An hour or three of internet browsing is all it takes to become a self-taught expert on the subject of installing home security system components. These days, it’s a far cry from the hassle-filled experience installing home security sensors or security cameras was in previous years. Indeed, the advent of wireless security cameras means that the gigantic job of laying down cabling for a house has become vastly more simple, no longer limited to those with an understanding of the workings of electronics and complex, inefficient computer interfaces. What this means for you is that getting a home security system is no longer something to put off, to shirk like the chores of going on a diet or finding the perfect power suit. It’s something you should make a real priority – because you never know when it might be too late for you, your family, or your personal possessions.
Even if you’re only about as good with a computer as the average 11-year-old, odds are you’ll be able to set up your own, personal wireless security camera system. Simple motion detection software can be downloaded off the internet (check out bit.ly), ensuring that your cameras only record when there’s actually something going on in front of them. Concealing a wireless security camera in a desktop ornament, like a paperweight, teddy bear or clock, is as simple as removing the intended housing’s components and drilling a couple of holes (one for the lens of the camera, and another for the feeder cable to power the device). Wireless webcams, it seems, are getting smaller with every passing day, even as the quality of the footage they’re capable of producing increases to dramatic, even superhuman levels.
It’s also possible to have the device activated by various kinds of home security sensors. Infrared sensors activate when an object of sufficient heat moves across their detection field. Contact sensors, by contrast, are activated by the opening of a window or door, an action which either opens or closes the circuit made by the two installed sensor pads, which in turn sends a signal to the central home security system hub to which the sensors are wired. Another type of home security sensor utilizes UWB (ultra-wideband) radar. For the purposes of motion detection, these sensors function by ’staring’ over a fixed range and sensing any change in the average time taken for the signals the device emits to be returned.
These are the same kinds of motion sensors that activate your porch light when someone walks across the driveway. The technology has been around for a long time, and has just about been perfected, to the point that upper-range home-security systems incorporate sensors with pet-human discrimination technology. PIR detectors can be made to discriminate between pets and humans by use of a modified lens or mirror that vertically stretches the zones in regions closer to the sensor, an effect that reduces the size of the ‘blip’ created by, say, a cat, and increases that created by a person. The industry term for such discriminator home security systems is ‘pet immune’. Wireless security cameras can be programmed with software for a similar effect.
If you plan to install a home security system incorporating wireless security cameras and home security sensors all by yourself, there are a few important considerations you’ll want to keep in mind. One is location. Ideally, cameras and sensors should cover those areas through which an intruder will have to pass in order to access the house. So doors, windows and skylights should be first. Be more concerned about those entry points that are off the street and shielded from public eyes, as they’re the ones morel likely to be used by intruders.
The other, most crucial question in this business is – who exactly is going to monitor your home security system? It’s no good having an alarm system if there’s no one around that’s paid to respond to it, and respond quickly, with due diligence and a bit of fire power. If you aren’t signed up with a security company, the best your system could do is scare intruders away with a loud siren, or perhaps even call the police with a looped recording requesting their assistance. Neither of these methods is as foolproof or reassuring as actually having a security company, like Chubb or ADT, at your beck and call. Security companies will often install any of the aforementioned home security system components – home security sensors, motion detectors, wireless security cameras – at low rates for new customers that sign security contracts with them.
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Tags: home security, home security system, security sensors, wireless security cameras