Home Security and Control

One unfortunate trend these days is that we're seeing an increase in home burglaries.  I live in a in a city that has been named the safest city in the US per capita.  But in the past 2 years, my neighborhood has seen a signifiant increase in home burglaries.  The general pattern is that it happens during the daytime (when residents are most likely to be at work, leaving the house empty).  The burglar scopes out the house by either watching it or knocking on the front door to ensure no one is home.  They then go around to the back where they can't be seen, bust in (either by force or through an open window), grab what they can (usually smaller, handheld items like laptops, iPads, and jewelry), and take off.

First off, one of the simplest things you can do to deter such thieves is to put locks on your side gates so that they would have to physically climb over your (hopefully 6 foot high) fence to get to your back yard. 

The tradition solution is to have a company like ADT come in, install some monitoring hardware, and charge you an install fee and around $30/month for the monitoring service. This works, as I don't think any of the robbed houses in my neighborhood had such a security system.  But if you are cheap like me, that type of monthly fee is unacceptable!  Personally, I would rather spend the extra money on upgrading my ISP to faster broadband speed.

I had been thinking about installing a network connected webcam that would automatically send my smartphone a message and picture when it detects motion.  However, these aren't very easy to install, some require a PC to be constantly running to control it, and they don't set off alarms to scare away the intruder.  I wanted a real security system that would include motion sensors, a video camera, and window/door opening sensors, and notify my smartphone if any funny business is detected. And it has to be reasonably priced and easy to install.  Nothing was out there that met these requirements, and then I read a news article and another one that Lowes was going to start selling such a system called Iris, and you can order it now. 

Iris is not just home security, but can also do home automation and energy consumption monitoring. Iris consists of a central control box (called the Smart Hub) that plugs into your home's broadband, and it wirelessly pairs to any other Iris-compatible components that you want to add. There's a reasonable number of Iris components available now, and according to the Lowes press release, more are on the way including electronic door locks and smoke/fire detectors. Besides knowing if there's some funny business going on at your home, it can remote turn lights and electronic appliances on and off, control your thermostat, and give you real time electricity consumptions information. When the locks and smoke detectors come out, it will let you remotely lock/unlock your front door or get notified if a smoke detector goes off.

I bought and installed the Iris Safe and Secure kit, and I would say that I'm generally satisfied with it. Installation was pretty smooth, but had a minor glitch where I had to try a few times to get it to pair the 2nd window sensor. Activation is done through your web browser where you enter the unique ID code of your Smart Hub to activate it and assign it to your account. Then you click a component type on the web page to command the Smart Hub to pair the new component to your system.  You then setup parameters like which sensors will send you notifications (via email and/or text message). The home security can be put into "armed" or "disarmed" mode through the website, a smartphone app, or by a physical keypad that is included.  For further deterrence, when the security system is in armed mode and any sensor is set off, the Smart Hub loudly announces "intruder detected" and the keypad starts to blare loudly with an alarm.  I've tested it a couple times, and all the sensors work fairly reliably, and I consistently get the notification on my smartphone when it happens.

To make the arming and disarming process easy, you can get a key fob that will automatically disarm the system when you get home, and will automatically arm it when you leave it with.  I plan to add more components over time, and it looks like Iris can easily add dozens of components, so there's no practical limit to how much it can control.

The only catch is that basic services are free, but there's a $9.99 monthly fee to add more control and notification options.  Compared to the amount that the typical security services cost, this Iris systems seems to fit the bill and do a lot more.  Recommended!