Every installation can be different – even two houses right next door to each other. However, at the time of writing, it is easy to guesstimate that the following equipment costs usually apply for a quality basic system:
- 4 channel Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with four camera’s: £250
- 8 Channel DVR with four cameras: £350
- Additional cameras are usually around £50 each
- The size of hard disk drives will obviously play a part in the pricing of a system – with larger hard drives able to accommodate longer storage duration’s.
There are cheaper options on popular auction sites, but as the saying goes: you usually get what you pay for. From personal experience, and having installed a few of the cheaper camera and DVR options, it’s easy to see that in the long run it is usually more economical to install more expensive cameras. A typical £10 camera can often fail within a year, a £50 camera can last for decades – and will often be able to used with upgraded DVR options.
This is the cost for the actual cameras. On top of these costs you will need to add installation costs, which often includes additional extras such as cabling, crimps, and plug ends.
As a guide, you can expect to pay around £300 to install a 4 camera system. Each additional camera may cost anything from £50 to £100 for the installation cost. However, this is simply a guide, and may vary greatly depending on your own premises – with some premises actually being cheaper.
What are the factors which affect installation costs?
The costs can vary greatly depending on where you wish to install your system within your property.
The next major factor is how you wish to run the cables to each camera, and the positioning of each camera. The easiest, and fastest method being to run the cables externally, inside conduit, or by using external UV resistant cable clipped directly to the building. The ideal, but obviously pricier method being to drill out behind the camera installation location and feed the wires directly into the building. This will obviously require an hole up to 20mm in diameter but this will be invisible once the camera is installed over it. The hole needs to be this big to accommodate the camera plugs being fed into the building.