Best Place to Put Security Cameras

You may be researching the best place to put security cameras in your home. Your home is made up of multiple locations – indoors, easy access points, garages, driveways, and the front and backyard. Here, we briefly overview each area for the most productive place to put your security cameras.

Indoors

The primary benefit of an indoor security camera comes with having enclosed front porches. Having a good line-of-sight is especially imperative for these areas. For these porches, you should mount a camera in one of the corners, facing the outside entryway to your home. Make sure this camera is still weatherproof. You can also put up a doorbell camera, which we’ll explain later.

Easy Access Points

On top of your front entryway is another key access point that security cameras would serve well. Other access points to cover include first-floor windows, basements, back and side doors, and any other place an intruder could gain entry into your home.

Garages and Driveways

The primary purpose of an outdoor security camera in these areas is to protect your vehicles. Be mindful of where you place the cameras so you can see your home and vehicles from an ideal angle and line of sight.

Front and Backyard

The ideal use of cameras here is to watch your kids and pets and ensure they’re safe. It’s also essential to keep others’ privacy in mind when placing your cameras in these areas, so make sure that the monitor isn’t placed in any large areas outside your home’s perimeter.

More Details on Each of the Demographics

Here, we include statistics and more in-depth reasons for our suggested home security camera placement.

Front, Back, and Side Doors

While it’s common knowledge that intruders often enter through side entrances, this isn’t always the case. Statistics show that 34% of burglars use the front door. You might also guess that this is where package thieves often strike.

Putting a camera outside your front door is the most central location to keep an eye on all incoming and outgoing activity to and from your home, and it can also pick up on blind spots. This includes the activity of mail carriers, package deliverers, babysitters, friends, family, cleaners, repair people, and more.

While this isn’t an exhaustive list, and in general, people are trustworthy, having this oversight gives you maximal control over your and your family’s safety. The best place to put cameras in this locale is above or near the doors.

For back and side doors, according to NACHI (National Association of Certified Home Inspectors) statistics, 22% of break-ins occur via back doors. That’s why installing security cameras in these auxiliary areas is a good idea – particularly a more sequestered door like a basement.

The potential for burglars to sinisterly lurk around any doors is reason enough to have cameras, but blind spots and vulnerable areas like the back door will hugely benefit from ideal camera placement.

Off-Street Windows

These are windows that don’t directly face the street. They are more prone to break-ins because they’re more private and allow visitors to enter undetected. You can use either exterior or interior cameras here to get the job done.

Doorbell Cameras

The best place to put a doorbell camera follows the same process as putting cameras anywhere else in a particularly exposed area. That is to say, place your doorbell camera exactly where your doorbell would typically go. This way, you’ll get full coverage of those sensitive parts of your home’s exterior.

This type of camera is beneficial for package deliveries. You can also use these doorbell cameras for private spaces in which you’re a landlord or homeowner to protect your tenants and the property (as in Airbnb properties).

Indoor Cameras

There are many different areas where you can install indoor home security cameras. These provide post-break-in security and also monitor your home when there are guests with whom you’re beginning to build trust, such as babysitters, cleaners, repair people, and more.

It’s also a great way to monitor your babies’ and children’s safety and well-being (as well as that of your pets!) while you’re not home via a Wi-Fi cam connected to your mobile device. Below we list some of the most high-traffic areas where internal cameras will be beneficial.

General High-Traffic Areas

Your children’s rooms, entrances to your home, the kitchen, and the living room are all high-traffic places where your loved ones spend the most time. While you don’t want to surveil your friends, having a security system is good as you’re building trust with people.

Hallways

These are where your family photos, valuable paintings and decor, and furniture reside. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have a camera or two to protect these valuables and prized possessions.

Stairways

For multi-story homes with balconies or staircases that lead to key entry points, cameras overlooking said areas are useful to watch for burglars accessing said entry points.

Off-Limits Areas: NO Cameras!

Adult bedrooms and bathrooms should be off-limits for cameras. It would violate your privacy and the privacy of anyone who uses these areas in visiting your home. Preserve the sanctity of these spaces and maintain peace of mind.

Outdoor Cameras

Yard

By placing an outdoor camera or cameras to overlook your yard, you can monitor any suspicious behavior, such as intruders scoping out how to break into your home.

Garage and Driveway

Garages are one of the weakest entry points for burglars, so they are often intruders’ go-to targets. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have a camera aimed at your garage and one at your driveway to protect your cars, bikes, and other pertinent assets. A detached garage will benefit from this as you can stay connected with it via the camera, and an attached garage will also benefit from an extra layer of security.

Optimization Strategies for Camera Placement

After deciding which locales to put your cameras in and outside your house, check out these useful rules and tips to maximize their functionality.

Outdoor

• You should install security cameras eight to ten feet from the ground. This is the sweet spot because it’s low enough that it will capture granular details but high enough that it is out of reach of intruders.
• Don’t point it directly at the sun, which can cause glare and high contrast, making visibility poor.
• Decide: Visible or hidden.
  • Visible: Visible security cameras effectively deter property crime but are also easy targets to be slashed down.
  • Hidden: Having a decoy or fake camera (a dummy) is always an easy and reasonable option, as you can back it up with a real one that’s slightly concealed.
• Weatherproof your camera! Protect it from the elements by making all the necessary adjustments, choosing a camera that’s conducive to your climate, and placing it in a semi-protected area if possible.

Indoor

• Hang it in the corner of the room because this gives it the best vantage.
• Don’t point the camera out the window, as this might reduce the quality of the image and thus the footage. This is particularly true if you get a security camera with IR technology, as the infrared light can reflect off windows.
  • If you have to point the camera out the window, put the lens as close as possible to the glass, and make sure to get a camera with excellent wide-range tech.
• Angle the camera so that it interfaces with indirect light. Be particularly wary of lamps, light fixtures, and, yes, bright windows (again!).

Best Place to Put Cameras for Smart Homes

Smart homes are fully integrated with virtual assistants for companies like Amazon’s Alexa. Their integration isn’t just with surveillance systems; they’re also plugged into other smart avenues like gaming, video streaming, and more.

While there isn’t too much of a difference between where we recommend placing a surveillance system for a smart home vs. one that doesn’t have this complete integration, there are some considerations. First, for smart home automation, it’s important to place cameras inside and out in ways that cover the maximum range but also give you enough breathing room.

Why is this? When you access footage remotely via these smart systems, you want a good panorama of your entire home and concentrated, specific spots that may prompt an alert, like a push notification. Choose cameras that are the least intrusive and highly accessible for your smart home.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of information here, so take time to digest it and plan according to the relevant details. Many of the topics we discuss have to do with ideal security camera placement for different situations that may come up in your home. From floodlight cams to doorbell cams to other surveillance cameras, we hope we have provided a detailed blueprint or map of where to best place security cameras.

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