Seems like a bad idea to me. But I'm someone who would never use or recommend ADT in the first place. People don't seem to realize... You can run your own serious alarm system (DSC is a great brand) and then self-monitor with devices like the Envisalink. This integrates with Home Assistant too. All the awesome functionality for $0/mo.
Except the time it took you to research, install, validate it's running, and do general upkeep. Also doesn't help you if you're on vacation with limited internet service.
And most importantly, the fact that you have to respond even with your own monitoring. That's most of what you pay ADT for. If they get a ping, they call you. If they can't get in touch with you, they dispatch the relevant people.
Yes you can set this up yourself (and spend a lot more on the hardware, which they generally give to you pretty cheaply or even "free" because you're signing a contract) but when you go hiking in the mountains and someone uses your Facebook posts as a cue that you're out of town, you're SOL.
Don't get me wrong I love looking at all the home security stuff you can do, and it does indeed sound like a neat project. But you're really paying these companies for monitoring and automatic (human) response, not the security systems themselves.
> And most importantly, the fact that you have to respond even with your own monitoring.
So true, my dad has a monitoring system he built and he constantly looks at his phone as a deer or bear or something triggers it. I'd imagine the lost productivity for people who depend on the flow for work would be immense.
Of course, a very good point. For me it's a hobby which I enjoy.
In an area without Internet service, for me, it is common to miss calls as well. Plus, from personal experience, the security company will not notify law enforcement until they have called you to confirm it is not a false-positive alarm.
In my case, before the alarm goes off due to a forced entry, I will have automatically received notifications with snapshots of people around my property. Even if the security company had called immediately, a response would take >10 minutes. So I just self-monitor.
Overall, with home security you basically just want to be a more annoying, harder target than your closest neighbors. It's sad but true.
For the average computer programmer it comes out to around an hour of labor per month. Two if you get the fancy security package. Security equipment is generally free with the monthly subscription.
Yes. Because I have that discount and I do not have a professionally monitored system.
(Arguably, these discounts are things they trust you at your word for, but perhaps if they're not satisfied they're true during a claim, they might use it as a reason to not pay out.)
I wonder what happens to Alarm.com. Do they get bought out by a competitor (possibly Apple), or will their revenue slowly dry up? The ALRM stock price dropped sharply right as this was announced.
Alarm.com has built some of their own hardware, but their operation is obviously much smaller than Nest. Can they still compete?
On the other hand Wyze has most of the things security systems need available. They hinted towards much more affordable home security services. I rather just wait till their options available. All of the things you mention are kind of useless when you go on vacatiom out of the country or you are somewhere rural.
That's basically the premise behind Surety. Except Surety systems are centrally monitored after the DIY install and have tons of customization options.
Please stop being an asshole in HN comments. You've done it more than once recently. We ban accounts that do that, and have had to warn you about this before.
I appreciate your patience in dealing with my sarcastic tone, and the amount of nonsense you must put with over the years. But please don't personally attack me with name calling. Like the guide says, "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
So thanks for bringing this to my attention, I will do better!
I know it's highly open to interpretation, but when I make a remark like "please stop being an asshole in HN comments", I specifically phrase it that way to be a comment about behavior, not person. The choice of the word 'asshole' is not accidental, either—it's a degree more intense than 'jerk', and I use it when the comment and/or the prior history of the account seem to warrant a more intense signal. Sort of like a yellow card vs. a red card:
