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The arrival of longer nights is often the signal for people to start thinking more about the safety of their home.
While it looks like we’ll all be spending a little more time at home this winter, it doesn’t hurt to consider if your security system is up to the task and if you need to tweak a few things here and there.
You don’t need to spend thousands on a fully wired security system that monitors every movement in your home; These days, a little goes a long way. From security cameras and sensors to alert you to movement in your home to smart door locks that you can open with your smartphone, there are plenty of options to help make your home feel a little more secure this winter.
You can go for a complete home security system, with cameras, door locks, and sensors that are controlled through a single app on your phone, or you can add a single camera or a few sensors here and there in vulnerable spots.
With the only thing that everything begins? Good residential internet. Smart home security devices are connected to your home internet so you can control them from anywhere. In the case of video devices, that will suck up a bit more of your home bandwidth.
Video doorbells
Quickly becoming the first line of defense, the video doorbell is becoming an increasingly common sight on Irish streets. Acting as a type of CCTV for the front door, the doorbells connect with your smartphone so you can not only see who is outside the front door, but you can also talk to them as if you were at home.
Nest Hello is Google’s offering in the market for video doorbells with facial recognition and continuous recording.
That could be talking to a delivery driver trying to drop off a package and giving him instructions on where to drop it off, or telling a friend he’s almost home. Best of all, you are aware of who comes to your house throughout the day, whether you are there or not.
There are several different options. Amazon’s Ring has been around for a while, offering both a Pro version and the Ring 3 ($ 229). The latest version offers 1080p HD video, with a field of view that extends 160 degrees.
It automatically switches to night vision when the light falls below a certain level and offers customizable motion alerts for certain areas around the front door. When it detects motion, it starts recording.
It also has a pre-roll feature that gives you an additional four seconds of video footage before the motion event is triggered, which is recorded in low-resolution black and white during daylight hours, to save battery life.
The Ring app also lets you see what’s happening outside your door in real time, whether someone rings the bell or not.
The system can work for people who already have a wired doorbell installed and for those who rely on wireless doorbells. The latter will mean removing the battery and charging it every four to six months.
Ring Protect is the subscription service that allows you to record videos from your doorbell and capture photos to review and save. If you only have one Ring device, it will cost you € 3 per month on the basic plan, or € 30 per year. To cover all the devices in your home, Amazon offers a Plus plan that costs € 10 per month or € 100 per year.
The Nest Hello (€ 250) is Google’s offer in the video doorbell market. Facial recognition and continuous recording are among its selling points. Rather than being triggered by a motion alert or someone pressing the doorbell, the Nest has a constant stream of video recording throughout the day.
It will select and highlight events (movement in designated zones, sound at your front door, or someone pressing the doorbell) to make it easier for you to detect something important, but you can scroll back through the recorded video whenever you want. It is particularly useful to find out if you left the car without a key or if you left the house with a coat that you later lost.
Google offers Nest Cam (€ 138) or Nest Cam IQ (€ 344) for indoors. The main difference is the quality.
The high definition HDR video doorbell has a 4: 3 aspect ratio so you can see the person at your front door. If you want to set quiet times, you can disable the internal ringer, as long as it is digital, and you can also customize the ringer for certain times of the year.
Nest offers a spooky theme for Halloween, and there is a regular Christmas theme that you can add to your doorbell. If you have a Nest smart speaker or home hub, you can also receive doorbell alerts through those devices. There are canned answers, if you don’t want to talk to whoever is at your door.
Like the Ring, Nest has its own subscription service, called Nest Aware. If you register, you can keep your video history for a specified period of time (five days for € 5 per month or € 30 for 30 days) so that you can review your clips at your leisure or set certain motion zones around your front door. That reduces false alerts triggered by a car passing your house or someone crossing the road.
The subscription also adds facial recognition, so you can tell Nest Hello who’s calling your house. The next time you press the doorbell, you will be told that they are at the door by name. It can also distinguish a person from a thing, perhaps a car, and can alert you when a package is picked up at your door.
However, unlike the Ring, Nest Hello is best installed by a professional. It may involve changing a transformer, so unless you are an experienced electrician, it may be time to call in the experts.
You can find a list of installers on the Nest website. Virgin Media also offers the hood as part of its smart home packages, which include installation by one of its Red House engineers.
Video-cameras
Keeping an eye on your home is easier than ever these days, both inside and out. Internet-connected video cameras give you a way to check in even when you can’t physically be there.
Not only can cameras act as an early warning system for you of potential intruders in your home, but they can also function as alarms, and some contain built-in sirens.
If you want a single camera, you can occasionally drop by instead of installing an entire network, the TP Link Tapo C100 Smart Security Camera (€ 40) is a relatively inexpensive way to go.
It has built-in two-way audio, night vision, and motion detection, with the latter customizable. When it detects motion, you will receive an alert on your phone and the camera will activate lights and sounds as an alarm. Images can be stored on a local storage card.
Amazon’s Ring has been around for a while, offering both a Pro version and the Ring 3 ($ 229).
Outdoor cameras can also give you visibility into places that might otherwise be out of sight. The Ezviz C3X has one thing that many other security cameras lack: a color night mode that doesn’t need external light. A dual lens setup means that the camera can provide color images even in dark environments without resorting to a spotlight. It is weather resistant and has the option of connecting to your home network via an ethernet cable, rather than relying on Wi-Fi.
However, if you want the spotlights, Ezviz’s C3N camera will give you color night vision and artificial intelligence people detection for about half the price of its stablemate. For £ 80, the camera punches above its weight. There’s a noise-canceling microphone that will pick up audio up to 5m away, and two infrared sensors that work in conjunction with the dual lenses and spotlights to capture night images.
You can save your pictures to a local memory card instead of entrusting them to the cloud and the camera will work with Google Home and Alexa.
Like the C3X, it has the option of an Ethernet connection, which you may have to fall back on if your home Wi-Fi is not rock solid; the camera is only compatible with your home 2.4Ghz network.
If you’re already connected to Amazon’s Ring system, you can add one of the company’s video cameras to monitor certain areas of your home. The indoor camera (€ 59) is a simple plug-in installation and can be up and running in minutes. Like the doorbell, you can talk to people in your home and have motion-activated notifications. It is also quite compact, so it fits anywhere.
Would you rather wall mount your security cameras? The Ring Stick Up Cam ($ 99) is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and comes in plug-in and battery-powered versions.
For added security, the Ring Spotlight Cam (€ 229) adds a built-in spotlight to HD video and the two-way talk features of the other cameras. It also offers a solar powered option and is a bit more subtle than the Outdoor Floodlight Cam. The latter has dual sensors and can detect both objects and people, before dazzling them with its two LED spotlights and triggering the built-in siren.
Nest also offers indoor and outdoor home cameras. Inside, you have the Nest Cam (€ 138) or the Nest Cam IQ (€ 344). The main difference between the two, aside from price, is quality.
The Yale Conexis L1 lock is keyless and requires a key fob, key card, or smartphone app and Bluetooth to unlock the door.
The IQ offers HDR, a close-tracking view, and uses a 4K sensor. It will also give you personal alerts without the need for a Nest Aware subscription. Both offer the ability to listen and respond to people (or pets) so you can scare off intruders or chat with the dog.
Outdoor cameras have similar differences. The Nest Cam Outdoor (€ 226) and Nest Cam IQ Outdoor (€ 373) are weather resistant and plug into the mains, so you don’t have to worry about changing or charging batteries. The IQ can detect a person from 50 feet, giving you a better view of who is approaching your home.
Smart door locks
Imagine never needing a key to enter your home again. Or never having to hand over spare keys to your house in case you have guests staying or getting work done.
That’s where the smart lock plays a role. You simply grant people access through the attached app, and they can use their smartphone to log in.
The beauty of this approach is that access can be revoked as easily as it was granted.
One of the most famous names in home security has decided to go for new technology. The Yale Conexis L1 lock is keyless and requires a key fob, key card or smartphone app and Bluetooth to unlock the door. As for security, Yale says it has a built-in tamper alarm, and security includes bank-level encryption.
It looks like a normal door lock. There are options for internal and external doors, so you can also bring the next level of security to specific rooms in your home.
That may be a step too far for most. Adding extra layers of security to your home with technology is one thing; replacing your physical security with something that relies on technology is another.
