Have been trying to find a home security system that will work in my situation. Have a house & shop that needs both security & fire protection. The shop sets back from house 185’. From what I am told no wireless system will work past 100’. Thought I could hardwire shop and use wireless in house. Shop would need 1 smoke, 1 door, 1 motion. Any ideas would be helpful . Thank You
From what I am told no wireless system will work past 100′
Well, not necessarily. We’ve used repeaters to bridge gaps of 150-200 feet before, though there will be some concerns about environmental problems (dust etc for the shop smoke detector, heat/cold for the sensors).
185 feet is going to make it pretty tough to appropriately power the detectors off the panel for wired sensors. The detection circuits won’t be too tough, but resistance may skew a little high due to the length of the wire/gauge.
For Alarm.com service, you may want to think about using something like a Concord 4 alarm panel. It is more of a traditional system, with a can and keypads. There are 8 wired zones on the panel board. It also uses wireless GE sensors, which can be used in the home.
I’d recommend a secondary power source for the shop detectors, something like the Honeywell HPL624 with battery back-up.
The Concord also supports partitioning, so the shop could be armed independently of the house.
Typically you can find hardier wired sensors than wireless for the shop application.