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Does anyone have a recommendation for film for sticking on the inside to make windows opaque? It is a temporary measure to prevent anyone seeing in too easily whilst a small shop is empty. It might be nice t ave other than a single colour. I know that Vistaprint do a product, but that is not well reviewed. Cheers Ferdinand

I am fitting a keysafe so that a) the cleaner can get in and b) there is a key in case mum loses her key. Two questions: 1 - What do you think about siting a keysafe. I can see 2 principles a - Make it not obvious so that it can't be found easily by people wanting ro break in. b - Make it somewhere you look every time you leave so that if it has been tampered with it is obvious. 2 - Is there anything that can be put into a hole bofore a Rawl Plug to make it more difficult to lever out? What do members think? Ferdinand

Thinking of the current weather, can anyone recommend a secure way of holding a Velux Perhaps 50mm open when no one is home, or at night. Not a huge issue, but it is a little too close to next door’s carport roof for comfort. The window is a mid-pivot version.

Hey all My tenants are pigs . Anyway ! I pay for broadband in the property and would like to mount an external camera at the entrance doorway and a camera in the communal lounge . i want to access remotely . Ideally I’d like cloud recording , say 1 weeks worth . Then when an incident occurs I can check the footage and evict the sh*t ( yeah I’m having a bad day )? any suggestions that achieve what I want ?? cheers

I’ve adopted a rather blasé attitude to security over the past 3 years. A statistical approach based upon not having cars that make us a target and hiding in plain sight with a house that looked like the one on street with an old sofa and fridge in the garden. I’ve come home today after the house has only been empty a couple of hours to find some things moved in the garden. My kids deny doing it and my 6 year old (not exactly a reliable witness) tells me that one of the things was not in its current position this morning. So better late than never, eh? When we moved in, the house had an alarm but whenever it got powered up it just triggered so we’ve had it switched off for 3 years. There are 4 PIRs downstairs in parts of the original house, the big box under the stairs and the control in the hallway but that was ‘destroyed’ during building works. So anyway, as it stands I have space for an alarm panel under the stairs and existing cabling (which I think is 6 core?) to 4 PIR sensors downstairs and an alarm box on the front of the house. I would need more sensors (wireless?) for other parts of the house (downstairs extension) and any door sensors. Cctv is a whole other kettle of fish I have yet to get into. So, WTF is the gen on the stuff I need to know before I speak to an alarm clown, sorry, installer?

It seems that Google/Nest are launching an "Internet of Things" full home security system, with an alarm, internet connected video etc: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41336093 Sounds an interesting idea, BUT, and it's a big BUT, would I want to trust Google with all that data about our house? Given their track record for what I believe is abuse of personal data, I'm not at all sure I'd want to trust a our home security to such a system. It's bound to become a prime target for hackers, and as a former IT security colleague was very fond of reminding us at any opportunity, you can never be 100% sure that any internet connected system is secure. The same individual was also fond of reminding us that we spent many times more on our network security, per user, than practically any other organisation, and he still couldn't be 100% sure our systems were secure.

Hi, Many of us have integral garages. My architect just assumed that we would use a fire rated internal door between the house and the garage. The door has to achieve three things though - fire resistance, security and insulation. Insulation - The garage and garage door are insulated and in my current house that tends to keep the garage temperature above 10C even when 0C outside. Thus the temperature differential between the two sides of the door will be low so heat loss will be less than on an external door. Fire resistance - Has to be 30minutes as per regs. Security - I have commented on many threads re security. In this area the main reason for house breaking is to try and steal your car. The garage has no side doors. I have sectional insulated steel doors being installed. These will use Sommer motors with a magnetic lock which can withstand 300kg of pressure. I am also having shot bolts put into the frames that I can lock if we are on holiday. But what about the door between the house and the garage. I believe that physical security is best. If you can't get into the garage you can't steel my cars, simple. I priced up Hormann steel integral garage doors the H3D and WAT40. They came in at £900 and £2300 which was a shocker. I could get a steel security door for around £300 as linked below. Or am I overthinking it. The door opens inwards into the house. If I use a 44mm solid core wooden fire door, other than maybe protecting the hinges and making sure the lock is secure is this enough as the door will be held against the frame on the garage side so hard to kick nor break through? Any thoughts? http://www.ajsteeldoors.co.uk/en/products/steel-security-doors/high-security-doors.html#/hinge_side_viewed_from_outside-lh/opening_viewed_from_outside-outwards/side_panel_1-please_select/fixing-brick_block_concrete/side_panel_2-please_select/overhead_panel-please_select/rain_drip-yes/security_trim_kit-yes/colour-ral_9003_signal_white_available_from_stock/letterbox-please_select/extra_keys-0/security_upgrade-level_2_stainless_steel_handles_security_cylinder/size_mm-895x2020

Just before I go and buy a wheel lock for my trailer, anyone got a recommendation, or an on-no-account-buy-this-one? Thanks! Ian

I looked into the technology being used and the data collection and security, some time ago (probably around 4 or 5 years ago now, when the first "smart" meters were being rolled out. There are a stack of issues with them, even though the intention is partly good. The major one hitting consumers right now is that each supplier came up with their own implementation, so when you change suppliers (as we're all encouraged to do to maintain competition in the market) then the meter needs to be changed as well, or you just lose the "smart" meter "advantages". The more serious flaws were that the entire system, from the meter data link to the storage of data by the suppliers and intermediaries, was open to malicious attack. In fact the protocol was so insecure that it was laughable, with virtually no security provisions at all at the meter end. Whether consumers would have trust in the data collection end, run by the suppliers is open to question. Right now there's no significant problem there, apart from the frequent "computer errors" that seem to effect the billing part of the systems some suppliers use. With the advent of control of meters and supplies by the suppliers, using their systems, there comes a whole new set of security issues that some could choose to exploit to there advantage (anything from crooks fiddling usage data to malicious interference with supply control). The annoying thing is it wouldn't have been at all difficult to make smart metering effective and secure. Adding hardware encryption to the data link would have been easy, cheap and effective. Making the metering systems all work to a common standard, with rigid controls to ensure interoperability between suppliers would have been easy, and not added significantly, if at all, to the cost. Focussing on effective incentives, rather than replicating existing energy usage displays and hoping that will change behaviour (for most it won't, as has been shown) might have given real benefits. For example, EDF in France charge different prices for electricity to all domestic consumers depending on their forecast load. It's not smart metering, it relies on radio, TV and internet warnings of the days/times when prices will be high. We have friends who lived in France for years, and they would always watch out for the price changes and plan their usage pattern to avoid using things like the washing machine during high price periods. From what I gathered from talking to them, this was commonplace; lots of consumers were used to just adjusting things around the varying energy price. Smart meters would have allowed that easily, and a simple display showing the consumer the current price and usage, with a short calendar of forecast prices over the next few days, would almost certainly start to do the same as what has been happening in France for some time (I think the reason for doing it in France had lot to do with their shortage of short-term fast ramp-up generation; they use a lot of very slow to respond nuclear plants). The real nail in the coffin seems to be that widespread roll out of smart meters in other countries hasn't resulted in any saving, if anything it's produced the opposite effect!