Without going into too much detail, I need to tap the knowledge base of power users and their expectations for highly effective equipment. I’m looking to install security cameras on the exterior of my home. A lot of the available options from the major providers are battery-powered. This is fine until the cold winter weather hits. At that point batteries last about a day or so (it seems). I have a SimpliSafe outdoor camera with a solar panel, but without direct sunlight it’s not too effective. (Living about 75 miles east of Chicago, we enjoy the PermaCloud® every winter.)
Plus, there’s the side of the house with northern exposure and no sunlight whatsoever, so a solar power option that needs direct sunlight isn’t going to work. I’ve seen that Eufy claims to have cameras with solar charging that don’t require direct sunlight, but I don’t know if that claim holds water.
Part of the issue is that we really don’t have a good way to run electrical lines to the places where I’d like to install cameras.
Has anyone had any success in situations similar to mine? Thank you in advance!
Can you get Ethernet to where you want to mount the cameras?
FWIW, all the installs I work on for outdoor cameras are always PoE (power over Ethernet).
That gives you maximum choice of cameras is really the only reliable solution for the long term.
If installation is daunting (which it is even for me!), hire a pro to run the Ethernet lines. Not free, but not really that expensive - especially amortized over the 10 to 20 year lifetime (or longer).
The flexibility of having power and data delivered over Ethernet is almost magical if you’ve never done it. A “slap my forehead” why did I wait so long moment for every client I’ve ever worked with.
To overstate the obvious: This is a hardware/infrastructure suggestion. Once you have PoE, you have many options for cameras, software, and systems - so this should be the baseline choice first.
The house is pre-wired for CAT 5 (built in 2000), but since Wi-Fi came on around the same time we never even needed to take the unconnected ends in the basement and get them connected to a router or anything.
But this is a very interesting idea if PoE would work on the existing Ethernet wiring. If not, I don’t mind getting someone out to do it for me since it would involve going from the interior to the exterior etc.
Thanks for suggesting it. Time to do some research into this option.
Most cameras don’t need gigabit bandwidth, so wiring Cat 5e is a good price/convenience tradeoff.
There are many suppliers of outdoor rated Cat 5e. It is harder to find Cat 6 and higher grade outdoor cables.
Maybe TMI, but “outdoor rated” usually means two features - resistance to sun and exposure to the elements (heat, cool) and resistance to water/moisture.
Still best to try and keep as little wire actually exposed to the elements - even with UV protection and outdoor rating, they can degrade over the years.
Water/moisture is key for buried wires - backyards, patio, etc. Some outdoor cable is “gel-filled” and that works better but is nasty to install. Another ground problem is rodents chewing through the cable. (Running conduit in the ground would be ideal, but raised the cost significantly).
I don’t think you have either of these issues with cameras properly mounted under the eaves or other high locations, just mentioning for completeness.
We have a variety of cameras on as part of our early warning system for predators especially the introduced non-native wolves east slope idiots mandated be released into our backyards.
We have both IR and regular cameras. A lot of them are Wyze, a lot more are bought off ebay as surplus that my husband refurbishes. It’s hardware, so I don’t know all the details of how they operate but I can look at the real time feeds from any of them on my phone. Some have sound as well. It’s important to hear when the guardian dogs are alerting to something what the bark is like as that tells us a lot about the type of threat they are seeing, a bear bark is different from a dog bark or a coyote bark. I know Wyze makes a variety of cameras for all situations and they are relatively inexpensive.