Buyers often tell us that they are concerned about how secure the building will be, after all they will be storing expensive equipment and valuable paperwork in the office. With the garden office being situated away from the main house, they fear that they wouldn’t hear or see someone trying to break in.
For years now many garden office suppliers have offered alarm packages. If your supplier doesn’t offer this service its easy to arrange installation of an alarm with a local specialist firm.
As with lots of things technology and the smartphone have increased our options when it comes to garden office security.
Now we like a gadget and we have been looking into options for remote monitoring of Garden Office HQ. We have been surprised at what we have found. We thought we’d share our findings so that you can consider implementing them into your garden office.
Remote garden office security options
MyFox www.getmyfox.com
MyFox offer two products that we can see being useful in garden office security – a security camera and an alarm.
The MyFox Security Camera is a neat little unit which you can control from your smartphone. The 130° camera has a 4x zoom. The camera has a infrared motion sensor which is highly accurate so that you won’t get false alarms.
We like the fact that your privacy is not compromised with the MyFox as it has a privacy shutter that can be closed when you are in the office. The camera also has 2-way communication meaning you can talk to your office from the house – guess this could be useful if you spot someone in the office and want to tell them your on their case.
The camera has night vision for crystal clear images of night time intruders.
According to the MyFox website setup just takes a few minutes with apps available for both Android & iOS. The app will alert you of an intruder and will store a 1-day video history for £3.99 per month or a 7-day history for £7.99 a month.
The MyFox security camera costs £169 for a camera that sits on a surface. You can also order a wall mount for £24.99 which could be a good option.
MyFox Alarm
As we said MyFox also offer an intelligent alarm system. Sensors are fitted to the doors and windows of the office, so far nothing too unusual. The thing is these sensors are intelligent and can tell the difference between a ball hitting the door and someone trying to break in. They can also tell when it is you approaching the building and automatically disarm.
Like the security camera you can control the alarm system from your smartphone.
They basic system comprises of 1 x sensor, 1 siren and 1 key fob which connect to your wi-fi This basic kit costs £249. Our garden office like many others has several doors and windows so we would need more than one sensor – you can by these singularly for £39.99 or a pack of 5 fro £169.99.
You can also buy additional key fobs which is useful if there are several of you using the office. The key fobs cost £24.99 each.
Learn more about this system at www.getmyfox.com
Transform your old phone into a security camera
Presence App
By installing the Presence app on your old iPhone or iPad you can create a motion sensor for your garden office and connect it to your new phone.
If motion is detected in your office the app will alert you. The free app comes with 50MB of free storage but you can upgrade this to 5GB with a premium plan.
Like the MyFox, Presence offers 2-way communication so you can communicate with an intruder from your home or anywhere.
The Presence website offers motion sensors and alarms that you can buy to take the system to another level.
Learn more about Presence here
In conclusion
For us we have decided that the MyFox would be a good addition to Garden Office HQ – we’ll let you know how we get on.