Smart home monitoring company HomeSecure has unveiled a new subscription service and hardware partnership aimed at making monitoring more affordable for home owners and opening it up to renters.
The new service eliminates the hardware costs of installing the system, providing everything for a €99 installation charge and a monthly subscription fee that can work out about €1.15 a day.
The entire system is wireless, which means it is flexible and can be installed easily in any home or apartment, and easily removed.
The subscription service sees Home Secure partner with Ajax Systems, which sells security services to more than 80 countries and developed the new system with industry leading software and hardware tailor-made for Irish homes.
It will allow customers to add extras to the traditional alarm system including live motion detection, camera streaming and smoke alarms, leak detectors and the ability to control everything from the HomeSecure smartphone app.
Hob monitor
"We have a full camera solution as well that we're ready to roll it out as well as external wireless cameras," explained Colm Daly, chief executive of HomeSecure. Other things currently being tested include a hob monitor that will detect heat from the cooker and turn it off if needed.
HomeSecure's own research into the home alarm and monitoring market in Ireland found a quarter of households had been victims of a break-in, and almost half of people surveyed had no alarm installed.
Of the households that had installed alarms, a third had an unmonitored alarm and 21 per cent said they rarely set it when they left. Despite this, 68 per cent said they would feel safer with a home monitoring service, particularly among renters, and 70 per cent felt the monitored services were too expensive. HomeSecure is targeting this market with its new service, with a new website launching on Sunday.
