Next weekend, we celebrate (or in some cases mourn) the unofficial end of summer over the long Labor Day weekend. Football season kicks off shortly, and most schools in the area have already reopened their doors to students. Additionally, days have gotten shorter, and our warm, humid summer weather will soon take a turn in favor or crisp and cool days. The changing of the seasons brings with it some security risks, and the arrival of Labor Day marks the perfect time to start addressing them! Today, we share some tips for a secure Labor Day to help you secure your own home during this important time of year.
First, we’ll show you a couple school season-related security tips for this time of the year. Specifically, we’ll look at environmental security for to help you prepare for long absences in your home during school hours. Additionally, we’ll also show you how Alarm.com interactive monitoring can help you track your kids’ comings and goings during school season as well. Then, we’ll share some fire safety tips that should come in handy over the approaching autumn season. These will include both common sense measures as well as including some security equipment you can install. Now, let’s dive in with a look at adding back-to-school security to your home!
Addressing Back-to-School Security Concerns
School season brings about a few unique security concerns for families. For starters, the end of summer vacation often means the beginning of homes being empty all morning and afternoon. Instead of having kids in and out of your home all day, now your home will stay vacant on a very predictable basis. We’ve discussed the attractiveness of an empty home for burglars in many blog posts. Therefore, we’ll want to find ways to combat this security threat.
School season security requires extra planning and care as you need to secure your empty home and make preparations to track the comings and goings of school-aged children.
Additionally, you’ll also want to track activity within your home during your absence. Making sure your kids get home on time, and stay in the areas of the home you desire, should take priority here. Of course, we’ll help you take care of this area of concern as well. Now, let’s look at how you can make sure your home stays secure in your absence both when your home is empty and when kids are home without you!
Adding Environmental Security
Most alarm customers think of their security system as a tool to lower the risks posed by break-ins and fires. Obviously, these threats deserve addressing when we design any alarm system. However, we surprise many people by offering alarm sensors that offer security above and beyond burglary and life safety equipment. We also offer sensors that create alerts for environmental disasters that have the potential to cause a home major damage. These sensors can help you detect and address these issues before they create a mess that takes a significant amount of time and money to repair.
For example, our “hi-lo temperature” detectors can create a central station response if your home experiences dangerously hot or cold conditions. This can help alert you to frozen pipes or HVAC equipment failures. Additionally, we offer flood sensors that can detect the presence of water wherever we install them. As we begin to see rainier, warmer weather on a regular basis, these sensors certainly increase in value. As an added bonus, some of our alarm manufacturers even create sensors that detect both extremely cold temperatures and the presence of water! These contacts, such as the one pictured, provide a huge amount of environmental security in one compact piece of equipment. Obviously, this adds year-round security to help secure your home against multiple weather-related threats. Now, let’s turn our attention to using interactive monitoring to improve schoolyear security.
Using Interactive Security Features to Track School-Aged Children
We’ve long touted the unique security provided by installing a monitored alarm system in your home. When we monitor security systems, we prefer to do so with our Alarm.com cellular dialer. This dialer provides a truly unique alarm monitoring experience in the form of interactive security monitoring. When we mention “interactive” monitoring, we refer to the ability for your alarm to interact directly with you and other alarm users through a smartphone app. For starters, this lets you control your security system with your phone. School season provides prime opportunities for your family to forget to alarm the security system. With everyone changing their morning routine, sometimes the last person out doesn’t realize it’s their turn to arm the security system. Now, you can look at your security system’s status and change it with the press of a button!
Just as importantly, interactive monitoring provides you with instant text alerts that you can customize to your liking. For example, these alerts generally notify you to any alarm activation events. Furthermore, you can also create an alert to find out when someone arms or disarms your security system. If you use different alarm codes for different family members, this alert will even tell you who has used the alarm! Therefore, if a different family member gets home first than usual, you will know. Finally, you can also create alerts for events that do not happen. This allows you to set an alert for a specific time that you expect someone home. If nobody disarms the security system by then, you will know immediately. These alerts add tremendous security to families with students. Next up, let’s look at some tips for a secure Labor Day and beyond related to fire safety.
Preparing for Autumn-Related Fire Threats
As the seasons change, the threat of fire increased due to a few factors. For starters, the changing weather leads to heater usage. As the National Fire Protection Association, or “NFPA,” reports, heaters caused over 10% of all reported household fires between 2020-2024. Additionally, autumn brings with it the prospect of indoor-cooking related incidents. Specifically, Halloween and Thanksgiving gatherings can create their own set of fire hazards. With warmer weather and these gatherings approaching, we strongly recommend prioritizing fire safety. Let’s look at a couple ways you can address these dangers!
Following Best Practices for Heater Season
While we’re not quite there yet, most of us will turn to our heaters to warm the home at some point over the next several weeks. 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.
Monitored smoke detectors, such as this one by System Sensor, create an important fire department dispatch if you experience a fire in your home.
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. Let’s shift our focus now to some
Creating Monitored Fire Security
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, especially as fall weather and heater usage increase the risk of a fire in your home. The added home and life security provided by these devices makes installing them one of our top tips for a secure Labor Day!
Putting our Tips for a Secure Labor Day to Work for You
We hope that following our tips for a secure Labor Day helps you secure your home over the end of summer and beyond! As always, we also encourage you to contact us with any questions this post may raise for you. We’ll happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Furthermore, we also invite you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We’ve long offered complimentary security audits and equipment quotes for both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address all of your existing security concerns. Moreover, we can also make suggestions of our own based on our observations of your property. Together, we can create a complete security plan for this Labor Day and beyond. Our goal is always to keep your home, your valuable, and your property as safe and secure as possible!