I’m building a new home and want to forgo the typical alarm system. My feeling is that it would be redundant with a robust smartthings/zwave/zigbee setup.
Question - is there any alarm monitoring services that can hook into smartthings?
Not that I’m aware of.
However, though SmartThings has a lot of potential I wouldn’t trust it as a primary alarm system currently. Perhaps when the v2 hub comes out that will change but currently an internet outage or issue with the ST cloud can prevent things from working. Just look back over some threads from the last few months and you’ll see that this isn’t a theoretical worry. 
There are a few different projects that have integrated ST with conventional alarm panels. That can give you the best of both worlds where a service can monitor the alarm panel but you can also use the alarm system sensors with ST for automation.
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SmartThings is far from robust. If you have local authority response times that are short enough to make monitoring useful, install a conventional panel and use a landline.
Personally I’m going to use it for my business as there is much more options than a traditional security system. I think at the end it’s gonna be much safer.
BUT…
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I’m adding UPS for modem, hub and at least 1 camera. (Thanks for your comments @scottinpollock I also went for the BR1500G)
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I’m adding a fallback mobile internet device as internet backup.
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I consider any internet loss as an actual emergency situation with alarm ringing on my phone when internet goes down.
But I guess this wont be taken in consideration by insurance. On my side I still rely (also) on the traditional alarm for intrusion as it’s already installed in the building where I rent my space.
Regards,
François
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I use SimpliSafe and am pretty happy with it except for the lack of integration with home automation. I am hoping they decide to integrate with IFTTT one day as then I can at least have the two systems talking to one another. ADT has announced they will be integrating their Pulse platform into IFTTT. Although they are typically expensive. If I was to select a brand new alarm system now, I would probably go with ADT as it sounds like there will be a lot of flexibility later on.
Also, I don’t consider any alarm system without central monitoring a true “Alarm system”.
I would describe Smartthings a lot of ways, but “robust” is not one of them… yet, at least. I still have regular problems with actions not firing, which would be particularly troublesome if I was trying to operate an alarm system.
When we remodeled, we had a local alarm company install a pretty basic system through that uses Alarm.com. We did door sensors on all of the exterior doors, motion sensors on all three floors, and window sensors. If I had it to do over again, I would only install door sensors, motion sensors, and glass break sensors.
Maybe when the new hub comes out, I’ll feel differently, but until then ST just isn’t up to the task.
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