Start the New Year by giving your family peace of mind with a new home security system.
Today’s systems take advantage of the latest in digital technology to make monitoring your home a straightforward process.
Before the digital revolution home security systems connected to a telephone landline. An automatic phone call alerted the central monitoring station that an intruder had tripped an alarm. The security company, in turn, placed a call to the appropriate emergency responder such as the police.
Later broadband internet service became commonplace, and it became the more natural way to connect a home to a sophisticated security system.
Digital Communication
These days more and more households have abandoned cable internet. Many prefer either digital Wi-Fi internet service or cellular service. Naturally, home security systems have followed suit, designing systems conveniently monitored by computer or phone.
This method allows you to see what’s going on at your home even though you’re at work or on vacation. Keep a close eye on that expensive package that’s arriving. Spot a suspicious vehicle that just pulled into your driveway. And you can finally see whether it’s your dog or your cat that keeps rearranging your sofa pillows.
Artificial Intelligence
The leap in artificial intelligence has also been a help to home security. Most systems now allow you to integrate artificial intelligence programs into your security program.
For example, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa will respond to voice commands to control your security. With a word or two, your entire apparatus or individual components can turn on or off.
Today’s systems allow you to create a highly sophisticated protocol to suit your needs. A case in point, you might program a specific safety procedure based on the basement windows. If an intruder breaks a basement window, the system immediately locks the interior basement door leading into the main house.
You can mix and match various components to build the system best suited to your situation. It’s similar to playing with Legos. The pieces allow for great creativity and expansion.
Let’s take a look at some of those pieces.
Cameras
A simple camera may be all someone who lives in a small apartment may want. Perhaps, she merely wants to keep an eye on the supervisor when he arrives to repair the kitchen faucet. She can sit in her office miles away and use her phone to watch him work.
Cameras can be stationary, or they can rotate either automatically or on command. There are cameras designed for inside the home and specially equipped ones for outside the home.
Particularly helpful are video-equipped doorbells that allow you to see your visitor. Is it the flower delivery guy or someone looking for a house to burgle?
Video Recording
Video evidence is an aid to a police investigation. It’s also equally beneficial in a civil suit. Therefore, many homeowners use systems that not only have cameras but digital recorders that capture what the cameras see.
Some systems continually record. When it reaches the memory capacity of its SD card or hard drive, it begins recording over the previous material. Re-recording may not be a problem under ordinary circumstances but could be under others.
Suppose you went on vacation. During that time someone damaged several bushes and shrubs on your property. Your new home security system may have recorded your neighbor backing his heavy duty extended cab truck over your expensive plants. But guess what? You were on vacation for so long that the system ran out of memory. It recorded over his vandalism.
That’s why some homeowners pay extra to have their security footage both recorded and kept in the cloud indefinitely.
Sensors
A sensor on a window or door will alert you to forced entry. A sensor can also warn you that someone is approaching your porch or turning into your driveway.
Lights
Some people like to keep a floodlight on all night. Others want a light to come on only for a set period, perhaps, a few hours. Still, others prefer to use a motion-sensitive light that remains off until it senses movement.
Locks
There’s no need to fiddle with a key in the middle of the night. Unlock the door using your smartphone. You can even program a system to lock your doors at an arranged time. That prevents you from turning around halfway to the airport to make sure that you secured your back door.
New Home Security System – DIY or Professional Installation?
If you ask very little of a new home security system, you might choose a do-it-yourself kit. But if you want to be sure that your home is well-protected, consider calling a professional.
A professional’s experience will come in handy. You might become confused about how to securely mount specific components. The professional has addressed the same problem many times.
He knows what works best for each particular property layout. It’s not a trial-and-error process for a professional.
Some household projects are excellent DIY projects. Your home protection may not be.
After all, why spend good money on a new home security system and then compromise the system through faulty installation?
