Ex-ADT Galaxy 2-20, house extension and options

[Manny76]

Hello all,

I currently have a ex-ADT Honeywell Galaxy 2-20 in perfect conditions. I inherited when I bought the house, it was installed in 2010. It has the ADT external dummy box, plus internal siren and back-up battery. I have a bunch of PIRs and door sensors. I then moved the maintenance to a local company who charges me £90 per year.

I am doing a house extension. Literally doubling the square feet.

I am in two minds about what to do about the house alarm.

1) replace entire system with more modern system like Boundary. I do like the ability to manage it from my phone and keep an eye on it in real time. I feel a big blind with the Galaxy as I don't find out until I get home. Cost: around £800

2) keep existing Galaxy, add a bunch of PIRs and door sensors. Cost: around £300

What would you do? Are the new alarm systems like Boundary better than my ageing system?

Thanks for reading!

 

[GalaxyGuy]

How many sensors are you adding for £300 ? I assume for that cost you are you talking wireless sensors ? I'd much rather have a hard wired Galaxy G2 system than some ungraded (boundary is not graded yet) wireless system. The online calculator just quoted me £700 and £8 a month for a basic unmonitored system and that's self installed!!! If I were you, I'd add an external sounder (the new Texecom sounders are nice and loud) and more wired sensors.

You can also add self monitoring to your Galaxy G2 panel by adding a SelfMon module and registering a selfmon account (£1/month). This will then provide notifications and the module will enable remote control.

Disclosure: I run SelfMon.

 

[Deryck Tintagel]

Doesn't the Boundary system need a subscription for more than the very basic alarm?

 

[Manny76]

How many sensors are you adding for £300 ? I assume for that cost you are you talking wireless sensors ? I'd much rather have a hard wired Galaxy G2 system than some ungraded (boundary is not graded yet) wireless system. The online calculator just quoted me £700 and £8 a month for a basic unmonitored system and that's self installed!!! If I were you, I'd add an external sounder (the new Texecom sounders are nice and loud) and more wired sensors.

You can also add self monitoring to your Galaxy G2 panel by adding a SelfMon module and registering a selfmon account (£1/month). This will then provide notifications and the module will enable remote control.

Disclosure: I run SelfMon.

Sorry for the late reply, been so busy with the works.

The system is wired but the PIRs are wireless. In fairness they are extremely reliable and need replacing the batteries every 2 years. I would be adding probably 3 sensors at around £60 each, installed, am awaiting the quote.

My system is absolutely perfect, I don’t want to change it for the sake of it, but I want to be able to control it remotely. I also want an external sounder.

Am I right in thinking that the Galaxy G2 is a very good security system? Based on my own research it looks a proper alarm system, with grade 2 and grade 3 certifications, not like some of these DYI systems. It doesn’t feel right to replace it with something inferior, but with a shiny iPhone app.

Is the Texecom wireless, is it reliable?

My current SAB has its own backup battery, I think. Then there is the main unit, with its own back up battery, the RF, and the control pad. And 6 magnetic fobs.

I could install an internal in camera to give me a visual.

 

[GalaxyGuy]

Texecom and Honeywell Galaxy both offer hybrid solutions where you can mix wired and wireless. The Texecom offers a mesh based solution, where Honeywell has a 'agile routing' between installed wireless receivers (portals). When changing from one vendor to the other, wired detectors are generally compatible across panels. However, wireless detectors have protocols specific to each vendor, so you need to buy from the vendors range of supported detectors. If you change from Honeywell Galaxy, then you will need to replace all PIR's. You can normally pick the Honeywell wireless IR8M/IR8PM/IR800M PIR's up on eBay for around £35 new.

 

[Manny76]

Texecom and Honeywell Galaxy both offer hybrid solutions where you can mix wired and wireless. The Texecom offers a mesh based solution, where Honeywell has a 'agile routing' between installed wireless receivers (portals). When changing from one vendor to the other, wired detectors are generally compatible across panels. However, wireless detectors have protocols specific to each vendor, so you need to buy from the vendors range of supported detectors. If you change from Honeywell Galaxy, then you will need to replace all PIR's. You can normally pick the Honeywell wireless IR8M/IR8PM/IR800M PIR's up on eBay for around £35 new.

Thanks! do you think there are better systems than my G2 for residential use? Do you think the G2 is a good system? What are the main features that I will be able to add with your SelMon module?

 

[alan333]

I have a Honeywell Galaxy G2-12 and the Selfmon module from GalaxyGuy's company. Bought the module for £50 (about 6 or 7 years ago?), and it works great. It has an iphone app giving you full control of the panel from your phone (or any internet actually) just as if you were standing at the keypad in your hallway. You can customise the service to give texts/emails/voice calls for whichever events you want. It costs £1/month for 20 texts, extra texts are 5p, emails are free, voice calls are extra. Thus if you have it configured to only text you in the event of an alarm then all it costs is a quid per month. It really is a great hassle free way to self monitor your alarm cheaply.

I have no connections to the company other than being a happy customer.

 

[GalaxyGuy]

Thanks for the plug Alan It's been running for over 11 years now.

It's worth noting that the platform also supports path checking and free push notifications to the app, so you can configure all events to go via push and burglary events additionally as SMS/voice/Etc.

 

[alan333]

You're welcome Stuart It turns out I've been using SelfMon since Jan 2014, according to my notes.

 

[Manny76]

Thanks for the plug Alan It's been running for over 11 years now.

It's worth noting that the platform also supports path checking and free push notifications to the app, so you can configure all events to go via push and burglary events additionally as SMS/voice/Etc.

Is by there anyway to send you a private message on this site?