Remote Home Monitoring

We have a 3 drop (Nest) cams, one with a subscription

Use Wer@home but it does have a monthly fee. you get what you pay for and after finding box kits at bestbuy and self installed IP cameras too inconsistent went with a professional system. App works great, helps me control my home and not just monitor video. Gives me the ability to control heat, lights, water and the security part of it is self monitored with video that sends it to my phone if triggered or based on any of the smart rules I create. Before I had an app for my lights, one for my heat, one for video and in some cases two apps for different lights. Now it is just one app, very easy to use. The other item I like about it is it has a ZWave adapter which they made non proprietary, I can buy any ZWave device out there and it connects to this system which I did off amazon for a water valve, light switches, thermostat and door lock! Best part his instead of having 4 more apps the adapter ties them all into the one wer@home app which I like. I have smart rules set up that when I arm the system my water turns off and rules if the flood detector triggers my water turns off. Have a lot more, I went a little overboard as you own full control via the app and do not need to ask someone to set it up for you like most systems.

To comment on who calls or let's them in for an alarm. Either I am calling them through the local 911 direct access number for my area or one of 3 neighbours/friends I have setup as standard users. I can then unlock or relock my main door from where ever I am. $30 a month but I actually feel I get that and then some use out of it.

My kids come by on occasion and the neighbors keep an eye pealed and one drops our dailt newspaper inside the front door, just like 25 years ago.

I have a drop cam that has a service that records via the Internet .. Or not . I can turn the service on or off monthly but even without the recording service at no cost using an app I can see the camera at anytime I want or have it notify me via text if it sees movement which I can set or turn off if someone is still at home. While gone I normally use the recording service $$ so I can go back in time.

I have this for low temp and water. It needs a phone line because it calls you when there's an alarm. Instead of paying Verizon for a land line, I got a Verizon Wireless adapter for $20 a month which is basically a cell phone in a box that you plug a phone (or in this case, the monitor) into.

The water alarm does send falsies every once in a while. It's just a set of contacts on a pad that you put on the floor, so dust or a bug can set it off.

I have a guy come and check the place a couple of times a week. Plus I have a neighbor that's an ex-cop.

We monitor the temperature in our Adirondack cottage using an Acu-rite Acu-link Internet bridge and remote sensors. The smartphone app and monitoring service are free. The system will report variances outside of the user set parameters by text and/or email. If we see the temperature dropping out of the norm, we have one of our daughters that live nearby check on the furnace and call for service if needed. I have the high temperature setting high enough that if it alerts, it would probably be best to call the fire department... ;)

I built my own, using a raspberry pi (on am azon for cheap). all it has to do was send me an email if it got too cold in the house (heat failure)

my plan was, if there was heat failure, I could contact an hvac contractor I know from work and tell them how to get into my house via hidden key

as far as burglary, the only stuff thieves would steal I don't care about (electronics mostly?) it's all insured for replacement cost, I'll get something better

I question how Home monitoring and RV Monitoring works when no one is around locally for the authorities to contact. When I monitor the local Police Scanner frequencies here when the business areas alarms go off there is always a KEY HOLDER involved.

I suspect local authorities will respond when requested but when no one is around to talk to they will just do an outside security type check and then leave...

The same goes with the RV lots...

Then there you are going down the road somewhere 1000 miles away watching the alarms go off on your cell phone screen???

Who responds and Who lets the local authority folks have access to the property...

To me it has to a more involved Plan than just having alarms...

Roy Ken