Advice on selecting a security system for my elderly father living alone in Dublin

Dara Robinson

Hi Guys,
I’m hoping for some advice.

My Dad’s place was broken into, actually worse, someone knocked on the door, pushed their way in and robbed him. Luckily he is ok, just shaken, and never really has any money. However, the house has no alarm and clearly now he wants one finally.

I’m hoping for some advice. I was looking into it a bit and I found http://www.networksecurity.ie who do a decent deal (although we would need extra window contacts and extra ones are expensive) but one of thing my Dad wants is a camera outside for when someone knocks on the door, we have looked at combining some bits independently as he is on a budget and I can’t afford to install a system for him but I started to tot up the extras he would need and I’m imagining that there might be an all in one of a combination of system that would work out better value, better quality and closer to what he really needs.

To explain the house a bit, it is an old house in Dublin south, it has only 1 window at the front of the house downstairs and it is an old house so the ceilings are high so the upstairs windows are not a concern (plus it is on a very very busy main road so climbing up a ladder to break an upstairs window is not a major concern). The back has an extension with a back door, kitchen window with 2 large and 2 small windows and a bathroom with small window. That extension has 5 velux windows on a flat roof (but it would be quite a drop to get in so not a major concern there either) but the back upstairs windows and a bathroom window are accessible from the flat roof of the extension which would be a concern.

Ideally we are looking for 2 door contacts, 9 window sensors and at least 2 PIR’s (maybe 3) and finally some sort of camera outside (maybe through the peep whole or maybe just a security camera) so he can see who it is before opening the front door. Although the more I think about it I am thinking that if there is a PIR downstairs covering the areas of the windows then maybe the downstairs window contacts may be redundant but maybe you guys can advise.

So any thoughts or advice?

Pivot Eoin

A simple waterproof security Wifi webcam with a downloadable App and a crappy old phone can sort you out for the Security Cam. Doesnt need to record weeks and weeks of footage.

MysticMonk

Get him a dog

rubberdungeon

Maybe this is an option:

The Seniors Alert Scheme provides grant support for the supply of equipment to enable older people without sufficient means to continue to live securely in their homes. The scheme, which is run by Pobal, replaced the Scheme of Community Support for Older People in May 2010. The grant assistance is made available through community and voluntary groups registered with Pobal.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/crime_and_crime_prevention/seniors_alert.html

https://www.pobal.ie/FundingProgrammes/Seniors%20Alert%20Scheme/Pages/Seniors%20Alert%20Scheme.aspx

KoolKid

My advice is shop around locally and get two or three quotations. To supply a proper quotation the company should be calling out to the property to do a proper site survey and risk assessment.
Keep away from the offers that are cheap and seem too good to be true. They are. They will come with various catches.
Some will be rented systems where you are tied to a certain time where you must pay for monitoring and maintenance. Others, like above, will have their systems locked so you must use them for the lifetime of the system.
If you were to add a WiFi camera some systems would give you the option integrate this into the alarm system also.

Dara Robinson

rubberdungeon, that SAS seems to be a decent option but would only be part of it. I've contacted them and they are sending me out all the info which is great. It will most certainly remove the need for a monitored system though so thanks for that info.
MysticMonk, my dad has had two strokes and would not have the physical strength to have a dog of sufficient size to be a deterrent, a small dog would not really be a deterrent plus he would not have the energy to walk the dog as needed. Not a runner in this case.
Assuming he can get the SAS system, any advice on basic non-monitored alarm systems?

altor

Dara Robinson wrote: »

Assuming he can get the SAS system, any advice on basic non-monitored alarm systems?

Plenty of info re systems on here.
Best advise is to get 3 quotes comparing like with like.

Also something else to look at for the front door would be this, cloud storage would of hopefully got an image of the burglar at lease in your dads case If he has internet in his home.

Markx

KoolKid wrote: »

My advice is shop around locally and get two or three quotations. To supply a proper quotation the company should be calling out to the property to do a proper site survey and risk assessment.
Keep away from the offers that are cheap and seem too good to be true. They are. They will come with various catches.
Some will be rented systems where you are tied to a certain time where you must pay for monitoring and maintenance. Others, like above, will have their systems locked so you must use them for the lifetime of the system.
If you were to add a WiFi camera some systems would give you the option integrate this into the alarm system also.

I've been trying to get some quotations for a 3 bed in D16 recently and it proves very frustrating. Of the three companies I contacted only one was prepared to come and have a look. The guy who did come had a look around, seemed happy enough to do the work, said he would send a quotation and is incommunicado now. The other two gave me pretty steep quotes over the phone.

To a novice the whole process of getting an alarm fitted is very opaque. Is it possible that some companies feel doing such a small job isn't worth it??

KoolKid

There are plenty of southside companies that would be happy to do the work for you.
Have a search of PSA licenced companies here
http://www.psa.gov.ie/en/PSA/webContract?OpenForm
If they are not prepared to call out & quote or discuss your needs go elsewhere. If you can't get them out for that what hope will you have when you have a problem.?
In the meantime put up any questions you have here & we'll help you the best we can.

rocky

Would an alarm have helped in this instance? Presumably it wouldn't have been armed when the event happened. Could have recorded something on CCTV, but that's it.

KoolKid

He could have had the alarm part set.
He could have had a panic button he could activate.
Siemens Vanderbilt also has a nice feature called all ok zone. Even if you are forced to disarm an alarm, if this zone is not activated afterwards a panic alarm will be sent.

Dara Robinson

altor wrote: »

Also something else to look at for the front door would be this, cloud storage would of hopefully got an image of the burglar at lease in your dads case If he has internet in his home.

Thanks Altor, but the Ring Pro doorbell is quite expensive, looks great actually but I'll have to try and keep the overall cost down for my Dad

Thanks for all the advice guys, I think we are going to go for a wired alarm, the SAS monitoring and a camera peephole at the front to allow him to see who is at the door, should be a decent compromise between security and price. I'm also going to get him to upgrade the barrels at the front and back door