In my mind, there are a couple of different use cases and design criteria for a security system. First up is the purpose - in my case, and most others, it is to be alerted to a change in circumstances.
If I am home, asleep, and the alarm goes off, I want to have as much information as possible quickly. What triggered it, if there were multiple triggers, and what is the next escalation point.
If I am not home, there are really two purposes - one is to alert the person breaking in to leave, and second to alert myself or the police. (in some neighborhoods where other people are close by you might also want to alert everyone nearby, which a loud siren might accomplish.)
In all of those cases the ability of the system to 'detect' without being defeated is what matters. For me that means a few things. First is wired sensors instead of wireless where possible. Wireless sensors can be jammed without a ton of work, while wired ones are harder to interfere with. (not impossible mind you) Second is multiple layers - Door strike and window strike sensors combine with heat or motion (or both) at different places throughout the house.
There are concerns over the system itself - for example if there are known weaknesses in the panel, or the control module - but those are sometimes
straightforward to mitigate. There are some control system areas you should think about however - power --- it should work for an extended amount of time with no power in the house. --- comms - it should work, and be able to alert without hard comm lines (phones, internet), and it needs some kind of self diagnostics.
All of those things lead to my process -- first - hardwired. (easy since I was building). second - I wanted something I could deploy and control, not an outside company. I don't want someone outside having a schematic of my alarm system. third - reliable, fourth - ability to solve the power and comms problems.
In the end I used an Omni Pro core system, which is an OLD wired system that for me has been really reliable... like 5+ years without a single reboot or system problem. There are certainly other systems like this, depending on how you want to connect sensors. I rolled my own comm and power setup such that I have outgoing comms even with no internet, no power, and even no cell.
As you suggested there are a ton of other variables that go into it, but at the core I wanted security to be very independent, yet integrated with home automation. It will run by itself, but can work with automation. Happy to talk more over PM of course..
- and here I am worrying about a single 80m SMFO run so that I can get 10G on my server to switch (different areas)!
) pictures of each car.
