unless they work from home and will get called by your alarm. Personally I like knowing that in the event of a fire or Carbon Monoxide problem my system will contact emergency services automatically. I like knowing that we have a way to both automatically and manually contact police in any number of scenarios that doesn't require picking up the phone. After my insurance discount it's only a few dollars a month and that has a lot of value to me. But again, this has no bearing on the decision to use wired sensors.
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