Options for Home Security Systems

We live in uncertain times, with a number of cities reporting substantial crime rates that never seem to diminish into anything like a comfort zone. Despite the best efforts of neighborhood watches and municipal police forces, an opportunistic criminal will almost invariably find a way to make it into your home. This is why so many homeowners opt each year to take matters into their own hands by investing in a good home security system. Many of the finest models come with outstanding response and exceptional resistance – everything you need to buy the time necessary for a professional intercession.

What does home security really mean? Some people define it simply as creating a home that is effectively impregnable to criminals – the fortress model. Others prefer silent alarms and notifications instead – the eye in the sky. And nearly everyone looks at home security as a bulwark against theft and violence, offering alternative means of escape and defense that may not necessarily come included in the blueprints to that structure. No matter what your priorities or budget, you should be able to find something that helps you sleep easier at night.

Some of the most basic home security measures are also the most effective. Door alarms and breakage alarms offer sirens, lights and other spectacular responses if any egress has been compromised. Many of these work not unlike a car alarm, creating commotion to scare criminals away, inform the residents something is amiss and get the gears turning on a neighborhood response. Although some come with only basic trip wires and magnetic seals, more advanced versions may include gyroscopic sensors and infrared, virtually ensuring no party can pass undetected. Arm them once a night and you will know anytime someone is coming or going.

More advanced sensors may cover the exterior and interior as well, offering something like real-time monitoring at low cost. These tend to work on infrared as well, ignoring leaves as they blow by but zeroing in instantly on any warm bodies. The great advantage to motion sensing of this sort is that it doesn’t rely on predetermined access points to your home – if someone is inside, no matter how they got there, the system will know. That said, a number of people still like to supplement motion sensors with simple mechanical devices such as door and window jammers to further reduce the chance of a break-in.

All of the devices discussed so far have one thing in common – they are self-contained home units whose only response is an alarm. If you want to invest in something far more sophisticated, it may be time to graduate to a system that can communicate on your behalf. The best of these offer detailed information to a central security command the instant your home is violated, including where the criminal may be in the home at that precise moment. Depending on your preference, you can even set many such alarms to trigger silently, giving police responders the element of surprise as they apprehend that intruder.

The final tier of security does monitoring systems one better by adding real-time telemetry, including live video and sound. Elite security systems often make use of such measures to eliminate uncertainty and provide first responders with essential information in a pinch. Video monitoring lets them know how many intruders you have, for instance, as well as whether family members are inside the house. It can also be used as ready evidence if someone manages to escape, ensuring you never have to worry about the same problem recurring in the future.

There are advantages and weaknesses associated with every kind of home security, so the best advice is simply to exercise caution. The truly paranoid and outlandishly wealthy may even look into the market for so-called “panic rooms,” though most experts recommend against anything that traps you in the event of danger. One thing you should never do without considerable training is bring a gun into your home. A high number of break-ins turn to tragedy every year when such weaponry is used against the homeowners themselves.

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