Home protection and family safety are the primary purposes of a home security system. While this includes detecting burglary, a home security system quotes system also detects a number of other threats, including smoke, fire, carbon monoxide poisoning, and water damage. Whether you self-monitor or pay for professional monitoring, you can know if there’s danger in your home, wherever you are. A professionally monitored security system will call emergency services for you if a smoke or flood sensor is activated, whether you are home, away, or asleep. It’s worth noting that you have to buy the security company’s equipment in order to get professional monitoring of smoke and water sensors, which is not included in standard packages and comes at an additional cost.
Home protection and family safety are the primary purposes of a home security system.
Many wireless home security systems work with a smartphone app, a convenient way to keep tabs on your family and pets. For example, the door sensors and motion sensors designed to alert you to someone sneaking around your property can also alert you when your child gets home from school, or tell you whether your elderly mother got out of bed that morning.
What Are the Most Important Home Security System Features?
A home security system is no good if no one pays attention to it, which is why you should seriously consider professional monitoring. While self-monitoring your home’s security system is the least expensive option, it may not be the best one for family safety. Someone could break in when you’re far away from home, or your smoke alarms could go off when you’re asleep in a hotel, and you wouldn’t necessarily know about it.
Even if you do get the alert, will you know what to do? “Consider if you are on vacation in another part of the country…do you call 911 in Los Angeles for something happening at your home in Atlanta?” says Paul Rothman, editor-in-chief of Security Business magazine. “Professional monitoring takes the onus off the consumer and puts response procedures into the hands of trained professionals.”
Other important features for home protection have to do with the equipment and how easy it is to use. The heart of a home security system is the base station, sometimes known as a hub. This can be a touchscreen mounted to a wall, a simple box you can put in a cupboard, or a device with an integrated keypad designed to be kept out in the open. Whatever extra features it has, its primary purpose is to be the central communication point for all the security sensors that make up your system. Frequently, it also acts as an indoor siren.
