Security Systems For Home Use
If you're shopping around for security systems for home use you will have a lot of options and a lot of decisions to make. Your decision-making process will be governed largely by the level of security you need and the amount of money you're willing to spend to get it. We wanted to write up this brief article to help our readers figure out what kind of setup will best suit their needs.
Wired or Wireless Alarm Systems?
Security systems for home use will either be wired or wireless. A wired system will connect all of the various sensors from different parts of the house back to the system's control panel with electrical wires. A lot of people feel that a hardwired alarm system is more reliable and greatly reduces the possibility of a false alarm. The biggest problem with a hardwired alarm system is that installation is a big, time-consuming job. If you are building a house and it is under construction and all of the walls are open, then a hardwired system is relatively easy to install but if you want to install this type of system in an existing home it will generally require professional installation and can be fairly expensive.
Wireless alarm systems are very popular because they can be installed in less than an hour. The various components and sensors communicate with the control panel via radio waves rather than an electrical wire. You can place sensors anywhere you like and there is no need to fish wires through the wall to connect them to the control panel.
Common Home Security System Components
There are countless choices available for various components when it comes to security systems for home use. These components can be as simple as a door lock and outdoor lighting or as complex as multi-camera closed-circuit television surveillance setups. The most common types of components will be sensors that detect when a door or window has been open, motion detectors that will go off when there is movement in a room where there shouldn't be, and glass break sensors to detect when a window is broken. The sensors will be placed in strategic locations or zones and you can use your control panel to activate all of the components or only those in specific zones.
The more components you buy, the more expensive your system will be so it is important to choose the locations where the sensors will be set up very carefully. Any doors leading into the house would be an obvious choice and you may wish to use glass break sensors on some of the windows but a room that has a door and multiple windows can be covered just as easily by a single motion detector and one using one motion detector versus multiple window and door sensors could help you save some money.
Monitoring Options
When your security system is armed and someone trips one of the sensors there will probably be a very loud bell or siren going off but this is not enough to give most people the security they are looking for. A lot of people choose to use the services of an alarm monitoring company. If your alarm system is monitored it will be connected to a call center 24 hours per day, seven days per week. If one of the sensors is tripped a message is sent to your monitoring company. The monitoring company would then attempt to call you and if they are unable to contact you or you do not supply them with the proper password they would then call the proper authorities and the police would be dispatched to your home.
The obvious downside to a monitoring company is that you will have to sign a contract in most cases and you will be responsible to pay a monthly fee that can be as high as $30 or $40 every month. Another option that is available these days is a self monitored security system.
There are security systems for home use available today that will work in a similar fashion to a monitored security system but rather than contacting the monitoring company's call center when an alarm is triggered, the self monitoring system will attempt to contact the homeowner automatically. Self monitored security systems can be programmed to contact multiple phone numbers so that if one phone is not answered the system will contact the next number on the list. Some of these systems even allow you to use your cell phone to listen in on what is going on in your home and if you hear someone inside you can activate a siren and then hang up and call the police.
A self monitoring security system can save you quite a bit of money because you will not have to pay any monthly fees and this type of setup can work very well to protect your home and give you peace of mind.
