Taking steps to secure a garden room can keep your valuables protected. An alarm system can deter burglars and notify the homeowner of an intruder.
Garden buildings often contain thousands of Pounds worth of valuables stored inside at any time. It only takes an opportunist intruder for your items inside to quickly go missing. Outbuildings are often targeted as they are easier to gain access to compared with residential properties. Timber door and window frames can be forced open and access gained without even removing the locks.
During the winter it can sometimes be weeks at a time between going inside a garden building, so you may not notice access has been gained until it’s too late. The dark evenings in the winter provide the perfect cover for opportunist thieves to help themselves to the contents of your shed.
Larger garden rooms, such as a log cabin or summerhouse may contain lots of expensive equipment. If the building is being used as a garden office or home bar, there could be lots of electronics kept inside.
Finding the right security system for a garden room can be difficult. Many systems designed for a shed will not provide the level of protection required. On the other hand, alarm systems designed for a house can be expensive and provide many features that won’t end up being used.
The Tiiwee alarm system is an interesting concept that combines many of the best features of both, making it perfectly suited to medium-sized garden buildings. We have been using the system for the last two years in our garden office summerhouse and will share some of our thoughts below.
Benefits of using a garden room alarm system
An alarm system provides multiple benefits but should be seen as the last line of defence. The alarm is there for when an intruder gets through your other lines of defence and gains access inside of the building.
A loud alarm will deter a thief and quickly cause them to turn around and get out quickly. The piercing alarm sound makes it difficult to stay inside for more than a few seconds. The intruder’s cover has been blown and they can no longer take their time looking around inside the property.
The alarm also provides instant notification to the homeowner and neighbours. If the garden room is not too far from the house, it’s possible to hear the alarm from inside at night. Just the sign of an alarm system is enough to stop opportunistic thieves from attempting to gain access.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Simple installation
- Great value
- Loud siren
- Expandable system
Cons
- Small remote buttons
- constant beep when battery low
About Tiiwee
Before discovering the alarm system on Amazon, you may not have come across the Tiiwee brand before. We also found out about their products through searching for a battery-powered alarm system. Tiiwee was founded in 2015 with the aim to provide good value home security products that are simple and easy to use.
The Tiiwee products are mostly sold through Amazon, so it’s unlikely you’ll come across their brand elsewhere. In fact, they use Amazon’s warehouse for dispatching products, allowing orders to take advantage of fast delivery.
The website for Tiiwee is focused on support and provides lots of useful information when purchasing a new alarm system. Each of the products has its own separate web page that contains a downloadable set of instructions. There are also video tutorials for steps such as carrying out a factory reset or connecting additional sensors.
Guide: Best garden building alarms
What is the Tiiwee Alarm System?
The Tiiwee alarm system includes a wide range of different alarm products that are perfect for keeping a garden building secure. The simplicity makes the system stand out, and there is no wiring required as each of the components can connect to each other wirelessly. Many of the systems are expandable, allowing for additional sirens or sensors to be added, perfect for a garden room with lots of windows or doors.
Each product is battery powered, with the power lasting for at least several months and often longer. Some models higher up in the range feature a USB port for an external power supply. Controlling the alarm is carried out using a remote control or keypad. We prefer the remote control option as it can be added to a set of keys for the garden room easily.
The system features a consistent design across all products. A white product cover allows the alarm to blend into the background easily without becoming obtrusive. The Tiiwee logo is visible on all products, but could potentially be covered over if required. With the exception of the outdoor siren, all of the products are designed to be placed indoors.
Performance & Price
The exact price of the Tiiwee alarm will depend on the system purchased. The A2 combination alarm is available for around £22 and makes an ideal low-cost standalone system. Larger kits that contain multiple sensors and remote controls will cost upwards of £65.
We find the Tiiwee system to be good value for money. There are not many systems that reliably offer the same amount of features and expandability at the same price point. The Tiiwee system sits in between a shed and a residential alarm system in terms of both price and performance.
We currently have the X4 alarm system that has been keeping our garden office secure for nearly two years. The combination of a motion sensor and siren in one package provides a simple and convenient solution. Our interior walls are white and the alarm is positioned in the corner where it blends in with the background very well.
Using the alarm is simple and we just press the button to deactivate it when approaching the summerhouse in the morning. The batteries need replacing around every six months and the alarm will make an annoying beeping sound throughout the day when the power level is low. Our alarm has performed fine through the freezing winter and then warm summer without any degradation in performance.
The 120dB siren sounds extremely loud, especially in the confines of a small garden building. There is more than enough volume to deter an intruder and make it difficult for them to stay unnoticed. If the garden building is far away from the house, an optional outdoor siren can be installed. This is a smart idea for making sure you and your neighbours are notified of a break-in during the night. We have not noticed any false triggers of the system and the alarm sound always triggers when expected.
A slight downside is that the buttons on the remote control are close together and we sometimes press the wrong button by mistake. This can potentially result in changing the setting of the alarm to the doorbell option. We test our alarm once a month to make sure it’s functioning correctly and we have the alarm setting enabled.
Alternative Alarms
Finding a suitable alarm system for a garden room can be difficult due to the requirements falling somewhere in between a shed and a house. As we turn the electricity off in our garden office overnight, we didn’t want to use a system that would rely on both electricity and the internet.
A very basic alternative is the Yale wireless shed alarm. This is a single system that contains a motion sensor and uses pin entry to disable the alarm system. A challenge with this system is that it needs to be placed in easy reach to enter the pin which may allow an intruder to damage it easily. There are also no expandability options for larger outbuildings.
Another alternative would be a smart home alarm system. The budget for these is often double that required for the Tiiwee alarm. The benefits include the ability to get a mobile notification if the alarm sounds and also activate the alarm when away from home. To use a smart alarm system, the garden building would need a reliable internet connection and electricity 24 hours a day.
Guide: Securing a garden room
Our Recommendation
After two years of using the Tiiwee alarm system in our garden building, we can recommend it as a great solution. At the same price point, there are not many reliable alarm systems that offer as many features.
Installation is easy as each of the components in a kit is already paired together. The siren performance is loud and we only need to replace the batteries twice each year. We recommend taking a look at the outdoor siren to provide a loud alert if the garden building is positioned far away from the house.
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