Until now, when we wanted to install an alarm to protect our home, the usual thing was to go to a professional company that installed a custom-made and totally personalized system in exchange for a monthly fee. Those companies will continue to be a great alternative, but today, if you have the right knowledge, you can install your own home alarm system yourself for very little money. If you have been thinking about whether or not you should install an alarm at home for some time and you are put off by the idea of having to pay a monthly fee, stay with us so you can learn how to make your own system on a fairly limited budget.
Hiring a company is no longer essential
With the rise of home automation, home security is undergoing a revolution. Surely you have a friend or family member who has installed their own surveillance camera or even has their own alarm system. And it is that there are many factors that have allowed this world to become cheaper and democratize for everyone.
Wi-Fi connectivity has made it possible for us to place a device in any corner without worrying about cables. Assistants like Alexa allow us to interconnect different devices such as cameras, sensors and mobile devices so that we can receive information from our home quickly, without the need for a switchboard. And the economy of scale of this type of product has also benefited us, since many years ago, devices of this type were much more expensive, since such a massive market did not exist.
What to look for when buying a home alarm kit?
If you do a simple search on Amazon you will find a lot of products whose objective is home security . There are very varied devices, and prices will vary depending on our needs. These are some of the details that you should take into account before launching to buy one of these kits.
System Assembly and Difficulty
Assembling an alarm kit is generally not a fairly complicated operation, but you need to have the right knowledge to do it correctly. If you do not have much experience in this field, do not go for very complex products and focus on those that do the basic and essential.
Of course, ask a friend or relative for help if you see fit. Watch videos online before you get down to business and only buy the kit if you think you can do it. Otherwise, it will compensate you more to hire a security company than those of a lifetime. However, in this article we are only going to recommend products that are easy to install and about which you will easily find information on the net.
Kit Features
Each kit is different and will have its own tools to detect intruders. Think about the vulnerabilities that your home has and, from there, look for a kit that suits your needs or that can be expanded to cover all corners.
For example, if you have a good armored door with an anti- bumping lock, but you live in a first floor and you are afraid that thieves will enter through the windows or through the interior patio of your house, look for a product with which you can monitor your windows , for example, with contact sensors.
Peripherals and expandability
The simplest kits will have enough to install the alarm kit and receive notifications on our mobile, but other more advanced ones allow the installation to be scaled by adding different sensors, cameras and notification systems. The ideal is to buy an alarm kit that has its own connectivity via app. Of course, we will look for those products that work with batteries. In this way, if the electricity is cut off, the alarm will continue to work.
The best smart alarms for your home
These are the best kits that you can currently find to easily install in your home.
Amazon Ring Alarm
Without a doubt, one of the most complete and customizable systems on the current scene. The starter kit starts at around 179 euros and contains everything you need to install your own home security system.
The Ring Alarm is made up of the base station , which is the device to which all the peripherals are going to be connected, and a very aesthetic keyboard with which we will enter the code to deactivate the alarm. It also has a motion sensor, a contact sensor that will detect when a door or window is opened, and a range extender .
There are several pre-designed kits with a camera, and multiple sensors of different types. The installation of this equipment is quite simple, and if you already have an Echo ecosystem with Alexa at home, the Ring Alarm is probably the best alternative that we are going to show you in this post.
Eufy Smart Home Set
Eufy’s starter kit costs exactly the same as Amazon’s, and is fairly similar in both number of parts and features.
This intelligent security system also has its own keypad switchboard with two contact sensors and one motion sensor. This kit is also interesting, as it is compatible with eufyCam cameras , which are surveillance cameras with good ratings and also very easy to install. We will be able to scale the system as much as we need with its different components and adjust the sensitivity of each of them thanks to the Eufy Security app.
If you are concerned about the autonomy of the sensors, the brand guarantees that they have the capacity to work for 2 years on a single charge , while the keyboard will have to be recharged every 6 months.
If you are interested in getting the security camera as well, you can add it to the set without problems. Here is the model for you to add to your system in case you are interested:
Somfy Home Alarm
Somfy kits are somewhat less affordable, but they are also very complete . The Somfy Home Alarm basic kit costs around 250 euros . It includes a detection point for doors and windows, a motion sensor compatible with pets, a remote control (smart key), the switchboard and the siren. In this case, Somfy does not have a keyboard , but the alarm is stopped by means of the smart key, the Key Fob, which we will always carry with us on the key ring.
There are several different kits that integrate various devices that we compare or not depending on the needs we have. There are kits focused on window protection with more such sensors and others that are designed for camera surveillance. Smart keys can be purchased and programmed so that each member of the house has their own, and the system is fully compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant and Somfy’s Tahoma ecosystem.
