Will A Home Security System Really Make You Safe
I guess that I am a little biased when it comes to burglar alarms, after all I have been in the burglar alarm industry for more than 17 years. I think that if you have a good security system, you will be safer in your home for a few reasons. So, today I would like to share with you the benefits that having a home security system can provide you, your family, and your property. I also would like to help you determine what equipment, protection, and service you may want to have in place for security and fire protection.
First let’s talk about the benefits of having a home security system
A burglar alarm is the number one deterrent for crimes against property.- Many insurance companies provide premium discounts up to 20% for homeowners with burglar alarms.
- Having a burglar alarm installed in your home can increase the value of your home.
- Peace of mind. Consider the financial loss, days lost from work, and the dramatic decrease in the quality of life when your privacy is invaded, and your home no longer being regarded as a safe haven, having a burglar alarm can give you a lot of peace of mind.
But I think that it’s a mistake just to install any kind of burglar alarm system. If you are going to go the time and the expense of having a home security system installed, then you should know what is available and how best to protect your property from home invasion, burglary, and fire. Everyone is different and everones needs are different, with that in mind I want to make sure that you get a burglar alarm system that is right for you.
In my professional opinion, you should have EVERY door and window to your home protected with something to alert you to an intruder.
There are many ways to protect your doors and windows.
The most common method is using magnetic contacts. These work by setting off the alarm/siren when the door or window is opened with the burglar alarm on. These only set off the alarm/siren when the door or window is opened and the magnet is pulled apart from the contact.
Another thing you may want to consider is that an intruder/burglar may just break the glass in order to gain access into your home. In order to be alerted when your glass breaks, you may want to consider adding either “sound discriminators” or “shock sensors” to your burglar alarm. This work by setting off the alarm/siren when they pick up the sound and/or vibration that occurs when glass breaks.
Please Note: If you have high impact glass, you DO NOT need to install any sort of glass beakage detection.
Most burglar alarm company will pretty much insist that you add a motion detector to your system. And while I like the idea of a motion detector because it can cover a pretty large area, I have cats and cats and motion detectors just don’t work well together. Of course, if you don’t have pets, then by all means get a motion detector.
Something else you may want to consider adding to your burglar alarm system is smoke detectors. The reason I am a big fan of adding smoke detectors to the burglar alarm is because it not only is a safety feature that shouldn’t be scrimped on but when the smoke detector connected to a burglar alarm goes off, is will send a fire signal to the cental station monitoring company and they will call the fire department for you.
Of course that means you will have to have your home security system monitored in order to have that feature and I would urge you to get monitoring. Think about it. Why install a burglar alarm system into your home just to have it set there and do nothing when it goes into alarm. Sure you may have a siren and the noise will bug your neighbor but in today’s world is your neighbor going to check out your house to see if everything is ok? We are all used to hearing sirens and alarms going off all of the time, most of us don’t even register the sound anymore.
Okay, that’s it for today. A burlar alarm can keep you safe if you have the right system installed. I tried to keep things pretty simple for everyone. Frankly, there are a lot of options when it comes to what you can do with a burglar alarm today but I wanted to keep things to the basics. Until next time, stay safe.
