A member recently wrote in:
I’m looking a technology solution for copper theft, what do you recommend? Mostly mitigate wiring and copper theft. Also, air conditioner coils.
In terms of AC coil theft, there's this type of sensor: Linear's CC3008 Copper Cop that essentially is a tamper switch for the HVAC enclosure.
What other recommendations do you have, especially for building wiring?
This is an area where video analytics with remote guarding/monitoring has been effective.
You really don't want to detect "copper theft", you want to detect "trespassing in secure areas". The goal is to be able to detect and engage the person targeting the copper (or other high value metals/objects) before they have actually cut and damaged equipment.
If you are alarming on the actual theft or removal of copper then the likely outcome is that the thief just runs off with the already in-hand material.
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