How Many Security Cameras Do I Need for My House?

Most Toronto homes are well covered with 4 to 6 security cameras. A townhouse or semi usually needs 4, a detached house usually needs 6, and a large home or corner lot may need 8.

The right number depends on how many ways someone can get onto your property, not on the size of the house. Here’s how we work it out on a free on-site visit, so you can do a rough count yourself first.

Start with the doors

Doors are the most common way in for a burglar: the front door, the back door, a patio door or the door from the garage. So every door someone could use to get in should be covered by a camera. For most homes, that’s two or three cameras before anything else.

Then the driveway

A camera on the driveway covers your cars, catches anyone coming up to the house, and records the vehicle someone arrived in. If you want to be able to read a licence plate, this is the spot for a 4K camera, aimed at where cars slow down or stop.

Then the sides and the backyard

Side gates and the backyard are where people go when they don’t want to be seen from the street. A camera on each side of a detached house, plus one covering the backyard, closes those gaps.

A quick count by type of home

• Townhouse or condo townhouse: 2 to 4 cameras. Front door, back door or patio, and the parking spot. If you have a condo corporation, check our article on the rules for installing cameras first.
• Semi-detached: 4 cameras. Front door, back door, driveway and backyard. Our 4-camera Starlight system is built for this.
• Detached house: 6 cameras. Add a camera on each side of the house, or the garage. Our 6-camera system is the one most detached homeowners choose.
• Large home, corner lot or long driveway: 8 cameras. A corner lot has two street sides to cover, and a long driveway may need one camera at the street and one at the house.
• Business: it depends. Entrances, the cash area, the stock room, the loading door and the parking lot. We plan these on site.

One camera can’t do everything

A camera can either see a wide area or see a face up close. It can’t do both well. A wide camera on the corner of the house shows you that someone walked across the lawn. A camera at the front door, closer to head height, shows you who it was.

That’s why we usually pair them: a wide view for the area, and a closer camera at the doors.

Fewer, better-placed cameras beat more cameras

Six cameras in the right spots will do more than ten pointed in the wrong ones. Before adding a camera, ask what it will see that the others don’t. If the answer is “mostly the same lawn,” you don’t need it.

Placement also keeps you on the right side of your neighbours. Each camera should cover your property, not into the house next door.

Leave room for one or two more

Plans change. You might add a shed, a side entrance or a camera for a new car. Our 6-camera and 4K systems use an 8-channel recorder, so there’s room for 2 more cameras later without replacing anything.

More cameras means more video to store

Every camera records to the same hard drive, so more cameras means the drive fills up sooner and older video is recorded over. When we plan your system, we size the drive so you keep enough days of video to notice and save anything important.

Do I need indoor cameras?

Most people don’t, once the outside is covered properly. The goal is to see someone before they get in. Indoor cameras can make sense for a business, a basement apartment entrance, or if you want to check on pets. If you have an alarm system, it already covers the inside.