In the age of home automation, it’s ridiculous to pay for home security
When my wife and I moved into our first home, there was already a security system installed, so it made sense to call them and sign up for the service. After a visit from a technician to install the latest control panel, we were locked into a multi-year contract at $45/mo for fairly basic services; security system monitoring and smoke detector monitoring. I have a friend who uses the same alarm company, but pays and extra $30/mo to have door locks and thermostat integrated.
We started using the system at the beginning, but once we realized that a permit for the system from the city police was required, we stopped until I could get around to filling out the paperwork, and forking over $30. I’m admittedly lazy and forgetful, so a few years on I still haven’t done this.
Somewhere along the line I decided I wanted to get my feet wet with some home automation. I picked up a Wink Hub and some connected light switches (Lutron Caseta) and set up a few “robots” to automate these lights. One thing led to another, and I now have a connected door lock, garage door opener, multiple lights, thermostat, smoke detector, and even a level sensor for my propane tank. I even picked up a Wink Relay which gives me and my wife a permanent physical hub within the home from which to control all of these devices.
I had grand visions at the beginning of my home automation days that I could eventually use it to replace our alarm system, but, as previously stated, I’m lazy and forgetful and never got around to it. We may not have been using the alarm system, but at the very least it was providing us some peace of mind to have someone monitoring the system in case of a fire.
Enter Reddit. User u/werking posted a thread on r/winkhub titled “Cheap Wink Alarm solution” which really caught my eye. It may seem a little convoluted on first glance, but basically with a little help from Life360, IFTTT, GMail and Wink, he made it possible to have a basic automated alarm system without the $45+/mo price tag.
To recap the post, the user created a Life360 circle for his family. When the last family member leaves “Home” (as defined in Life360), the alarm system is armed, and when the first family member returns “Home”, the alarm system is disarmed. Fairly simple, and easy to replicate.
I almost immediately put this into practice. I ordered a Wink-compatible security system (motion detector and 2 door/window sensors), set up the appropriate shortcuts and robots in the Wink app as described in the Reddit post, and installed Life360 on mine and my wife’s phones. It’s required a little bit of fine-tuning, with a few false alarms, which I’ve only set to create notifications on my phone for now.
Home Automation seems a little daunting at first; there’s many different systems to choose from, and seems geared towards the tech-savvy. But to I’m currently spending $540/yr for my alarm system (which I don’t actually use), and while the cost of some of these devices isn’t cheap, it’s a system that I have complete control over and am actually going to see benefit from.
