Home intercoms allow you to communicate clearly and easily from room to room throughout your home, as well as from outside areas like gates and entranceways. Intercoms also help make your home more secure by allowing you to know who’s at a door before answering it, monitor a child’s room remotely, or stay in touch with a sick family member in another room.
This guide will review the types of intercom systems so you can feel confident you’re making the best selection for your lifestyle, home and family. Intercoms may be wired systems, which are typically installed when a home is built and often included as part of a home networking/structured media solution, or wireless systems, which function using radio waves.
Wired Intercom Systems
Wired intercom systems for homes are more easily installed when a house is under construction. Still, it is possible to retrofit a wired system if you aren’t intimidated by installing behind-the-wall wiring.
They can be installed as part of a whole-house, structured media plan, which may include a security/surveillance system and home automation.
The master station, or control panel, is hard-wired into your electrical system. The low-voltage wires that support the substations in rooms throughout your home or at your front door or entry gate are run behind the walls or outside from each substation to the master station.
A wired system is closed. No one outside the system, such as someone with a similar intercom or other device operating on the same radio frequency, can listen in.
Wired systems operate with little interference from outside sources such as a microwave or other wireless device.
A wired system offers high-quality sound throughout the home. There are no dead spots where an intercom doesn’t work and no quality loss for substations that are farther away from the master station.
Wireless Intercom Systems
Wireless intercom systems for homes are a cost-effective choice. They are the best intercoms for DIYers who want to add an intercom to an existing dwelling.
Wireless intercoms can be up and running within minutes of installation. The master station and substations all plug into ordinary electrical outlets or operate on batteries.
Wireless substations are completely portable. You can move them from room to room, anywhere an outlet is located.
Additional substations can be easily added later if your needs change. Just be sure the new ones are compatible with the ones you have.
Depending on the range of your system, you can use a wireless intercom in an outbuilding, such as a detached garage or workshop, allowing you to stay connected to home even when outside.
Most wireless systems operate at a range of 1,000 to 1,500 feet.
Video Intercom Systems
Most standalone intercom systems for homes are audio only, meaning you can talk and listen from station to station, but you can’t see the person you’re talking to. However, video systems with 2-way intercom cameras are becoming more affordable and available. A video intercom includes a camera, with a monitor at the control panel.
They’re the best intercoms for monitoring a child’s room or keeping an eye on an ill family member. With a video intercom, you can also see who’s at the front door or entry gate while you’re talking with them.
Smart Doorbells
Some smart doorbells, which connect to your home's wireless network, act as intercoms that allow you to speak to someone at your door. Depending on which smart doorbell you select, you can carry on a conversation via your smartphone, tablet or a voice-enabled smart device in your home. Even if you aren’t home, you may be able to use a smart doorbell app to talk to whoever is standing outside your house.
While there are smart doorbells that have video capability, it only works one way. You can see who is at your door, but typically, they can’t see you.
Smart doorbells can be connected to your wireless network or to an existing wired doorbell connection.
Special Features of Intercom Systems
Voice-activated systems allow you to answer a call from the front door or another room without having to leave your chair or interrupt your task to push a button. Voice-activated systems are also helpful for people with limited mobility or who may be confined to a bed. They can call for help without having to get up or struggle to reach a button.
Radio or other music piped throughout your home is a feature of some intercom systems, usually wired ones. Turn the music on at the master station and listen to it wherever an intercom substation is installed. This feature is perfect for a party or if you want to enjoy music as you move from room to room.
Components of Intercom Systems
Whether wired or wireless, the main components of an intercom system consist of the control panel, or master station, and substations with speakers.
The master station is the control panel. It contains the electronic circuitry for the intercom system. It may include the power switch for the entire system, as well as radio or other music distribution controls.
Some basic systems only allow you to talk from a substation to the master station, rather than from substation to substation. Keep this limitation in mind when you are shopping for a system.
Substations, also called remote stations, consist of a speaker, which can deliver audio and act as a microphone during a reply, and a switch to transfer from listen to talk modes.
Check the range on wireless substations if you’re planning to install one in an outbuilding or at a gated entry. The range of wired substations is limited only by how far you are willing and able to run the wires connecting it.
Outside substations, often installed at an entry door and with a doorbell, allow you to know who is ringing the bell without having to open the door.
More complex intercom systems allow you to talk from substation to substation, rather than having to go through the master station, and offer a privacy setting, which turns off a substation at the substation itself, rather than only at the master station.
Intercom systems for homes can let you easily talk to people in other rooms of your house. They can also add to your home’s security, especially if you opt for a video intercom or smart doorbell that lets you hear and see who is outside your house.
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