Shed/Garden/Allotment Security

I am a UK GCSE Electronics student and as part of research for my coursework I have decided to to ask a questionnaire about the demand for Garden/Shed/Allotment security products. I would be very grateful if you could complete the short questionnaire and post your results below.

1.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Have you ever had your allotment/garden broken into?
Y/N

2.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Are you aware that allotment/garden break-ins and vandalism have been becoming extremely common over the past few years?
Y/N

3.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]How is your allotment/garden protected at the moment?


4.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Have you ever considered protecting your allotment with an alarm?
Y/N

5.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]If you were to buy an alarm for your allotment, would you want it to be designed to alert people quickly so that they could catch the vandal, or would you be happy if it just scared off the burglar?



6.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]How would you want to be notified of a break-in by the alarm? Would a form of notification that you notice next time you see the alarm be sufficient or would another form of notification be helpful?



7.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]What sort of price range would you buy this sort of product for?

 

1. No
2. Yes
3. Rear garden gate bolted and yale key lock
4. No
5. Both if possiable although alerting someone via text/phone would be expensive
6. Perhaps you could see when the alarm had been triggered.
7. £20-£30 but its better to leave nothing of value in the shed and take expensive items home.

 

thnx for replying.

can more people please try to answer?

 

1.Have you ever had your allotment/garden broken into? No

2.Are you aware that allotment/garden break-ins and vandalism have been becoming extremely common over the past few years? Yes

3.How is your allotment/garden protected at the moment? Bolted & locked

4.Have you ever considered protecting your allotment with an alarm? No

5.If you were to buy an alarm for your allotment, would you want it to be designed to alert people quickly so that they could catch the vandal, or would you be happy if it just scared off the burglar? I wouldn't dream of people putting their own life's at risk just for tools etc. that can easily be replaced.

6.How would you want to be notified of a break-in by the alarm? Would a form of notification that you notice next time you see the alarm be sufficient or would another form of notification be helpful? Word of mouth tends to work better than anything else.

7.What sort of price range would you buy this sort of product for? Something like this wouldn't be for us if you need to have an alarm down on your allotment then it's time to think again about whether it's worth keeping 'stuff' down there. Hel.xxx.

 

Garden for me, no allotment.

1. No
2. Yes
3. Shed: Door hinges bolted rather than screwed, hasp and staple for padlock also bolted rather than screwed, these items fitted to "beefed up" frame and door. Hasp & Staple/Padlock combo are fairly heavy duty. Garden: PIR Light.
4. I've considered it and rejected it too.
5. If I where to buy an alarm, I would want it to "Really" attract attention, most alarms these days are ignored, especially in cities...This is why I rejected it in 3 above, in general they are a waste of space and an annoyance to neighbours.
6. By the Police informing me they have them in custody, but lets be realistic...thats never going to happen as they are far too busy now they have thousands of speed cameras/income generators.
7. £10 tops, and only if when it went off it was louder than the QE2 in a fog bank! I've already said alarms are a waste of space as most are ignored anyway. To prove this to yourself take a walk around a busy city centre, track down an alarm that is sounding off and I'll bet you a pound of well rotted horse manure that you'll get there before the police do!

It would be better for you (although I dont know your full brief or exercise) to concentrate on actually securing instead of making noises. I work on two facts.

1. Keep nothing in it that is worth a theifs time to break into my shed/garden.
2. That I am more secure than my neighbours, and that that is clearly visible.

2 Months ago a shed no more than 12 foot from mine was broken into....mine was not touched.

Steve...

 

1. Yes
2. Define 'becoming extremely common'. If you are going to use this study in your coursework, you'll need to be able to quantify stuff. Has there been a 10% increase in 2008 compared to 2007? Has it been a 50% increase in 2008 compared to 1998? Are we talking worldwide, Europe wide, UK? etc.
3. Good neighbours and an old fashioned community spirit.
4. No
(At this point you might want to ask if not then why not)
5. I'd want it to inflict physical pain on the intruder, but I doubt that's legal so I'd give it a miss.
6. Not really. What would I do about it if I was notified?
7. £100 if it inflicted physical pain on the intruder, otherwise I wouldn't bother at all.

Have you any thoughts on how such a security system would work? You can't just protect the gate as an intruder could just get over the fence. You could use an inductance field proximity sensor, but that would be too sensitive and would trigger falsely just by people or animals walking to close to the fence. Ultrasonic motion sensor is out of the question in a garden setting, as moths would trigger it. Passive infrared would only cover very limited range, and would trigger falsely if not positioned just right. I don't want to put you off, and hope you come up with a good solution, but you have to consider all the options. Good luck.