At Northeast Security Solutions, we design complete security plans for every application and situation. Of course, every home and business has its own unique layout and security concerns. Additionally, every season also brings different threats into play. For example, a few months back we created a post sharing some Spring Thaw Security Tips. At this point in the year, we turn our focus to the summer months. In this post, we share some warm weather security tips to keep you and your family safe and secure during this year’s warmest months!
First, we’ll look at some ways that you can secure your home in your absence. After all, with the summer months come day trips and extended vacations away from home. Therefore, we recommend prioritizing your preparation for these trips. Then, we’ll look at some weather-specific security products that we offer. We surprise many customers by offering them ways to detect and combat environmental dangers. Now, let’s begin with a look at preparing your home to remain secure even in your absence!
Planning for Extended Absences
Why does warmer weather often lead to more burglaries? Simply put, burglars prefer breaking into empty houses over occupied properties whenever possible. The better the weather, the higher the chance that families are either out and about at the local park or swimming pool, or on vacation and gone for a long period of time. Therefore, we recommend taking steps to make sure your home stays secure during these absences. In this section, we provide a few ways to help prepare your home for these scenarios. To begin, we’ll look at some general security tips to follow when preparing for a trip. From there, we’ll also review some tips for our security system customers. Let’s get started with a look at our non-alarm related vacation security tips!
Non Alarm-Related Vacation Tips
As we mentioned, burglars prefer breaking into empty homes much more so than homes that are occupied. For this reason, making your home look less conspicuously “empty” immediately adds security. For example, we recommend having your mail held during any multi-day excursions. An overflowing mailbox generally indicates an easy target for any burglar! Additionally, we suggest keeping your vacation pictures off of social media until your return. Nothing advertises an empty house quite like current pictures of your family enjoying an extended stay far away from home.
The presence of mail beginning to pile up in mailboxes advertises an empty home to potential burglars.
We also encourage you to involve your neighbors in your quest for security over the course of your vacation. At times, the best security comes from those who can keep an eye on your vacant home. Telling your trusted neighbors about your travel plans allows them to stay extra vigilant in watching your home for you. Additionally, consider asking neighbors to occasionally park a car in your driveway. Doing so will give the house less of an “abandoned” look during an extended absence.
Furthermore, ask anyone you’d trust with a key to occasionally stop inside the house as well. This adds both security and valuable peace of mind during your travels! If you have someone checking in on the house, you can be rest assured that “no news means good news.” Now, let’s see how you can use your alarm to add warm weather security to your home while gearing up for extended absences.
Alarm-Related Tips for an Empty House
Of course, having a home security system can provide security during any time away from home. A monitored security system creates a screaming siren response upon activation. This alerts anyone on your property of the breach and will also likely scare off any intruders. Additionally, we also connect our customers’ alarms to our central station. In turn, our central station will contact you and even dispatch the police if necessary. Obviously, these systems do quite a bit to secure your home when you are gone.
Moreover, customers monitored through our interactive cellular dialer powered by Alarm.com experience additional security benefits. When we discuss “interactive” monitoring, we’re referring to the fact that our Alarm.com customers can control and communicate with their security systems using a smartphone app. This allows for remote system arming and disarming. It also lets you receive instant text alerts upon system activation, or when you have a status update such as a low sensor battery. These features add incredible convenience and peace of mind for vacationing homeowners.
Finally, our interactive cellular customers can install smart devices that connect to our cellular dialer’s Z-Wave smart home receiver. The term “Z-Wave” refers to a mesh network providing communication between our Alarm.com cellular dialer and smart home devices that operate on this network. As one of the most popular smart home platforms, having a Z-wave receiver in place gives you many options to add smart security devices. These devices include appliances such as Z-Wave light bulbs that you can control remotely to make your home look occupied. Z-Wave locks allow you to let contractors or housesitters into your home without providing a key. We offer a near-endless array of smart home devices that add both security and convenience to your home! Now, let’s see how you can add warm weather security by preparing for seasonal weather conditions.
Getting Ready for Summer Weather
In addition to shoring up your home’s defense against a burglary during the summer months, we also highly recommend securing against weather-related emergencies. After all, summer brings blazing temperatures, as well as potentially extreme — and wet — weather! This can lead to flood-related damage to your home, as well as breakdowns in HVAC equipment. So how do we help secure your home against these issues?
For starters, we offer environmental sensors that can detect these issues. For example, our flood sensor can detect and alert you to the presence of water in your basement. This helps you address the issue before it turns into a major catastophe. Furthermore, we also offer temperature sensors that alert you to your home’s environment getting unnaturally warm or cold at any point in time. Therefore, a failure in HVAC equipment can trigger these sensors. In turn, this creates a call from our central station alerting you to the problem.
The Alarm.com Valve + Meter can both detect and help prevent water damage with one compact piece of equipment.
Finally, we also offer Alarm.com-specific solutions for environmental security concerns. For example, the Alarm.com smart thermostat provides a couple unique ways to beat the heat. These devices allow you to control the temperature in your home remotely. Furthermore, these thermostats will also provide alerts if your home’s temperature falls outside of a specific range.
Even more impressively, the Alarm.com Water Valve + Meter can even turn off your HVAC equipment upon detecting an issue.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 one of our most unique pieces of security equipment!
Planning Ahead for Warm Weather Security
We hope that this post helps you create effective warm weather security in your own home this year! Additionally, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have about this post. We will happily answer your security-related inquiries to get you off on the right foot. Moreover, we encourage you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary security audits and equipment quotes to both new and existing customers alike. During our visit, we can find ways to address any security concerns you may have. Furthermore, we can make suggestions of our own based on our observations of your property.
Perhaps you have some security already in place and wish to make your home that much more secure during the warmest months of the year. Or maybe you have very little security now, and want to get started on the right foot. Either way, we are here for you. We will happily help you create an effective and efficient security plan. Together, we can help you keep your home, your most prized possessions, and your family as safe and secure as possible!