Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: security in cohousing

[Joe Gotobed (jgotobed]

Security for me has always started with safety - security issues.
I'd like to have a firealarm in each house and the common house that
blasted a horn throughout the neighborhood.

But I'd also like a completely wired home alarm system which
is more generaly described as an aperature sensor system. Each
window/door has a sensor. (C0Ho included) . In it's alarm mode
it would of course alert when any were opened. But in energy
saving mode it would alert if the doors/windows opened while
AC or heaters were running. Add to that motion sensors which
could provide automated lighting (another energy saving issue)
And of course the motion sensors could work in alarm mode
as well. (Imagine you have a non-operating window that had
no sensor, but the burlulars broke it to get in.)

Now replace the door locks with keyless entry and you've got
the alarm enabled/disabled automaticly when you come & go. Of
course the doors have keyholes in 'em too for when the durn
thing fails :-). (you can pass out one-time key-code to service
folks so you don't need to hang around for the chiminy sweep).

Given a neighborhood network (e.g. telephone PBX can do this)
I'd set my alarm to accept alerts (fire included) from any of
my neighbors *and* the common house. And when I was gone and
turned it on then is would ring at the comon house any anybody
else wh'd set theirs to accept alerts from their neighbors.

Cost.... well yes as much as $1k per household. But if you decide
to retro-fit later it could cost 50% more for wireless...