It’s becoming increasingly certain that we’ll be building a new home over the next year. I’m becoming more and more overwhelm by the little things, but that’s a different topic for a different forum
My current home has an old ADT Vista system that I converted to Surety some time ago and it’s mostly pretty alright for our needs. The alarm.com app’s arming disarming is a bit slow but otherwise it does what we need.
However, it’s super old at this point (maybe 10+ years now) and I think a new build warrants a new alarm setup, really don’t want to move this old equipment over if there is room to upgrade. Plus cut over is simpler if two systems exist.
The biggest hitch that I’m not sure how to overcome, is a detached garage/shop, currently I have a bridge (I think it’s called) and it’s wired back to the main panel in my house via cat3 cable. The rest of my sensors are all wireless.
So I think I need to understand what best suits my needs here. Assuming I’d need new panel, keypad, sensors (maybe some of these can be reused?), and some way to connect the garage/shop sensors (one door, and two garage doors).
I don’t really like the all in one units as I always worry about a break in where someone could just yank it off the wall and chuck it in the yard or whack it with a hammer to disarm it vs. currently they’d have to know/find the panel hidden in a closet, and get it off the wall or destroyed before the alarm sounded and called out.
Building new is the best time to plan this out, because you can prewire before the drywall goes up.
Panel being smashed: There are a couple of good ways to handle this.
Qolsys IQ Pro (our recommendation for you): The IQ Pro has no screen. It’s a panel box that goes in a closet like your current Vista, so it’s out of sight. For the keypads at the doors, we recommend DSC Neo HS2LCD keypads rather than the Qolsys keypads, because we’ve seen issues with the Qolsys keypads. The HS2LCD is a wired keypad, so plan a 22/4 run from the panel closet to each keypad location while the walls are open. The IQ Pro supports PowerG wireless and also has hardwired zones, which is handy in a new build where you can prewire some sensors.
IQ Panel 5 with Crash & Smash: If you go with an all-in-one, Alarm.com’s Crash & Smash protection is built for exactly this worry. When someone opens an entry door, the panel immediately tells Alarm.com that an alarm is pending. If the panel goes offline before it’s disarmed (yanked off the wall, smashed, thrown in the yard), Alarm.com still treats it as an alarm and sends it to the central station.
Detached garage/shop: You may not need a wired bridge at all this time. PowerG sensors have very long wireless range, so a man door contact and two garage door sensors in a detached building usually communicate fine. If that building is far away or has metal siding, a PowerG repeater in the shop fixes it. Since you’re building, it’s still worth running a conduit or a Cat6 cable out to the shop, in case you ever want PoE cameras out there.
Reusing sensors: It depends on what you have now. If you can post the model numbers on a couple of your current wireless sensors, we can tell you whether a new panel can learn them in. That said, a new build is a good time to switch to PowerG, which is encrypted, supervised and long range.
Next steps: Once you have your house plans, you can send them to us in a PM (PDF is ideal). We can help you mark up a sensor layout and a prewire plan (contacts, motions, glass breaks, smoke/CO, keypad locations, and cameras) to hand to your builder or low-voltage contractor.
This is great info, we’re finalizing plans now, should have those (hopefully) in the next few weeks, I’ll def share those over.
The detached shop is a longish distance for wireless 120 feet currently and might be farther even in the new build. It’s also a metal pole barn so wireless doesn’t really make it out easily.
I do like the idea of the Qolsys IQ Pro it sounds very similar to what I have now. However it’s good to know about how alarm.com handles comms too, I didn’t know this.
I don’t have that many sensors so I suppose it’s a good time to upgrade those too, sensors are rarely all that expensive.
Final point I’ll have cat6 ran to the shop it is now, I have two POE cameras as well as some wireless APs for internet. And will be running cat6 and low voltage cabling myself before the drywall goes up, so considering hard wire locations is a good exercise I think.
