Hi - in the next months i’m going to replace my home security system. I’m opening this thread with the aim of gathering information on the state of the art in 2026 for home intrusion detection systems and their interoperability with openHAB. Thank you for any contribution you can make to the discussion.
About me, i’m looking for a system that is 1) fully independent, so it can operate even if my OH server is temporary down 2) must be able to communicate as much as possible with OH, so report sensor state, contacts, alarms and so on 3) internet reachability for basic control 4) A plus would be the ability to add other types of sensors, such as flood sensors, carbon monoxide detectors, etc.
Personal opinion: Your points 2 and 3 already deviate from “state of the art”. You do not want a home security system being controlled through a way less secure home automation system - you don’t even want it to be connected to it. And you do not want it to be reachable via Internet…
Security starts with thinking secure 
PS: Your point 4 also deviates. You should have distinct estimations/requirements on segregation of duties: Intrusion detection, inhabitant protection, security automation, home operations automation and so on.
I kind of tend to agree with @daabm nowadays.
Neverteless, just for info I have been using a Cytech Comfort ( https://www.cytech.biz/ ) alarm system for the last 14 years that I have connected to OpenHab. In my case is via KNX protocol but it can be also integrated via serial or Ethernet. There are also who has managed to build a Cytech to MQTT Bridge ( See github repository here)
It complies with you requiments 1, 2 and 4. For requirement 3 you need to use some kind of VPN or eventually the myopenhab remote access.
Hello!
In my opinion, most alarm systems end up focusing on intrusion, and I don’t think that’s the only approach.
Also, most alarm systems only report something when they are armed (active).
After several years using a Node-RED based system, I ended up porting its idea to openHAB, and that’s how I use my monitoring and alarm system today.
A smoke detector can be a security problem, just as an open door can also be a security problem (intrusion) after the alarm panel is activated.
The difference I have today compared to a conventional alarm panel is that my sensors keep a record of everything that is happening in my house.
It’s easy to check the current status, as well as the history of what happened.
The difference from an alarm panel is that I choose the group of sensors that should be part of the “alarm” depending on the time of day, the day of the week, and so on.
Some sensors always generate alerts because it’s better that way, such as gas sensors.
An open window on a day with heavy rain and/or strong winds can be an alarm!
Therefore, you can insert several sensors and group them as you wish.
Examples I use today:
- Door and window opening sensors
- Motion sensors
- Presence sensors
- Power failure indicator
- Internet access failure indicator
- Smoke sensor
- Gas sensor
Everything operates within my Local Area Network and without depending on the internet, but I can access the openHAB panel via the internet to activate or deactivate the system and also to check the status of the sensors.
In fact, the only part that depends on the internet today is when I use my Echo Dot for some voice alerts, but this makes no practical difference, being only optional.
In the future, the voice alert system will no longer depend on the internet, but this is not a priority at the moment.
I’d like to learn also what the latest state of the art alarm systems can do.
I have a very old system (20+ years old) made by DSC. By itself it is not smart nor connected to the internet. I added a small ESP8266 programmed with esphome+DSC library. DSC Alarm connection with ESP8266 + MQTT This lets me:
- Use any of the alarm’s sensors in Openhab regardless of the alarm armed status. I only have motion sensors, but the alarm supports contact sensors or anything that presents as open/close so it can work with flood sensor or whatever else.
- arm/disarm the alarm via Openhab
- check the current alarm status in Openhab even when the alarm was armed or disarmed physically.
- get notified in Openhab when the alarm is triggered
The use of sensors is very nice. Basically I get free, mains powered motion sensors from every room in Openhab that I can use for my automation rules, E.g. turning lights on when someone enters a room, or turn on a wall display (Openhab UI page).
Because it’s connected to Openhab, I can control it over the internet courtesy of the Openhab cloud.
I believe UniFi is heading in the right direction with their Protect lineup. Combining cameras with sensors and speakers is exactly what I consider state-of-the-art intrusion detection and deterrence.
As for classic alarm systems, I think they are practically worthless. Most burglaries happen while the siren is blaring, notifications are flooding your phone, and the call center is trying to reach you. The reality is that if thieves have a tip about your house, they are just as likely to take a chance whether you have an alarm or not.
Don’t listen to the people telling you to obsess over every little security detail (“secure this, don’t open that”). The average thief doesn’t care; they just know they have to be as fast as possible. They aren’t highly technical hackers trying to penetrate and disable your alarm system. That takes too much time and involves way too many unknown variables.
Think about it from the thief’s perspective: what if they spend all that time trying to hack a system, but the homeowner has a simple, hidden wireless camera they missed? The owner gets a notification, calls the cops, and the thief gets caught anyway.
Finally, because OpenHAB has such a small footprint, I honestly think you have better odds of protecting your house using my alarm binding using sensors and stuff you already probably installed than relying on a traditional wired or wireless dedicated alarm system.
I agree with you that a “personal” system might be more suitable than a commercial system.
There will always be points of attention in either case/scenario.
When I started my system over 16 years ago, my focus was always not just on intrusion, but on security as well.
A water leak can be a problem, excessive energy consumption can be a problem, excessive temperature (fire?) can be a problem, very high or very low humidity can be a problem depending on the health conditions of those in the house.
Commercial alarm systems focus heavily on intrusion, while other factors can be as or more damaging than simply a door being opened after the alarm system is activated.
Besides that, traceability in commercial systems regarding what happened (LOGS) is usually limited to events while the system is armed.
As an example, we can think of an elderly person who is alone in a house, inside a room (presence sensor) and there is no movement (motion sensor) for X amount of time; this can be a huge warning sign!
By default, conventional alarm systems don’t “look” at cases like this.
For a conventional alarm system, it would be the opposite, as the system generates alerts when there is movement, regardless of whether someone was present in the area beforehand!