Home Security and Automation

Sometimes, things just happen. We had a number of home security folks come around when we lived in Sooke, but never took them up on their offerings.

Then this university student comes around yesterday and talks to Tammy, then comes around at 7:00 when I was home and shows what Vivint offers for monitored home security and automation. And for whatever reason, I found it compelling. There was a special deal (there always is) where they were trying to get customers in the neighbourhood and were waiving the initial costs for the equipment and installation in return for having the standard sign out front of the house. You know the one: small, says “ADT” or in this case “Vivint”.

So, what was compelling? Well, the technology for interacting with the system has come a heck of a long way. The control panel is a touch screen that shows information about the status of the system, and makes things that might be difficult, like bypassing a sensor, pretty easy.

The whole system also is wireless, and can be controlled via their web control panel, or from the apps for iPhone or iPad. It includes a smart thermostat (and I mean smart) that is loads better than the ones I was looking at at Canadian Tire last weekend, door sensors, a garage door sensor, fire/smoke alarm, motion detector, glass break detector, a light dimmer, and a motion video camera that has night vision. Here’s a screenshot I took from the iPad of me standing where the video camera could see me:

The whole thing just resonated. It was like I was looking at the exact system that I would have made if I was putting it together.

And their service was slick. When we indicated to the sales guy that we were interested, he had all the paperwork, and his partner in crime was along within 15 minutes and was installing.

They were both university students, from Lloydminster and Lethbridge, doing a summer job. They did a good job and the whole thing was done by around 10 pm.