How to pick the right amount of security cameras for your home.

Security cameras give you eyes and ears inside and outside your home, making them one of the best ways to protect it. You can monitor your home while you’re away while also reducing the risk its broken into.

Everyone’s home is different, and you may be wondering how many cameras you need to properly protect your home. Does a single security camera work, or do you need even more than that?

It can be difficult to figure it all out, especially if you’re new to home security. There are, however, a number of things you can do to figure out how many security cameras you need.

Figure out how you’ll use the security camera.

Before you go about figuring out how many cameras you need for your home, you need to understand what you could use the security cameras for. This way you’ll understand what rooms or areas of your home need a camera.

Evidence

This is one of the most important reasons to use a security camera. You can use them to record various events, like someone breaking into your car or home. These cameras also store footage, whether it be physical onboard storage or up in the cloud, so you can easily share video evidence with the police. If you want a camera to record evidence, consider areas where you store valuables or are the most heavily trafficked parts of your home.

Deterrence

Burglars look for signs of a security system before choosing whether to rob a house. 83% of surveyed burglars said they look for alarms, cameras or alarm signs before attempting a burglary, according to a study from UNC Charlotte’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. 60% of them said signs of a security system would prevent them from robbing a place. Placing a camera outside your home in a highly visible area could go a long way to protecting it.

Monitoring

Most modern security cameras have the ability to stream live video straight to your mobile phone. This allows you to check in on your home or small business to make sure everything is okay, whether it’s checking on your baby or your pets. Many security cameras also come with two-way audio, which allows you to speak to anyone that could be home – whether it be grandma, a babysitter or a child. Cameras for monitoring are best used in living rooms and nurseries.

Alerts

When you’re at work all day, it can bring you peace of mind to know what’s going on at your home. Many security cameras have the ability to alert you based on a number of conditions. Some have motion zones, which will let you know when someone enters a particular area. Others have facial recognition, and can be set up to let you know when someone you know steps in front of the camera. You could use that to make sure your kids get home from school okay. Cameras for alerts tend to be best used at the front door and near your main entryway.

Consider the size of your home.

The number of cameras you may need directly correlates with the size of your home, whether you’re in a house, condo or apartment. The bigger your home, the more cameras you may need to fully secure it.

However, pure size alone isn’t going to determine your needs. You should keep an eye on how many entrances you have, how many rooms you have, and how many types of rooms you have.

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Back and Front Yards

The easiest thing to do is to look at how many outdoor areas you have. If you’ve got an apartment, you probably don’t have a front yard, but you might have a back yard or patio. If you’ve got a home, you may have one or both. It’s worth putting a security camera in each. One to cover your back yard entrance, and another to cover your front yard entrance, so you can keep an eye on people potentially snooping around your property.

One Bedroom

If you’ve got a one-bedroom home, it’s likely that room is dedicated to sleeping. You probably don’t need a camera there, but you could use one for your living room and/or front entrance; even better if you can somehow get your living room and front entrance in the same field of view.

Two-Plus Bedrooms

When you go past a single bedroom, the more likely you are to use additional bedrooms for other things. For instance, you may use one room as a home office, den or nursery. From babies to jewelry to important documents, there could be a lot of valuables in this room, which make it a good choice for a security camera. Of course, there’s also a living room that’s still worth monitoring. The golden rule here is to get one camera for your living room and each outdoor area, then add cameras based on how you use each addition room.

Unique Situations

Finally, you could just want a camera for unique situations, like keeping an eye on a liquor or medicine cabinet. Or maybe you have a safe behind a painting filled with all kinds of expensive jewelry. You could even put a camera in your garage or near your driveway, so that you can keep an eye on your car.

Ultimately, you’re going to have to figure out how and why you’d use each camera in your home. You could break it down like this: If you’ve got a two-bedroom house with a front and back yard, and one of those rooms is a nursery, you could go with a maximum of 4 cameras. One for the back yard, one for the front, one for the nursery and one for your living room.

If you’ve got a two-bedroom apartment, you would need 3 cameras: One for the back yard or patio, one for your nursery, and one for the living room. In both cases, you can minus a camera if your second room isn’t likely to hold something valuable, like a baby or jewelry.

It’s especially worth going through each room and area of your home, inside and outside, to wonder how likely it is that a robber would make their way through that area. Areas where you definitely think a burglar would pass through should get cameras, while areas that are unlikely don’t.

An easy way to buy multiple cameras.

Here’s the rub: Even if you need multiple security cameras to fully protect your home, buying them is another story. A lot of security cameras are sold in quantities of 1, which means it can be expensive to purchase a number of them.

However, there are some cameras that come in more affordable bundles. They offer some sharp discounts, with prices falling as much as $50 if you buy three or five of them. This will let you easily protect your home.