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The interesting legacy corollary here is that it's completely bog standard for home security systems to be left in place when a house is sold. I say this becau
by commandar 9y ago
The interesting legacy corollary here is that it's completely bog standard for home security systems to be left in place when a house is sold.
I say this because the systems that ADT, etc sell these days are largely made up of white labeled COTS Z-Wave sensors with the security panel just being a hub and interface to the Z-Wave network.
The house I moved into this past year is covered by sensors for an old ADT system that are useless to me, and I've been slowly removing them and replacing them with equivalent Z-Wave e.g., door and motion sensors as I get to it. Whenever I move, I'll take the hub with me. Any sensors that get left behind would be almost entirely equivalent to an old security system being left in the house except for the fact that they'd be pairable with any system the new owner decides to put in place since they're actually standards based.
- mcguire 9y agoDo you have any links to information about standards based products? I haven't run across any casually, which is why i haven't looked.
- commandar 9y agoMost whitelabel home automation stuff runs on the Z-Wave protocol. Zigbee is also fairly popular for some applications; it's what e.g., Philips Hue runs on. Devices using either of these will generally pair with any hub with the appropriate radios like Smart Things. There's additionally a class of home automation stuff that runs over WiFi; they more generally have proprietary communication protocols and I personally avoid them for the most part.
- enobrev 9y agoJust as well, if you plan to sign up with ADT, they insist upon new equipment. I just went through this. We bought our house in February. ADT was sending crap almost daily so I called to see what they were offering. They absolutely would not use the 3-year old equipment in the house. Installation would come with new equipment. I didn't care either way, but thought that was notable. No matter; I wasn't interested, and I was happy to get rid of all the their signs and stickers.
- commandar 9y agoYeah, it's the reason I just went straight to tearing them all out. There is literally nothing ADT's whitelabeled sensors do that standard Z-Wave devices can't at a third the price -- or less! -- without tying me to any specific security company. If I decide to move to any other HA system, I just replace the hub and pair my existing devices back up. In fact, ADT's latest move seems to be piggybacking on Smart Things for HA, but... since I already have Smart Things what do I really need ADT for?