Home Security Systems

task when a home has been finished. “There is a small but highly vocal do-it-yourself home automation market,” Pickral says. “They use the Internet to find answers. But most of these products are designed for professional installers.” What’s most important, though, is finding a retrofit specialist,” Pickral says. “Retrofitting wires is more of an art than a science.” An Alarm.com system alerts the owners that someone has opened a liquor cabinet. If you want to upgrade your system, you may be able to build on what you have or you might have to start with new components. “When we design new products, we try to design them so installers can use wires already in place whenever possible,” Pickral says. But if you want to tie in a surveillance camera, you would have to have one of HAI’s newer systems, he says. “Plan not only for the home automation you want now but consider what you’ll want in the future. “Most system designers plan for future expansions,” Pickral says. “Part of working with a good contractor is taking a hard look at the life cycle of the product, which might be 20 or 30 years. Determine how the lifestyle of the family is going to change over the next 20 or 30 years.” Wires or Wireless Wires offer better performance, Barra says. But wireless systems have become less expensive and easier to install. A wired system is also vulnerable to a pair of scissors cutting the phone line, says Mary Knebel, spokeswoman for Alarm.com, a company founded in 2000 that sells wireless and Web-managed comprehensive security systems to residential customers across the United States and Canada. “A wireless system is independent of any other,” she says. “It allows two-way communication through a smart radio.” A wireless system is the system of choice, especially for those who don’t use landline phones at all. “The office I work in has a lot of engineers in their 20s,” Knebel says. “They’ve never had land lines. They all use cell phones. With a traditional wired system, if you don’t have a land line, there’s no way to call the monitoring station.” Safe and Secure Being safe remains a key function of a home security system, and making your home visible is critical. “Burglars don’t want to be seen,” says Dave Simon, spokesman for Brink’s Home Security. Sensor-triggered lights that come on when someone enters your yard may send a thief looking for an easier target. An Alarm.com system can tell the owners who disarmed the alarm and when. Motion detectors also monitor people moving around inside your home. If you have pets or small children, you can get motion detectors set to trip only above 50 pounds or even above 90 pounds, Pickral says. Fire Safety Sight and Sound Lighting plays a key role now in fire safety, too. Inside, your system can be designed so that when a fire alarm goes off, lights leading to exits are automatically turned on so your family can easily escape the house. Outside, your fire alarm system can be linked so that lights flash in front of the house and yard in the event of a fire to easily alert fire fighters where to stop. “Normally, the fire department gets the address from a central monitoring station,” Pickral says. “Especially at night, it’s difficult to tell which house is the address. The flashing lights make a beacon.” To alert you in the event of fire, a home security system can work with smoke detectors; heat detectors and/or dual detectors that react to both heat and smoke. (Often, the dual detectors are still called smoke detectors). In attics, many people use a heat detector only because dust in the air could trigger a smoke detector. Heat detectors are a good idea in case of a fire that doesn’t generate excessive smoke, Pickral says.

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