Upgrading from traditional monitored based home security

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Hello. I’m new to Smart Things and considering it for home security (among other things). Perhaps someone can direct me to a post that already has this info…

A little bit about my current home security setup. It’s a traditional system that’s hard wired into the house, but it does have a battery backup. We have 2 old-school keypads. There are sensors on every door and window, but all are hard-wired. There are no motion sensors. And of course all of this comes with a monthly monitoring fee where the police/fire are called if they cannot reach us or if the wrong password is given to them.

Is the concept of Smart Things home security that it informs the homeowners through notifications and puts the ownness on homeowners to call police? What happens if you are without phone service, on a plane, etc and miss an urgent notification? Do you just rely on cameras and such?

This seems to be the missing link to me, but maybe there’s a solution I’m unaware of. Especially now with the latest hub with battery backup, it seems to be getting closer to a really great alternative to paying monthly alarm monitoring fees.

Thanks for your help!

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My recommendation, if you’re willing and able to put a little work into it, is to keep the existing home security system (maybe switch to cheaper monitoring, I use GeoArm) and integrate that in with SmartThings. This will let you keep all of those existing sensors and make them smarter than ever, plus maintain the higher reliability and security of your security system. There are several threads about how to do this, depending on what kind of alarm system you have:

You can try to search the forums with your specific type to see if anyone has integrated it. My experience is with the DSC integration using an Arduino with the SmartThings shield, and it works VERY well!

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Hey @spoulos,

Our new solution Smart Home Watch will have a vast offering of security solutions (video, contact sensors, motion sensor, etc etc.) and will also offer monitoring other than security (leaks & floods, smoke, etc).

We also have offerings we’re working on to have official integration with different security providers for live support.

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Thanks @obycode and @kris !

Smart Home Watch sounds interesting… where do I sign up?!

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@kris Can you elaborate more on your reference to Smart Home Watch and when it will available?

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@kris

The recent offering through scout alarm only provides monitor center calls to police, not to fire fighters.

You know if there any discussions with other services that would be able to call fire departments as well?

Different people are looking for different things, but fire safety is my top priority.

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