Autumn Home Security Tips

With Halloween fast approaching and Thanksgiving around the corner, we find ourselves in the throes of autumn weather, despite the occasional unseasonal warmth we’ve experienced through much of October. As you will know if you’ve kept up with our blog, we always aim to keep up with seasonal security issues in our approach to creating complete home security. Like any other season, autumn presents some unique security concerns. Last week, we shared some Halloween Security Tips for Your Home. That post focuses on addressing security threats associated with fall’s spooky seasonal date that falls halfway through autumn. In this post, we turn our attention to security issues brought on by the coming of fall weather. Today, we share some of our most important autumn home security tips.

First, we’ll review some “best practices” that can help you use practical means to address security problems. These include tips to get your heaters ready for use, as well as some safety pointers for autumn candle use. From there, we’ll turn our attention to security equipment that can assist with adding fall security. First, we’ll explain how you can add monitored smoke and carbon monoxide detection to your home. Finally, we’ll detail the importance of fire extinguishers to maintain home security during this time of year. Now, let’s dive in with a look at at some autumn home security best practices.

Gearing up for Heater Usage

As you can probably guess, heater use contributes to the overall fire threat that the fall season ushers in. Before turning the heat on for the first time, consider inspecting and cleaning all of the components of your heating system, including both the cleaning unit itself and all heaters throughout your home. Of course, some heating maintenance differs based on what type of heat you have. We encourage you to consult your heating unit’s manuals and call the company that installed your heating unit for tips on maintenance.

Additionally, clean off your heaters before turning them on for the first time this year, and make sure that the areas around your heaters remain clear. Drapes, clothing, and loose papers around heaters can all work to undermine any autumn fire security precautions that you may undertake this year. Simply keeping your heaters clear of any flammable objects goes a long way! Now, let’s take a look at how following some candle-related best-practices can improve your overall fall fire security.

Taking Precautions when Using Candles

What’s better than a cinnamon, pumpkin, or equally fall-related scent drifting through your home as the result of lighting a cozy-looking candle? Many homeowners begin burning candles in earnest as the weather gets colder. Of course, this practice brings its own fire-related dangers if those lighting candles fail to take proper precautions. For example, do not leave a room with a lit candle for a long period of time. Furthermore, as we pointed out in our Best Practices to Improve Bedroom Security, sometimes people fall asleep in bedrooms with burning candles. We strongly recommend blowing all candles out well before falling asleep.

Additionally, candles and decorations pose a unique candle-related fire threat. In fact, the NFPA shares that festive decorations directly lead to more candle-related fires. From Halloween through Thanksgiving and then through the holiday season, the danger from festive decorations obviously increases. We recommend keeping a safe distance between decorations and candles and, once again, making sure you do not leave lit candles unattended. Taking basic precautions can go a long way towards adding both security and peace of mind as turning on your heat, lighting candles, and decorating your home all come into play this autumn. Next up, we’ll focus on some autumn home security tips centered on installing new security equipment.

Using Security Equipment to Your Advantage

In addition to taking practical steps to assist your security plans this year, we suggest adding some security equipment to your arsenal of alarm devices. A monitored security system creates some of the strongest home security available. In this section, we’ll show you how you can add important fire detection to your alarm. The importance of doing so increases as the weather gets colder and your risk of fire increases. Moreover, we’ll also show you how to add fire extinguisher-based security to your home.

Monitored Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detection

When we install a security system for our customers, we also connect their alarms to our monitoring service. In doing so, we make sure that our central station responds to any alarm activations. Upon an activation, our central station operators can call the premises to check on the situation. If necessary, they can even dispatch the proper authorities to your home! Obviously, this adds quite a bit of security and peace of mind for any homeowner. When most of our customers think about this service, they think about it in terms of burglary-related security. Of course, this represents an extremely important aspect of what these systems offer. Thieves coming through doors or windows activate door sensors and motion detectors that activate your alarm’s siren, set the monitoring response in motion, and get the police to your property.

However, burglar security only represents a small portion of what these alarms can accomplish. In addition to watching over your home for criminal activity, they can also provide a valuable measure of life safety as well. We offer monitored smoke, heat, and carbon monoxide (or “CO”) detection that can alert you to the presence of an emergency in your home while you are away. More importantly, these devices also create a fire department dispatch that can save your home in your absence, or even save the life of you or a family member if someone is home during one of these events. We highly recommend adding this security to any existing alarm system. Let’s now look at one more tip for creating complete home fire security.

Fire Extinguishers to Douse Flames

Fire extinguishers provide our customers with a quick, effective way to control the spread of fires. Unfortunately, we run into a couple issues when it comes to extinguishers in homes. For starters, many homeowners fail to purchase any fire extinguishers at all. We consider these devices a basic and essential piece of any security plan. However, many people see them as a “commercial” security measure and fail to install them at home. Obviously, purchasing extinguishers and placing them strategically can help address this issue.

Additionally, we often find that customers buy the wrong types of extinguishers for the job. For example, did you know you should fight any grease or cooking oil-related fire with a very specific type of extinguisher? These extinguishers, called class “K” extinguishers, can douse kitchen fires that no other extinguisher could properly fight. Moreover, using the wrong type of extinguisher can actually make fires spread more quickly! Feel free to check out our post on Fire Extinguisher Classes and Best Practices for more information on this subject.

Putting Our Autumn Home Security Tips to Work for You

We hope that our autumn home security tips help you add security in your own home this year. As always, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have about the material in this post. If desired, we also invite you to have us out for a free security audit. Over our 35-plus years in business, we’ve helped over a thousand customers create full security plans for their own properties. This planning always begins with a complimentary security audit conducted by a member of our team. While on site, we can create a plan that addresses seasonal security, as well as any security concerns that you may have in general. Together, we can create a complete plan to keep your home and your family as safe and secure as possible!