To see healthy choices for baby monitors, click here.
Introduction
Many people want surveillance cameras around their home and property for safety. This is accomplished these days with a wide variety of wireless cameras and microphones available on the market today.
The problem is, these wireless cameras emit strong radio frequency EMFs that can cause ill health for the whole family, particularly in bedrooms. Even if the camera and its transmitter are several feet away from where you sleep or sit, the RF level can easily exceed internationally accepted safe exposure levels for nighttime exposure as set by the EMF Safety Community and the building biology profession.
To provide a safe sleeping and living environment for everyone, we recommend using a hardwired device with a microphone and camera for your surveillance system. These would be connected to a monitor of some type (cellphone, tablet, laptop, closed-circuit TV) in another room with an Ethernet, telephone or coaxial connection.
Surveillance Cameras
One option is to use any camera and microphone that has a hardwired Ethernet connection. Here are several choices that have an Ethernet port on the back or on a cable that you can plug an Ethernet cable into:
One option uses a Realink hardwired IP camera, model RLC-820A, available from Amazon for $89 by clicking here. It is a camera and microphone combo that gets its power over Ethernet cable. It uses hardwired connectivity technology, not WiFi. I did not measure WiFi nor Bluetooth when I evaluated this camera/microphone at a client’s house. It does require a hardwired Ethernet connection to your router. See below for discussion of hardwired options.
Another option is the D-Link Indoor HD Security Camera with Day & Night Vision, Motion and Sound Detection, Model DCS-2132L-ES. The wireless transmitter shuts off when you plug in an Ethernet cable. Unfortunately, D-Link has discontinued this model, but you will be able to find it, new or used, on E-bay, by clicking here. (I found that the WiFi does not shut off when I plugged an Ethernet cable into D-Link’s newer model of Indoor WiFi Camera, Model DCS-8525LH-US, and synched it up with a router.)
You would plug an Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on the back of the camera/microphone of the D-Link Model DCS-2132L-ES (if you can get it on eBay). I have verified that when you plug in an Ethernet cable that is connected to a working router, the Wi-Fi shuts off and is disabled. The camera and microphone work by sending images and sound from your child’s bedroom over the Ethernet cable. You then go online on your desktop or laptop computer to D-Link’s secure website to see and hear your sleeping baby. See the discussion below regarding how to get an Ethernet cable from your camera to your router in a hardwired way.
A third option is the D-Link Indoor Security Camera 2 Way Audio, Pan & Tilt WiFi HD 1080p, Motion Detection, Night Vision, Record MicroSD (DCS-8525LH-US) (Renewed). The wireless transmitter shuts off when you plug in an Ethernet cable. This is what Amazon refers to as a “Renewed” product, meaning, “Product works and looks like new. Backed by the 90-day Amazon Renewed Guarantee.” See the link below for further details. Available from Amazon by clicking here. Currently, Amazon says this item is out of stock. You can try to find it on eBay by clicking here.
All these systems require an existing hardwired Local Area Network (LAN) of Ethernet cables in the wall of your house back to the router in order to work. Or, you could install power line adapters that send Internet over the electrical circuits in your walls, or Multi-media over Coaxial Alliance (MoCA) adapters that send Internet over a coaxial cable TV network in your walls. Go to the Amazon page on my Store page, then scroll down to either Network Powerline Adapter or MoCA Unit to see these choices.
The downsides are that power line adapters create dirty electricity on the electrical circuits, and with electrical circuits in some homes, Internet speeds are aggravatingly slow. MoCA has no dirty electricity and is secure and fast, but it requires coaxial cables to be connected in walls and coaxial jacks may not be conveniently located next to where you want to sit and get on the Internet in a room away from where the router is located in your house. A hardwired LAN of Ethernet cables professionally installed by a low voltage contractor is always best, providing a stable, fast and secure network that you know will always work at top speeds without any EMFs.
Closing Thoughts
You can also download an app on a mobile device (cellphone or tablet) to watch and listen that way, although that would be exposed to radio frequency EMFs from the cell phone or iPad being used as a monitor. You can, however, connect your iPhone and iPad to the web in a hardwired way while it is set to Airplane Mode. Click here for details.
Your Low Voltage/AV or security contractor may have other hardwired solutions to offer to you to set up a surveillance camera system for your house without Wi-Fi.
BBEC, EMRS, Certified Building Biology™ Environmental Consultant and Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist and Healthy New Building and Remodeling Consultant. Providing On-Site EMF Evaluations for Existing and New Homes and Offices in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Diego Counties and Nationwide by Telephone and Skype. Based upon the principles of Building Biology™.
