Customer Reviews

Savvy Guide to Home Security

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a book that covers several areas.

First, it discusses home security in a general nature covering all of its forms from intrusion detection to fire and smoke. It helps you to analyze and define what are your security needs. Determining your needs before you start to look at solutions can be a real cost saver.

Second, it looks at the various types of systems that are availabe. This includes prepackaged systems that are basically turn key operations. It compared the offerings from several vendors to make vendor selection your choice rather than restricing yourself to one offering.

Third, it looks at the solutions you could build yourself, either independently or in cooperation with one of the established vendors.

Finally, it covers what you might call 'living with the system.' This includes testing, day to day use, maintenance.

This is a general introductory book that covers virtually every aspect of building and using a security system for your house. If this is something you are planning to do, it will provide enough information for you to make intelligent decisions.

This book would be fine if you just arrived in the US from a third world country and wanted to learn what a home security system was. It would be a useful guide to someone wanting to hire a contractor to install a system. It was of little use, however, to someone wanting to actually install a system. I kept thinking I was going to get to the chapter that discussed wiring in series or in parallel. Or a discussion on daisy chain, or home run. I never did. In fact, there is no mention of these (or other little items like resistors) even in the glossary. It's not a bad book, it's just not a "how to" book.

If you are looking for general / superficial information about security systems then you have come to the right place. The book just didn't have enough real world experience with security systems. It did point you toward providers of basic home security systems like ADT but did not provide very much insight that a good reviewer of the product should have.

This book will not help you learn how to install a home security system... do not throw your money away, keep looking for another book. the 5 star rating above is from the publisher.