Hi DOIs.
Joey from Alarm Grid.
And today we're going to talk about whether or not
you can use the Qolsys IQ2 panel without alarm.com.
And the answer is yes, you can.
The system will work as a local alarm system,
and you can use a lot of the cool features that
are on the panel.
Like many other all-in-one systems, especially
non-proprietary alarm systems, when I say non-proprietary
I mean alarm systems that can work with a recognized alarm
service such as alarm.com or Honeywell's AlarmNet.
Most of those kind of systems, or systems
that work with that stuff, can be used as local alarm panels.
What I mean when I say local alarm panel,
is that the system, you can use all the features that
are on it, but it's not going to talk out
as there's no service that is connected to it.
The IQ2 has tons of features out of the box
that you will be able to use.
For example, it has a built in z wave plus controller,
and it has some really great z wave
controls and diagnostic tools that are built right
into the system.
That you're going to be able to use right out of the box,
and you will be able to control your z wave lights, locks,
and other devices that are compatible with the IQ32.
But you won't have remote access to this outside
of your house on a tablet, on a phone, or on your computer,
without alarm.com as a service on the panel.
Another thing with the IQ2 is that when you go to buy it,
you're going to notice that the new panels,
they come with a built in cellular module.
And the new ones you can get built in daughter board cards.
What the daughter cards do is they allow you to communicate,
or they allow the system to communicate
with different sensors that it's not natively compatible with.
A good example of this is the Honeywell 5,800 series sensors.
They work on the 345 frequency, and this system
doesn't have that built in.
But if you buy a new one with that daughter card installed
in the system, you will be able to communicate
with those sensors.
As the Qolsys IQ2 only is made with built in cellular modules,
the system is really meant to be monitored.
With this said, you can use it as a local arm panel
and it will work great as such.
But you're going to be spending more money than you should
for that application, as there are other systems out there
that don't have a built in cellular communicators,
and are a little more stripped down than the IQ2 panel,
and they may make more sense for a local alarm application.
The IQ2 is great.
Again, you can use it as a local alarm system,
but as it has the hardware built into it
and you can't buy it without the cellular module installed,
you're going to be spending more money than you really should
for a local alarm system.
Just keep in mind that this system
is meant to be monitored, and it's
meant to be monitored on dual path,
as it has a Wi-Fi module inside of it
and a cellular module inside of it also.
The cellular module can work on AT&T or Verizon,
you just have to pick the right one.
And that's only going to affect the signal
strength of the panel.
Whether it's on AT&T or Verizon, it doesn't matter.
It's just you want to pick the one that
is best suited for your area.
The Wi-Fi module and the cellular module in this unit
will allow it to do dual path communication.
What dual path is, is that with alarm.com
it's actually going to communicate on both paths
up to the main server, and the server
is going to discard the one that it gets second.
So you're always going to be guaranteed
that the system is communicating with alarm.com as
fast as possible.
Another great feature that you get with alarm.com on your IQ2
is that your security company is actually
going to be able to pull up the panel programming,
run diagnostics, help you with any panel programming,
and remotely download to your system.
This is great if you're at home and you're
trying to troubleshoot something and you can't figure it out.
Maybe you're away from the house and you
want them to update some user codes
or change some sensor programming.
With this system being monitored,
that's another benefit that you're going to get.
All of these things that you get with the monitoring,
Qolsys, when they made the system,
they pretty much assumed that most customers
are going to get the system monitored on alarm.com.
Now with all this said, you can use the system
as a local alarm panel.
As far as the security goes with a local alarm system,
you can set the system up, you can put sensors
all over your house, smoke, fire, whatever you want to do.
And if something goes off, the system will alarm,
the siren will trigger, it'll make lots of noise,
and it will work as an alarm system.
Anybody in the house is going to see it as an alarm system
still.
The only thing is, without monitoring, you're not
going to get that signal out.
So if this is a location that you're really
trying to protect, or if you really
do want to get the police or fire,
or ambulance to the house when something happens,
you really want to get the system monitored
with alarm.com.
And it's really best to get central station monitoring
at the location if you're looking to make
it as secure as possible.
With this said though, the IQ2 works
great in a monitored or unmonitored situation.
You can use it in either.
You can even get it monitored, drop
monitoring if you don't want to pay for monitoring,
or if you don't want that service for some time,
and then get it re-monitored.
It's a super flexible panel and it
works great in either instance.
So to answer the question, yes, you
can use the IQ2 panel without alarm.com.
If you have any questions about this,
feel free to give us a call, head over to our website
Alarmgrid.com, or send us an email
to support at Alarmgrid.com.
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Thanks for watching and have a great day.