If you’ve kept up with our blog at all, you know by now that each time of the year bring its own unique security risks. It may or may not surprise you to know that spring and summer represent large upswings in crime across the country. As days get longer, thieves have more time to scout houses and plan crimes. Additionally, the spring and summer also provide more opportunities to commit break-ins during vacations and long absences from your home. Moreover, we must also get ready for spring and summer weather that can also wreak havoc on homes. For these reasons, we take special care to provide extra security tips for this time of year. In today’s post, we share some important warm weather security measures for your home!
First, we’ll review the importance of seasonally testing your security equipment. Performing this task every year can greatly improve security over the year’s warmer months. From there, we’ll look at another recommended annual task in the form of inspecting your locking hardware. Then, we’ll wrap up with a focus of two alarm-related security tips. Specifically, we’ll start by showing you some environmental security equipment you can incorporate into your security system. Finally, we’ll shift our focus to our preferred method of alarm monitoring in the form of Alarm.com interactive monitoring. Now, let’s get started with a look at some tips for seasonal security maintenance.
Periodically testing your security equipment can help ensure its proper operation when you need it most.
Finish Your Seasonal Cleaning by Testing Your Security Equipment
Warmer weather brings about the chance to give your entire property a fresh start with an annual cleaning and updating. We also encourage our customers to use the coming of spring as a reminder to check and test security equipment. In particular, you should test smoke and life safety devices at least annually. You can use the “test” button to check on your alarms’ sounders. Additionally, you can use canned smoke and carbon monoxide to test these device’s ability to detect fire and CO-related emergencies.
Additionally, we recommend that you put your security system through testing as well. Simply call your alarm company and tell them you wish to test the alarm. Then, arm your security system and activate each of your alarm’s sensors. This activation should set your alarm’s siren off. Furthermore, it should also send a signal to your central station if you have a monitored alarm system. Your security company can see these alarms come through on their end to make sure this happens. For this reason, we stay on the phone with customers during testing. At the end of a successful test, you will have assurance that your alarm contacts and communication to your central station are ready in case of an emergency. Next, let’s see why you should use this time of year to inspect and repair your locking hardware.
Inspect Door and Window Hardware
Changes in weather can do a number on your door and window security. Moreover, harsh winter weather in and of itself can also harm your doors and windows and negatively affect security. Of course, our part of the country sees both of these factors every year. For starters, wooden doors and windows expand and contract during warm and cold weather, respectively. With doors in particular, this can change the way that locks fit into a home’s frames. If doors move further away from their frames, then locking hardware does not strike as far into the frame as it should. This makes your locks far less effective.
Furthermore, moisture from bad weather itself can seep into doors and windows and make them weaker. Occasionally, this leads to rusted locks and weathered hardware. Moreover, it can also lead to weakened doors, windows, and frames over the course of several years. We recommend that you take this time to give your doors and windows a thorough inspection at this time each year. Additionally, call us if you find anything you may believe could lead to security issues down the road! Now, let’s see how installing environmental detection fits in with our warm weather security measures.
Install Security to Prepare for Spring and Summer Weather
One of our most important warm weather security measures involves installing alarm equipment to alert you to weather-related issues within your home. Our environmental sensors provide a valuable early alert to conditions that could create a disaster if not addressed in a timely fashion. We offer sensors that create alerts for environmental issues that have the potential to cause damage to your property. For example, our “hi-lo temperature” detectors can create an alert 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. In fact, we even offer wireless sensors that detect both dangerously low temperatures and the presence of water. Environmental 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.
Taking this concept even further, we also have a device that can actually stop a disaster in its tracks. Within the last couple years, Alarm.com announced the release of their new Water Valve + Meter. This new offering works with customers’ existing Alarm.com water sensors to provide proactive security against flooding. For example, if one of your water sensors detects a leak, this piece of equipment will shut down your home’s water. Because it contains both a valve and a meter, it can do this without the need to purchase any additional equipment. The device’s meter feature also allows it to detect leaks, even in areas without water sensors. These features make this equipment one of our most effective security options available! Now, let’s take a look at securing your home in the event of an extended absence.
Creating Alarm.com alerts that notify you about alarm activity can help you keep your home secured at all times.
Prepare Your Home for Extended Absences with Interactive Monitoring
When we create alarm monitoring for our customers, we prefer to do so through our cellular dialer, powered by Alarm.com. This type of monitoring provides multiple benefits. For starters, cellular dialer-based monitoring stays active even when your phone service fails. This differs from traditional, phone-line based alarm monitoring, which gets interrupted during phone outages. Furthermore, your cellular dialer can add convenience and security above and beyond providing a reliable communication path.
In our post on Using Your Smartphone to Add Security to Your Alarm, we discussed the generational expectation that customers can control their electronics with their smartphones. Our Alarm.com dialer allows users to arm and disarm their security systems remotely using the Alarm.com smartphone app. This proves especially useful during trips you and your family take this spring and summer. Forget to alarm the security system on the way out the door? Now you can fix this issue with the push of a button. Furthermore, interactive alarm monitoring also allows you to grant access to house sitters or contractors in your absence without giving them your alarm code.
Finally, you can also set up alerts to keep you in the know regarding alarm activity. When someone does stop by to check on the house, you’ll receive an alert to let you know. Likewise, you’ll also receive another notification when the alarm gets re-armed afterwards. If desired, you can also set up an alert to notify you regarding a lack of alarm activity. For example, you may expect someone to show up by 4pm to feed your pets. If the alarm stays armed past this time, you’ll receive a notice! At this point you can check on the situation. This offering adds a tremendous amount of security and peace of mind to our alarm customers!
Putting our Warm Weather Security Measures to Work for You
We hope that this post helps you find the warm weather security measures that work best for you. Additionally, we encourage you to contact us with any questions this post may raise. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Moreover, we also invite you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary security audits to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address any security concerns you may have. Furthermore, we can also make suggestions of our own based on observations made during our visit. Over our 36-plus years in business, we’ve worked with over a thousand customers to deliver the most effective security available. Together, we can create a complete security plan to keep you and your family as safe and secure as possible!