Question:
I am having problems with construction site theft. Theives taking lumber,
plywood, ect while parking on the street and just walking onto the lot after
dark on new homes under const. I have been planning a solution or deterant
and wanted to get opinions if this would work. I have already placed 3
lites (dusk to dawn, motion), on the tempory power pole behind the house.
The lot/house I want to secure is 130' at front by 140' deep and is bordered
by a fence on the South, a deep ditch and main street on the North, and a
alley fenced on the adjance lot to the back or East. The West side of the
lot is open to the city street. Solution: Place 2- Optex AX500 Plus or
AX250 Plus outdoor dual beal detectors at the front of the lot, one on each
side, mounted to the fence and the other to a solid post at the ditch, then
run wire on the surface of the ground to the tempory power pole that is
behind the house to be framed. At the power pole I would have an alarm box
that is enclosed in a weather tite wood box and locked. I can have a
surface laid phone line ran from the ally to the alarm box. I can also add
a hard wired pet sensitive PIR sensor to the power pole to dectect someone
that may come in thu the ditch/ally. I would want this alarm consol to be
able to alert me by silent alarm, and not have a siren go off unless I set
it that way. I want it to auto-dial me at my home or cell phone or set off
some kind of alarm in my house so it can wake me up if someone comes on the
lot at nite. I live just across the street from the house under const. and
can have the cops there in a jiffy. The alarm ideally would auto-arm itself
at say 12a.m. and auto dis-arm at 6a.m. or whatever I set it for. Be able
to arm/disarm it by wireless keyfob from the street if I want to work
irregular hours.
I would move it inside once the house is locked up and set it up inside once
trime work starts since there would be tools in the house. Still keep the
beam dectors live with 1-2 PIR'S inside. I want a controll panel that would
be basic and simple that could handle two sets of beam dectors for lots that
are open. The Optex beam dectors require Form C relay (28V DC 0.2A max).
Would this work? My second question then is what brand of alarm box/system
would be best and meet these needs?
Answer:
I don't know enough about alarm brands to give you an informed answer.
I was wondering if you did receive any replies and if so, could you post
those?
I was thinking of offering a service out here in Indianapolis which
would supply camera monitoring of houses under construction. As a
builder, is this something which would interest you? I have not
approached any builders yet but would be interested in what you think.
Also, as a service, would you as a builder purchase the needed equipment
or would you prefer to have just the service -- camera monitoring with
recorded images supplied on demand? I was also thinking that a builder
might be interested in having an internet/web-accessible camera to view
the job site, probably with password protection. Does this appeal to you?
The problem with this service in your case is that it would not be
proactive; you get the monitoring results after the theft has taken place.
If I went with a solution where I supply the equipment, my problem would
be that the camera and recording hardware, probably a pc running linux,
would be vulnerable to theft itself. That, plus I would have to
weather-protect both the camera and pc, including supplying heat if need
be. Loss of power to the equipment, to a worker canny enough to see
what is going on, would also be a problem. Ideally, I would like to
supply a self-supporting (battery-powered) solution, fixed to a pole or
tree near the job site, with some type of physical barriers to equipment
theft.
There is a market for this, however you've already stated some of the most
important negatives that cannot be overcome. I tried this over 20 years ago,
with wireless transmitters and motion detectors in houses under construction.
The builders want the product but can't control what happens to the equipment
during construction. It gets moved. It gets stolen. It gets thrown in the
dumpster, because someone didn't know what it was. Someone unplugs it. Some
sets it up in a different place because it's in the way and it winds up
protecting a closet, because they don't understand that a motion detector can't
see through walls. You name it and it happens to the hardware. Then, if you
leased it, the builder refuses to pay for the damage or dissappearance of the
hardware, and likely wont pay you for any monitoring anyway, because builders
notoriously don't pay anyone they don't have to pay or if they do .........
they will usually not pay on time.
