Greenhouses are not cheap, we all know that. But they are actually even more expensive than you might think. That is because there are a lot of additional costs of running a greenhouse. Things like electricity and all the supplies you need in them, of course, but then also things that many people don’t think about. And one of those things is a good security system.
This includes a lot of things. You need surveillance cameras to monitor the entrance or entrances to your greenhouse. Any master gardener will have valuable tools and other things, like LED grow lights, inside and those need to be protected. In addition to surveillance cameras, you also need a way to record what those cameras see. And ideally, you will also have a way to monitor them in real time.
In order to see them in real time, they need to be connected to a wireless network. You can then monitor them from your computer or your smart phone. This is great, because you can check out the cameras whenever there is an alert. And that brings us to the next point.
In order to get these alerts, you need things like motion sensors, also known as motion detectors, and sensors on the doors and windows and any other entrance to the greenhouse. This may include ventilation ducts.
Whenever one of these sensors senses either movement or some kind of entry, it sends an alert to your phone. You can then quickly look at the camera feeds in real time and see why the alert was issued. If you see someone trying to break in, you can alert the police and they can arrive on the scene and arrest the perpetrator.
Since a lot of thieves arrive at night, it is also good to have floodlights. Ideally, you don’t want them on all the time. Actually, you want them on, but you want them fairly dim, so that they don’t take too much power.
Then, when the motion sensors go off, the floodlights go to full power and light up the area real bright. Generally this will scare away any intruder, but it also gives you a much better view from the security cameras.
And of course, those cameras, which you can view in real time, can also be recording at the same time, so that there is a record of everything. This is important, because the police will want this.
The best kind of lights to get are solar powered. Then you don’t need to worry about lugging them in anywhere and you also don’t need to worry about recharging them. They are charged automatically during the day by the sun, and then they have that charge that will last throughout the night.
If you need to plug them in, you have to run extension cord from the nearest outlets and you also have to worry about power outages. When the power goes out in the neighborhood, or if a thief cuts the power, your lights do not work. The solar powered lights will always have power.
Battery-powered lights are the same, but you have to charge them constantly. This can become tiresome. That is why solar powered lights are better for the situation.
There are other security measures you can take. I generally like to add some fake security cameras, because it makes it look like you have more cameras than you really do. You definitely want a few real ones, but some fake ones are great to add in.
In fact, it is good to make the fake ones especially visible and to make the real ones less visible. This works to scare off thieves, but if they do detect that the fake ones are fake, they may not see the real ones and they will get caught red-handed.
If you have an expensive greenhouse and it is filled with expensive tools like grow lights, you definitely want to make sure that all of that is safe from intruders. Even a vegetable garden can be something valuable that someone will want to steal from.
That is why I suggest, at the very least, to get security cameras for every door, along with sensors on those doors and on the windows. I also suggest getting the motion sensors and making sure that you control everything from your smart phone, so that you have instant access at all times. This will keep your precious garden safe from burglars.