Not every homeowner has the resources or the initiative to pay a professional security company to install an alarm system in their home and they have a choice to buy separate components and put home systems together on their own or buy one of the alarms systems in a box available at many outlets. The advantage to buying a kit is they will contain everything that is needed to get the system up and running without running back to the store. On the downside, they may not include everything each individual feels they need to adequately protect their family.
While most home systems and home video security system kits contain enough to alarm a couple of doors and a window or two, larger homes may require more pieces to properly provide full coverage to the home. Additionally, when buying home systems in a box, check to see if the unit is expandable. Not all of them allow for adding additional sensors and may require two or more separate kits to cover every door and window in the home. There are also home systems that include video cameras as well as what is called a multiplexer that allows for more than one camera to be viewed on a monitor at one time.
With any of the home systems that use cameras, you should be able to choose which camera to view one at a time or view all of them on a split screen. Commercially, multiplexers are available for viewing up to 16 cameras at a time and if the signals are passed through a recording device before they go the monitor, the user can isolate any one of the individual frames, even during playback.
The best types of home systems will use digital imaging for recording and viewing and the playback from a hard drive will be considerably clearer and sharper than those recorded onto a videocassette. Although more expensive than tapes, they can store more than a typically recording tape, which can hold between eight and 24 hours, depending on the type of recorder being used. When planning to add video to the home alarm system, you will need to consider them as being separated from the system that monitors doors, windows and other areas of the home.
Video surveillance should be a 24-hour a day operation while the entry alarms will only be used during specific times of the day. The advantage is that if you head out to work and forget to set the alarm, the recorder will capture anything that goes on in the house. Be sure to secure the room in which the recording equipment is maintained to prevent it from being damaged by the bad guy that broke into the house.
Door and window contacts, pressure switches for under carpets as well as sensors that monitor motion, heat in the room and infrared detectors are all components available for use with many home systems. Putting the right components together in the right combination will be like having a hired guard on duty in the house 24-hours every day.
