Wireless ‘Security’ Cameras - Planning Required?

[Athers1971]

For a Grade II listed house, does anyone know if planning permission or listed building consent is required to mount these wireless cameras to the property? The ones that work off wifi / batteries so no wires whatsoever. Attach to the wall with a fixing bracket and a couple of screws.

What about if it’s in a conservation area too?

Anyone installed these in a similar situation?

 

[Feltwell]

If they're small and discreet and easily removed if need be, I think I'd be naughty and just put them up. However.......

We had a problem with our house being targeted by some local little sods - a very unpleasant episode which only ended when one of them was caught identifiably on camera jumping on the bonnet of Mrs F's car. Mrs F works in a local school, the little scrotes were targetting her as a result.

Anyway - when we first had problems I rushed out and put up just the cameras you describe, in fact I still have them in the garage, must sell them! Battery powered, they don't record constantly, they only record and raise an alert if they see movement. Trouble is, they see an awful lot of movement - monitoring our driveway, 6 of us coming and going, the postman, parcel delivery men, and every time a sparrow flew within range - and we have half the UK's sparrow population in our front garden!

The camera was useless, and was quickly replaced by a wired, always recording system - which was a pain to fit but which is much, much better - though to get pictures good enough for facial recognition at night you need to have a light on to keep the cameras in colour mode, infra red night vision is just not good enough on any camera to positively identify anyone.

You can get teeny tiny pinhole cameras - I fitted one hidden inside an airbrick, looking up, to catch the face of little scrotes hiding inside hoodies. Again, wired back to our DVR recorder.

But - for my sister, who has a learning disability and lives in supported accommodation, we wanted a camera to monitor visitors to her front door - we used a little battery wireless camera for that and it's fine, as there is little traffic and the area around the door is very quiet.

 

[RBailey]

We have a "friend" listed in a conservation area and they have put up two of them (one front and one back).
They work well, but there is some lag between detection, notification and recording.

I would also comment that they are good for detecting and recording motion for after the event but they aren't the same level of deterrent as a burglar alarm.
For that reason the "friend" fitted a wireless burglar alarm with external sounder (on the side of the house, moderately visible) as well.

Cheers,
Richard B.

 

[Feltwell]

I would also comment that they are good for detecting and recording motion for after the event but they aren't the same level of deterrent as a burglar alarm.
For that reason the "friend" fitted a wireless burglar alarm with external sounder (on the side of the house, moderately visible) as well.

Yep, wholeheartedly agree.

My in-laws ran a security company and we're not listed, hence we have flashing bell boxes on both the front and rear of the house and separately the garage! It's all about making the thieving gits move on to an easier and less risky target.

I forgot about the lag bit with the cameras - you're right, you could walk brickly past one of ours and by the time it had picked you up and started recording you were out of shot anyway. It's a bit like why we've now got a low-powered LED exterior light on permanently at night - a PIR light triggers instantly, but it then takes the cameras a second or so to react and switch from night vision infra-red mode to daytime colour mode - by which point the person has gone past. Faces are only identifiable in colour mode - the constant night light keeps the camera in colour mode.

 

[fernicarry]

I forgot about the lag bit with the cameras - you're right, you could walk brickly past one of ours and by the time it had picked you up and started recording you were out of shot anyway.

Mine are always 'recording' in a loop but they only save the recording after a trigger event. You can configure how long before and after the event the recording covers.

Sadly they are made by that Chinese company that's now on the US black list so I can't in good conscience recommend them. Other brands are available.

If you are going to go to the trouble of hard-wiring then get IP cameras. Running CAT cable is no more difficult than coax and you can send the power over the CAT cable with a PoE switch or an injector. Outdoor grade CAT cable is available but you might also need surge suppression for longer runs. I can VPN into my router and watch live or playback recordings from anywhere.

Fortunately we don't have too much nefarious activity around here but the cameras have helped me track down the random places that couriers stash things when no one home.

 

[Feltwell]

My wired cameras are fairly old tech, co-ax cable connected, but the DVR recorder is connected to the web so I can connect via an App on the phone.

My one wireless camera - on the garage, where wiring it would have been a pain - was so unreliable, it really was a right pain in the arse! Every time it lost it's connection it had to be reconnected to the router with a very long CAT cable back to the house. I got round it in the end by putting a signal relay booster box for the house wifi into the garage, and plugging the camera permanently into that

Since then it's been good as gold. I hate wireless things - give me a length of copper any day, so much more reliable! My neighbour's wireless burglar alarm goes off when one of the many battery powered sensors needs a new battery. My wired system had hardly ever gone off in 16 years, when it has it was usually the kids getting something wrong.