Over our thirty-five plus years in business, we’ve worked with over a thousand customers to design security plans that fit their unique security needs. Of course, this includes designing and installing security equipment that addresses their home’s security needs. It also involves providing the security experience that our customers desire. This means installing devices around the home to control security equipment. Moreover, it also means that we provide homeowners and other residents with ways to check in on and control their security devices from outside of their home! In this post, we detail some of our most effective and unique remote security options for your home.
First, we’ll show you the benefits of adding key fobs to your alarm. Key fobs represent the simplest and one of the most popular forms of remote alarm control. From there, we’ll review some of the unique benefits provided by interactive alarm monitoring. Over the past decade or so, this monitoring option has increased tremendously in popularity and now represents our most powerful and popular type of monitoring. Finally, we’ll shift our focus to some non-alarm based security options in the form of smart security appliances. Now, let’s dive in with a look at key fob-based alarm security!
Alarm key fobs, such as this one by DSC, allow users to control their alarms — and even activate an alarm panic response — remotely.
Using Key Fobs to Control Your Alarm
Wireless security systems generally allow you to use a remote to control your security system from your home’s exterior. Generally, these devices work within about 100 feet of your house. These remotes allow you to both arm and disarm your security system without walking to a keypad. Additionally, they also include an option to remotely activate your alarm’s police panic feature while within range of your alarm. This feature, which often involves holding down both the “arm” and “disarm” buttons at the same time, allows you to carry a panic device with you at all times.
When activated, your key fob’s panic feature calls for a police dispatch without the central station calling you first, leading to the quickest dispatch possible. In turn, activating your remote panic button generally leads to a faster police response than a “generic” alarm activation due to the potential nature of the situation. The added convenience and security offered by key fobs make them a very popular addition to any alarm. Now, let’s check out some remote security options for your home that we offer our interactive security customers.
The Interactive Security Advantage
One of the biggest features of a home burglar alarm lies in its monitoring service, which involves connecting your alarm to our central station. Traditionally, we would create this connection using an onsite phone line. A few short decades ago, almost every property offered this type of communication path. Of course, phone lines have gotten increasingly unpopular with the advent of cellular technology. Furthermore, phone outages would often create issues with our monitored alarms, leaving them unsecured until the lines received the needed repairs.
Luckily, we offer a much more modern solution for alarm monitoring in the form of our Alarm.com cellular dialer. This piece of equipment uses cellular networks to create reliable, consistent alarm monitoring. Therefore, local phone outages no longer affect your security system’s communication with our central station. As added security, we can also connect Alarm.com dialers to your internet. This allows for monitoring even in areas with unreliable cell phone coverage. In addition to creating more efficient monitoring, the Alarm.com cell dialer adds some unique remote security options for your home. Let’s look at some of these now!
Alarm.com users can activate a number of both audible and silent panic alarms from their cell phones.
Remote Alarm Functions
One of the biggest benefits of interactive security monitoring lies in the ability to control your alarm remotely. We can offer this feature thanks to the Alarm.com mobile app, which provides you the ability to perform many security-related tasks through your phone. For starters, this includes the ability to remotely arm and disarm your security system. This adds both security and peace of mind after you leave your home. Forget to set the alarm on the way to work? Simply grab your phone and use the Alarm.com app to take care of it. You’ll never again have to sit around and wonder whether you forgot to activate your security system.
Moreover, the Alarm.com app also provides you with remote panic response capability. By pulling up the pictured menu, you can create a dispatch from the police department or fire department, and even activate an auxiliary panic feature that we generally program to call for an ambulance. Furthermore, you’ll also notice the ability to create a “silent” panic response that does not activate your alarm’s siren. Obviously, the ability to call for help from anywhere at any time adds tremendous security to our customers! Now, let’s look at some of the security alerts available to interactive monitoring customers.
Important Security Alerts
The ability to receive alarm notifications alone prompts many of our customers to add interactive cell monitoring. When we set up an Alarm.com account for our customers, we also work with them to create custom alerts. These notifications can include “arm/disarm” alerts that help you know when your people enter and leave the home. Additionally, you can create alerts based on both activity and inactivity. For example, you may expect your children home by 4pm. If your alarm remains armed after 4pm, you will receive an alert to let you know.
Our post on Alarm.com’s Geo Services also details how you can use that specific feature to add location-based notifications. This service uses GPS technology to detect when residents of a home enter or exit a pre-determined radius around the home itself. This can allow you to create notifications based on your family’s location. For example, you can create notifications that alert you if your spouse left the home without arming the security system. Furthermore, you can even create an alert to remind you to arm the security system after you’ve left your property! These alerts help you get the most security possible out of your alarm. Now, let’s look at one of the fastest-growing areas of the security industry.
Smart Security Devices
Over the past several years, smart security solutions have risen sharply in popularity. The smart security devices described in this section allow you to use smartphone apps to control them and receive important alerts as well. Smart devices require a connection to a network in order to create smartphone functionality. You can use your home’s existing wifi capabilities to make this happen. However, many people prefer smart home products that communicate on an independent mesh network. Our Alarm.com dialer actually comes equipped with a hub that operates on the popular and secure “Z-Wave” smart home network. This allows our Alarm.com customers to control the devices described here using their Alarm.com app.
A smart keypad deadbolt, such as this lock by Schlage, allows for both key-based entry and remote operation through a smart phone.
For example, smart keypad locks can help you track access to your home, and even control your locks remotely as well. Moreover, they also let you add and delete codes from anywhere at anytime. For example, if you need a contractor to stop by while you are away, you can pick up your phone and add a temporary code to grant access. A few hours later, simply pick up your phone and delete the code!
Some smart appliances can greatly help with energy costs as well. For instance, smart thermostats give you control over your property’s environment at all times. Moreover, they also allow you to create temperature schedules to keep the temperature nice and low in your absence while also keeping things comfortable from the moment you get home. Finally, these appliances even send you alerts if your temperature falls outside of your chosen parameters! This means that you will receive instant alerts to extremely hot or cold temperatures at your home or business. As you can see, smart home appliances add quite a bit of security while also giving you the type of user experience you’d expect from your internet-enabled appliances.
Putting it All Together
We hope that this post helps you choose the remote security options for your home that best suit your own security needs. Additionally, we also encourage you to contact us with any questions the material here may raise. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Furthermore, we also invite you to have us out for a free security consult. We offer complimentary property walkthroughs and equipment quotes for both new and existing customers alike. During our visit, we can address any and all of your security concerns. Moreover, we can also make suggestions of our own based on our observations of your home. From there, we can develop a complete security plan, including both onsite and remote options for controlling your security devices. Together, we can help you keep your home, and everyone in it, as safe and secure as possible!