I’m looking at protecting my shed with either a motion sensor of maybe the multi sensor. But got a couple of questions:
Although neither would be “Outdoors” they are going to get cold (its a normal wooden garden shed) - has anyone had any reliability issues or issues with putting them in this sort of location?
Plus the distance, our shed is at the bottom of the garden (maybe 15-20m away) and the signal would have to go through a solid brick wall then the shed itself - think it’ll reach?
Are there better devices to do this sort of thing? I know there are dedicated garden shed alarms but they are only entry type alarms (go off when the contact are separated) which isnt ideal with you are at work…all it’ll do is annoy your neighbours.
My dad’s got a motion sensor in his shed, also wooden. Has not had any issues. He’s had it out there since November/December. Lives in TX so it does not get as cold like the north does. Not sure how well it will do in the summer, since it gets over 100.
I have a ST motion sensor in a metal post box at the end of my driveway which is around 15 metres away. It hasn’t been very cold this winter in the UK so far but I’ve had one or two cold mornings down to -3c with no issues with the sensor.
I use and Aeon Multi in my garage. It has survived two Chicago winters of temps down to -10F. I keep it plugged in to USB power, which seems to be much more reliable.
If you have problems with range, add a mains powered Zwave device on the outside of your main structure and perform a zwave repair.
Thanks for the info all, I’m in the UK too so maybe it’ll be ok. I guess only way to find out the range would be to actually try it. I have a ST plug as the closest device so I will see if that does the trick.
Just thought i’d report back, I ordered the ST Motion Sensors and installed it today. The signal reaches which was half the battle but now to see how it stands up to the great British weather!
If I remember I will report back in a few weeks to see how badly battery life is affected as I also ordered another which is sat inside at the same time - be a good comparison.
Don’t know if that has anything to do with it being in a shed. Out of my dozens of sensors I barely go 2 weeks without at least one sensor locking up and needing a reset. This seems to be the way of things with smartthings.
I just wanted to compare the battery life between one indoors vs ‘outdoors’. On all the paperwork ST says that it could be “seriously impacted” so don’t want to be outside changing them all the time.
Getting a couple of false alarms over the past 24 hours, might need to rethink the placement as I think the wind is slightly moving the doors
yes, the ST motion sensor seems to be extremely sensitive to even inanimate objects hence good for detecting letters in a post box! On the downside it may give false alarms in your environment.
Hi guys, sorry to restart the thread. I am going to add a zwave motion sensor to our garden shed. What does everyone do to alert you to a break in. During the night, phones, Alexa etc are silenced, so how are you alerted. Our alarm system is a separate.
I had the same concerns over the most common option of a Yale Shed Alarm.
As I have also been considering a new alarm system for the house and I am looking at a wired panel I have been looking at running a wired sensor from the out building to the panel along with mains power. I would run these in a pipe underground.
Unfortunately for many people these days the majority of home alarm systems are wireless only which would preclude this option. Again as you indicate the distance and house walls might make using a wireless sensor unfeasible.
I am using a wireless system and it works very well, you can add sensore etc as you go without the need for extra wiring. zwave works well over distance. Our alarm system will also make the distance, but it is pointless if the alarm system is not on. This is why I want to add a motion sensor to our smart home system.
In the end I went for some of the Sensitive Strips on the doors (as they are outdoor rated and 10 year battery) and then one of the Aeon labs MultiSensors, which is powered via a USB powerbank (lasts much longer than the internal CR batteries). I did also consider solar charging the battery bank, but it doesnt run out often enough to by worried about.
It was a little difficult to get the placement right on the multisensors as anything can set it off, but a bit of messing about and you get it sorted. If you was made of money, you could always buy two of them and only have them activate if both agree on motion? (With something like Trend Setter or WebCoRE).
Edit:
The thing which is killing me at the moment is the slow response in terms of SmartThings push notifications (known problem if you read the forums) and they’ve done away with SMS in the UK. So I now have limited ways of ST letting me know something is wrong if im out of the house…annoying but still better than a stand alone system.
I haven’t got around to sorting out the SMS workaround, but thought it as worth replying to this because my smartthings alarm is pretty kickass imho : D
Basically, battery powered door sensor in the shed, and a 12v (?) siren/strobe for about a fiver off amazon along with a 12v (?) DC PSU and a smartplug.
Because I like a visual deterrent too, I have one of those blue strobe-y ‘fake’ battery powered alarm boxes too to show when the alarm is active too, again, powered by a DC PSU and smartplug.
Add a few rules etc into the mix and the end result is a visible blue strobe on the shed (been working for more than a year), and when I open my back door (has a door sensor) into the garden (garden is enclosed, so it’s the only way in), the shed alarm is automatically disabled, blue strobe switches off and a voice announces the shed alarm is disabled. Allows me to happily enter the shed without messing about needing to disable the alarm (or forgetting to!). And when I close the back door, so long as the shed door is closed, the alarm re-arms (and announces) after 30 secs and flicks the blue lights back on.
All works rather well. And quite simple. Obviously if the alarm is enabled and the shed door opens the siren screams it’s tits off ! : p
