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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Guardian Technology Meeting

Met with the guy from Guardian.  They offer all the technology based bells & whistles for the house.

  • Security System
    • The house includes the equipment & installation of a security system when you sign up for a 3 or 5 year agreement.
    • The basic unit includes regular phone line based monitoring for $40/month.  There is another model that runs $45/month that includes cellular backup.  The salesman had a good point in that the last batch of home burglaries, several of the houses had their phone lines cut, so the security system couldn't reach the monitoring company.  The cellular backup option uses a cell phone tower to report issues in case the phone lines are cut
    • We're going with the cellular backup model, we've also found out that the system is not proprietary so we could shop around for a better monitoring rate after the 1st three years.  
    • Also, we're adding a 2nd keypad for the 2nd level.
  • Audio
    • I was never a fan of putting TV's on the wall mostly for the audio reasons.  (I like my surround sound) so the only audio wiring we're going with is a pre-wire for the two surround sound speakers.  The price of the wiring is kinda pricey, but in the grand scheme of things, will save a ton of headache down the road.
    • On a side note, I ordered the surround sound 'in-ceiling' speakers that will utilize the pre-wire. 
    • The pricing of the whole house audio, intercom etc seems unnecessary to me.
  • Whole House Vacuum
    • While this feature is one of the cooler options, we just couldn't justify the cost.  I don't want to put the cost out there because I'm sure it varies based on home model & area.  It was just way too high for our liking.
  • Internet / Phone
    • The house comes "cat5 prewired" which basically means they're going to run 2 locations of cat5 to locations of your choosing.
    • Cat5 (cat5e is actually installed) is the standard for internet Ethernet wiring.  This cable is capable of handling both data OR voice (not both at the same time).
    • My understanding is that they wire it with a standard internet jack however, traditional phone lines can be plugged into the same jack.  So you can use this wiring for EITHER internet OR phone.  
    • We're using one for internet and the other for phone in the kitchen
Hope this helps!

1 comment:

  1. You are so right about the whole house vacuum...I told my wife we would get 3 high end vacuums...one for each floor...so she doesn't have to tote them up and down stairs and then go on a really nice vacation with the rest of the money we saved by not opting for the whole house vacuum....that was really early on in the selection process...she has used up the savings and then some since then.

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