A monitored home alarm system can give you the assurance you need for peace of mind.
Have there been burglaries in your neighborhood? Perhaps you've been a victim yourself. The feeling of vulnerability and violation after a burglary is hard to describe to someone who has not been through the experience. It's not just the fact you've lost valuables, but knowing a stranger was in your house where you thought you were safe.
Your thoughts jump immediately to an alarm system. Signs have been going up in yards all over your neighborhood for various companies' monitored home alarms.
What is a Monitored Home Burglar Alarm?
If you have a monitored home alarm installed, when a home intruder enters a protected zone and activates a sensor, an audible alarm will go off. This lets the intruder know he's been noticed. The alarm noise also lets you and your neighbors know there is a problem. But there's more than that. You and your neighbors may not be home to hear the audible alarm, so the sensors also alert the people on duty at the alarm company's 24 hour monitoring center and they swing into action on your behalf. They first call your home to see if you've accidentally tripped the alarm yourself. In the case of a real emergency, they notify the police on your behalf.
Monitored home alarms contain some or all of the following basic components:
* Control Box - The control panel is where all the wiring terminates and it usually has the backup battery in case of power failure.
* Keypad - When you enter or exit the house, or open a window or door, you'll need to activate or deactivate the sensors from the keypad, so an alarm will not go off and the monitoring company won't believe you have a home intruder. There can be additional keypads, for example next to the home owner's bed.
* Sensors - Every window or glass door panel in the house will have a sensor to detect if the glass has been broken.
* Contacts - Every door and window has magnetic contacts installed to alert the system when they are open or closed.
* Siren - When sensors or contacts are activated, a loud audible siren goes off, alerting people nearby of a problem and letting the intruder know he's been detected.
* Motion Detectors - Infrared, microwave, or photoelectric motion detectors alert when there is an intruder. There are special motion detector installations for people with pets.
Other items can be included such as smoke detectors, heat detectors, and carbon monoxide detectors which can be wired to the security panel. The monitored home alarm can then notify the central monitoring station if smoke, heat or carbon monoxide is detected.
Panic Buttons are usually wireless and hand-held; just punching the button will send a message to the central monitoring station for help. Such units are useful for medical alerts as well as notification of other home emergencies.
Closed circuit TV (CCTV) allows monitoring and/or recording inside or outside a home either by the homeowner or by the monitoring center or both. These are familiar to internet "web cam" users.
You want to do something to protect your family and your possessions. It's important to remember there's more to home security than a monitored home alarm, no matter how good it is.
Get the family together and go outside to play the security game: pretend to be a burglar and look at your house, noticing vulnerabilities and invitations. The patio door standing wide open, the flimsy exterior door to the garage with glass in the top, the ladder leaning against the side of the house waiting to give easy access to upstairs unlocked windows.
Spend a little time cleaning up these security risks and retraining yourselves to lock doors and windows even before you start research on a burglar alarm system. There are several good companies out there, take time to check them out and compare before you ask for a dollar quote. You need to know what questions to ask.
Be sure you contact the monitored home alarm company to get a quote. Only after doing your homework on features and company reputation and getting a detailed quote can you make a reasoned decision.
