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June 8, 2010

How To Protect Your Home

Everybody worries about the security of their homes and families. The question is: how can you make your home safe without turning it into Fort Knox? The sad fact is that, if someone is determined to get into your home, they can and will. Ten years ago, my home was ’safe’, but I was tricked into opening the door and I let my attackers in. No home security system can safeguard against situation like that.

Burglars look for homes that seem vulnerable. Most burglars are opportunistic. In other words, if they see an open door or window or if it is obvious that no one is at home and if there is no noticeable security, then it is worth them attempting to get in. Open gates are also an incitement. So are valuable possessions put on show in windows.

It only takes minutes to steal something, you would be astonished. I let two armed robbers into my house and they timed 15 minutes to take everything of value in my house and then a car stopped outside to pick them up. It was night time and I was tied up. It could have been a taxi, which would not have aroused my neighbours’ suspicion.

It is important to show people (opportunistic thieves) that you have a home security system of some kind. If you cannot afford a good, working alarm system, get a dummy siren box with a flashing light. It is not as good as a real system, but it would take a courageous or desperate burglar to find out, which means that you cannot tell anyone at all, in case it gets out.

A home security system is well-worth the money you will spend on it. The stress of being burgled or even held up, like I was, will make you wish that you were more security conscious. But it does not stop when the burglars go away. Then the police come and I spent from midnight until 4AM at the police station. I had to go back at least a dozen times after that. My insurance company had dozens of queries and it took four months to get a disbursement.

I felt sure that the burglars knew me, and I felt threatened everywhere I went for months. I could not stop glaring into people’s eyes to see if I could recognize my intruders’ (they had masks on, but I saw one man’s eyes). My life has altered radically. I even moved out of my house the next day and never went back again.

As I said before, I had a good system in situ, but I had turned it off when I got home and opened the front door to my burglars. My suggestion is to get a wired or wireless home security system and, if you can afford it, get a monitored home security system with at least one surveillance camera, but preferably one on each external wall and one inside in the lobby.

Obtain contact sensors for all external doors and vibration sensors for all windows. Put a personal panic button by all external doors and have garden lights that are activated by motion or body heat outside. Keep your system switched on and be very suspicious of who you open the door to.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with wired home security systems. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

June 3, 2010

Panic Alarms For Home And Business.

In all probability, every home and every business would benefit from the protection of a panic alarm. Breaks-in are common enough, but with people living longer the chances of stroke or heart attack have risen too. If you were living alone it would be awful to be lying on the ground helpless for hours. Panic alarms are the solution. They can be placed in a handy location or worn around your neck.

These are not the kind of personal alarms that emit a high pitched whistle or siren sound. Those alarms are meant to discourage criminals on the street or to draw attention to the user. No, I mean a device that triggers your home security system. it does not create a noise of its own, but communicates with the main security control box by some sort of radio signal.

Some of these panic alarms do not activate the main security siren, but instead send a message to a monitoring security company. These so-called silent panic alarms are most often used in banks, firearms shops and places that handle lots of ready money. However, any business could use a silent panic alarm. Household alarm systems usually activate the external siren in order to alert your neighbours that you are having problems.

Panic buttons are especially helpful to the elderly or and infirm. Sometimes, people fall and cannot get up. You could also have a heart attack or stroke and not be able to make it to the phone. A panic button on a ribbon around your neck would resolve this problem. Some of these panic buttons are monitored too and others even have a microphone and speaker so that you can talk to an operator and give details about your predicament.

Some of these panic buttons have a keypad so that you can send codes to the operator. Other systems have been built into watches and brooches in order to make them easier to carry. If you wear your panic alarm, it is far less easy to forget to take it with you when you go upstairs or into the garden.

If you can afford security, you really ought to have a system, as good as you can afford, installed into your home and business. A panic alarm is a useful extra item for home and office use too, but it is especially reassuring to the elderly. Many older people are frightened of falling when they are in the house alone and fear of burglars or worse is a constant worry. A panic alarm linked to the main home siren is also a comfort to women living alone.

If you do get a home security system with a panic button, make sure that you keep a spare battery near at hand and check that the battery in the device has not become depleted. You should also advise the neighbours you get on best with that you have a home security set-up and that they should come to your aid or phone the police, if they hear your home security siren and see the flashing light.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

May 7, 2010

Home Security – 10 Tips To Protect Yourself And Your Family

When people think of home security, they are inclined to think of electronic surveillance systems. However, there are other methods to protect yourself and your family from harm and burglars. I will give you my top ten tips for home security.

1] Windows are really the key to home security. Window-stays become loose or sloppy as they get older and sometimes you can get a window-stay to jump off its peg by thumping the outside window frame. Fit window stay locks

2] Doors must be robust, well-hung on solid hinges and have secure locks. Fit deadlocks, especially on external doors.

3] Extra keys must not be secreted near the door under a mat, a flower pot or a rock. If you want to leave a key with a neighbour, choose the neighbour carefully. Be wary of those with teenage kids, their friends may become aware that the spare key in the fruit bowl is to your house.

4] Tools that can help a burglar must be locked away. Keep your shed and garage doors locked and if you have a ladder, chain and lock it to a fixed point like a wall.

5] Dogs are helpful for home security, but they should not be relied on. Some thieves will poison a dog to get in. If you leave your dog in the house, get a box to fit inside your door to collect whatever comes in, lock the letter box closed or seal it off for good. If you leave the dog in the yard, try to get a neighbour to check up on it from time to time.

6] Plants and bushes should not be allowed to grow large enough to block anyone’s view of windows and doors. Passers-by and ‘nosy neighbours’ are a big disincentive to burglars, but if no one can see a ground floor widow, the thief can gain access unnoticed. if you do want bushes under your windows, make them tough, thorny ones.

7] Boundary walls or fences are your first line of defense. They can be a good deterrent, if you get the design right. Some people embed broken glass into the top of the wall, but this can be illegal and can hurt unwary cats. The best thing to do is nail carpet-gripper just below the top, inside lip of the wall. Anyone putting their hands over the wall to pull themselves up will get a very nasty shock and leave DNA.

8] Valuables should not be put on show near windows. Your house is your home not a presentation case. Put your TV, DVD player and video recorder in a cabinet, maybe get a safe for your valuables and conceal that too.

9] External lighting is a key part of night-time security. Get exterior lights that are activated by motion (microwave) or heat (passive infra red), put at least one on each outside wall of your house.

10] Electronic surveillance systems are a necessity these days. You do not need cameras, but they are helpful for identifying intruders. Your home security system can be wired or wireless, monitored or not.

These top ten home security tips should prevent your home from becoming an easy target for burglars.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with wired home security systems. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

April 20, 2010

Automated Home Security

These days people are becoming more concerned about their home security, chiefly because of the mounting crime rate. Even homes that have an older security system should be checked to see whether their security system is out of date or acceptable.

It is not so much that an older system may stop working, but technology advances very quickly and your sensors may not be the best variety or even the variety that suit your home the best.

The kind of security system that you should be using can change as the constituent members of your family changes. For example, if you have just had a baby, you could hook up a surveillance camera to the bedroom or put a motion sensor pointing along side a toddler’s bed so that you know if he or she gets up out of bed.

There are many types of security systems, including wired, wireless, monitored and Internet. The Internet wireless system is or at least can be fully automated.

That means that you can control it through the hand set or any online device like a laptop or desktop computer. This means that you can check up on your home from your office or when you are away on holiday.

If surveillance cameras are part of your home security system, then you will be able to see and check up on your home on your computer monitor from anywhere in the world. If you connect sensors to some table lamps around your house, you will even be able to turn lights on and off to make it look as if you are at home when you are in fact hundreds of miles away. Put the TV on such a sensor and you can even switch that on and off as well.

If you put a surveillance camera in your children’s bedrooms and the living room, you could check up on the baby sitter or your business cash register on your WAP enabled mobile phone or PDA. This kind of automated can be installed by a competent DIYer, but is intended to be installed by professionals.

This type of automated system is very reassuring. Imagine being able to check up on your home, children or business by watching live video footage on any computer or Internet phone anywhere in the world!

An automated security system is not cheap, but is worth the peace of mind that it brings. You could get near complete automated home or business security by the end of next week. Pay for it over time, if you have too, but they are not as expensive as you may think

Owen Jones, the writer of this writer, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

April 14, 2010

Exterior Security Lighting

It is entirely natural that we all want to keep our homes and businesses safe and well protected, but there are many ways in which this can be accomplished. The cheapest and most cost effective way is exterior security lighting

It truly is a no brainer, poor lighting can make a home or business a much more appealing object than the house next door because it has less adequate exterior security lighting. Burglars look for poorly lit points of entry into buildings that seem to contain riches, so when you are designing the security system for your home or business you should try to think like a criminal.

Look at your buildings from the outside, or look at someone else’s first and ask yourself, how you would get in there if you had to. Pretend that you forgot your keys or that there is a serious problem in your property. How would you get in? This is where chummy gets in and you must find out how to obstruct his every move.

Ten years ago, I lived in a bungalow alone with my small, knee-high dog and armed robbers attacked me in my home, in spite of the fact that I had a reasonable home security system. Do not let it happen to you. My blunder was that I had inadequate exterior security lighting.

They had cut my phone line during the day and because I used a cell phone for most of my calls, I did not notice. Also my dog was sick, but I did not appreciate that she had been poisoned too. At eleven o’clock at night there was a ring on the front door and I opened it, thinking that it was a neighbour in trouble.

A man charged in and over-powered me and the rest was not nice. However, the whole regrettable affair could have been prevented, if I had thought like them..

I was in the routine of pulling the curtains when I got home, so I did not notice that they had taken the lamps from my exterior security lighting as well.

My advice is to check your exterior security lighting every night when you get home and keep the bushes or shrubs cut low around your front and back doors. Make sure that your exterior security lighting is working every evening and make sure that you can see who is ringing your door bell.

Provide your garden and your doors with plenty of light. Let them be on motion sensors and check who is at your door from a side window that looks out onto the front door. I had a beautiful frosted glass pane in my front door, but that is no good. I could not identify anyone through it.

Get a panic button fitted by your doors, a big one, so that if you are surprised you can swipe out and still hit it and above all make your next door neighbours aware that if your external siren sounds, that you are in danger and that you need assistance immediately. If you are not in trouble, you can always say sorry later.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

Wireless Home Security System

Nowadays a house or even an apartment is not thought of as complete without an adequate home security systems Not having one often has an effect on the market price of the property too – downwards if your home security system is found wanting or even non existent. People are just too worried about the rising levels of crime. One of the problems for home owners is that stores and other businesses have got their act together and are very well protected in general. This has forced the average burglar too turn his attention to houses.

The number of burglaries has risen by almost 10% over the last five years because of this fact so now every household should be considering upgrading, replacing or installing a new home security system. It is a shame that the situation has come to this, but it is so. I myself was attacked in my home by burglars ten years ago. They tied me up and threatened me with a knife. They also threatened to skin my dog in front of me. It was not pleasant.

Modern technology makes it easy to fit a very good home security system, without having to spend a great deal of money. Often when you have work done on your home or your car, the labour element of the cost is more than that of the parts you wanted. It can be the same with the installation of a home security system. However, a wireless home security system can be fitted by any reasonably capable person, which allows you to save money or just get a better system.

If you can run a wire from a fuse box and climb a ladder you can fit a home security system yourself. With older wired systems, it was complicated to hide the wires that ran to the sensors. You had to tuck them behind coving and skirting boards an chase them into the plaster. It is a lot of work to do it properly, but it is easier with a wireless system.

If you go wireless, the only thing you will have to do or have done is wire the central control box directly to the fuse box and wire up the external siren too. After that you can just fix the proper sensors in the proper places and you are finished. All of this is explained in the instructions, which I suggest you scan while you are in the store in case they are in badly translated Chinese.

You can take the basic home security system as far as you like. Modern wireless technology allows many extras and variations. A basic system would consist of the control box, the external siren and all the sensors, but you ought to add outside security lights to this as a necessity. They can be wirelessly linked to the control box too.

Then you could add surveillance cameras and a speaker-phone on the front door. All of these items can relay information to your control box and from there to a PC, if wanted. The Internet can be used as an interface to control your system too, if you want – even from work or while on holiday!

A wireless home security system is a very adaptable piece of equipment, but is not that complicated to install, go to the mall as soon as you have time to get some brochures.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

Safes For Home And Business Use

These days data is one of the most precious commodities. Personal information such as your social security number, tax identification numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords and PIN’s are precious resources and must be highly guarded, because if this information gets into the wrong hands, thieves could cause havoc in your financial and personal life.

Some companies, especially those that have high and rapid employee turnover rates are often targeted specifically for their employee details. This information in the right hands is worth far more than the one-off theft of money or merchandise and is much more tough to trace.

One way that most businesses and some homes are protecting this important information is by purchasing large safes in which to store the information that they have on paper and disk. Some businesses go one step further however and purchase hidden or disguised safes. This adds yet another layer of protection and security for employees who may be concerned about identity theft.

When it comes to security for homes, safes provide a great way to safeguard not only important documents but also jewelry, letters and gold. Another great thing about safes for protecting valuables in the home is that most safes are also virtually fire proof. This means that the valuables held in the safe are likely to survive in the event that a fire damages your home. Not only will a safe offer the security of ’safe guarding” your possessions but also your peace of mind by allowing you to know that your critical documents and information (including insurance papers) are kept safe from inquisitive eyes.

Some safe manufacturers concentrate in making safes inconspicuous so that the casual observer would not recognize that you had a safe in your home at all. In fact, a professional installer can make them almost completely unnoticeable. This can be done so well that not even your friends and family would know.

Other types of safes that offer security to your home and/or business, depending on what sort of business you are in, of course are gun safes. Quite frankly, having guns out in the open and freely available to anyone who walks in the door is not only irresponsible but should be criminal too. It is wise, for those who possess guns to have a gun safe in which to store those weapons. Ammunition should be kept elsewhere. Guns do not provide adequate defense for homes or business. In many instances, those who attempt to use their guns for home security, are only managing to provide another weapon to the intruder rather than managing to safeguard their possessions or protect their families.

Safes can provide great protection and security for homes and businesses when properly used and guarded. Safes offer little protection however if everyone and their brother knows the location and/or the combination to the safe. You should keep that information closely guarded in order to receive the maximum security that owning a safe can provide.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

April 12, 2010

Do You Have Security Problems In Your Home Or Business?

Security is an essential aspect of life, but then it always has been. It is normal for parents to try their best to take care of their families and it is normal and even a legal requirement for an employer to ensure the safety of his or her staff. Part of the way we carry out these tasks is to defend the environment in which we live and work – our homes and our offices or other places of work.

A good security system for our homes and businesses is often an electronic system. Windows and doors – ie likely entry points – will be monitored by sensors. In order to maintain an effective security system, it is necessary to use a frequently changed password system. In a home the keypad will usually be numeric only, but you should change the password at least every month and maybe even every week.

For example, if you have teenage children or older, they will be bringing friends back. These friends will be able to see you child entering the password. This can be even more serious if the person is a boyfriend or girlfriend who subsequently gets dumped.

Similarly in an office or other place of work, it is a good idea to have pass cards that can be canceled if the employee leaves the firm. A lot of harm is caused every year to material goods by disgruntled ex-employees and old boy- and girlfriends.

You can help passers-by and police by leaving some light burning inside your building. Frequent passers-by, neighbours and police will get used to seeing lights on, so if a burglar switches them off, they will become suspicious.

Prowlers do not like light. Similarly, do not let bushes, shrubs or trees hide likely entry points. Keep them cut back so that people can see any suspicious activity. You would be surprised how many people just sit in their windows all day watching.

Outdoor security lighting is an excellent way of deterring criminals at night. Set up a few solar garden lights that are switched on by passive infra red motion sensors and they will be cheap to run. The good thing about them is that they do not announce their presence to the would be burglar, but they will catch him or her in a floodlight when he enters your property.

Another tip is to nail carpet gripper just under the top edge on the inside of your garden fence. Anyone trying to haul himself up over your fence will have a very horrible shock and leave DNA for the police.

If your business or home has an open door policy in order to allow clients or your kids to walk in, install doorbells or chimes that are triggered by under carpet sensors, door sensors or PIR’s, so that employees or family can not be caught by surprise. It is very useful, because if your busy secretary doubles as a meeter of walk-in clients, it will guarantee that she does not miss anybody or keeps anybody waiting.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

April 10, 2010

Home Security Matters

Home security is a mammoth issue, but this is nothing new – it always has been an issue for parents and home owners. The problem is that family structure has altered. Not so long ago, people had much larger families and mothers or grandmothers were at home to look after the kids. With six, eight or even ten kids in a family, the house was never empty so burglars did not have a lot of opportunity. There was more social cohesion too, so criminals were loath to steal from their neighbours. So they attacked shops instead.

However, shops and other businesses started using electronic burglar alarms as the prices fell. These security units were so effective that burglars turned to stealing from people’s homes, which is made easier by the fact that the kids are in school and the parents are at work all day. American federal statistics indicate that domestic burglaries are up nearly ten percent since 2004. So, what can you do to put off a burglar?

If your residence is left empty for a large part of the day because your children are at school, nursery or a baby-sitters’ and you are at work, think about getting some home help or joining a neighbourhood watch scheme. If you had a cleaner coming and going, it would provide some activity to discourage crooks.

Joining a neighbourhood watch would communicate to your neighbours that you are worried about security and they will keep an eye on your home while you are out. Get your self a dog too, although be aware that they can be easily poisoned, if the robber has access to them..

Install an electronic surveillance system. This could be a monitored or tape system. Monitored is the best. An added bonus to a surveillance system is that you can be sure what your baby sitter gets up to while you are out too. You can turn it off when you yourself are at home or just leave the external cameras on.

Another bonus with a home security system is that you can get a panic button connected to the system’s main external siren and strobe light. If you are set upon or worried, you can trigger the alarm by pushing a button on a device that you can wear around your neck. They can also be built into watches and brooches. These personal panic buttons are a good idea for the elderly and single women providing peace of mind to those living alone.

A monitored surveillance system will also warn you if your house catches fire while you are asleep or out or if someone is prowling around your backyard. Often the operator of the system will phone the emergency services as well after they have alerted you.

A good surveillance system can be used as a bargaining chip with your insurance broker to gain some hefty discounts on your premium. If you have a small business that you operate from home, you may be able to off-set some or all of the costs against your business too and a good home surveillance system can increase the selling price of your house, because it makes it that one step more complete, like having uPVC doors and windows and a timber deck.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

March 31, 2010

The Stages Of Home Security

People have always tried to defend themselves and their families, just like most animals do. In very early days, cavemen protected their caves by setting fires outside the opening to discourage interlopers and wild animals. Later on, man learned how to increase his security by training dogs to safeguard him and his family. Later still, houses and then doors were invented; bars and locks arrived soon after that.

However, until a few decades ago in the west, people lived in extended large families. A family might consist of six-to-ten children and the mother and the grandmother would often live there too. This made home security systems irrelevant from the early 18th Century to the 1930’s, which were fairly peaceful times. After the Second World War, families were not so big and new families got their own house away from their parents.

Nowadays, both parents are likely to be working and the children are almost certainly at school. This means that many houses are left unoccupied during the day, making them easy plunder for burglars. In fact, the number of household burglaries has risen by almost 10% in the last five years according to American government figures. Furthermore, according to a survey, forty percent of home burglaries were carried out due to inappropriate locks and doors.

ANSI (American National Standard Institute) produced a standard for deadbolt locks for external doors which is very difficult to beat. If you are concerned about your exterior doors, you should seek these ANSI deadbolts out, but be careful, there are many copies. However, regardless of the kind of lock, the quality of the door is just as crucial. Its thickness and composition can also be a disincentive. After all, why put an elaborate deadbolt on a door made of cardboard?

There are about 14,000,000 home burglaries every year in the United States and many of them are preventable. The first stage that you should achieve in home security is well-built doors and sturdy locks. Deadbolts on exit doors is a good idea.

Once you have completed that, get some exterior security lighting that reacts to either motion or body heat. The former sort are microwave and the latter passive infra red sensors. These sensors will also contain a daylight sensor so that they will only become active at night. The sensors will also save you money by activating the powerful halogen floodlights only when someone enters the range of the sensor’s beam.

Once you have done that, you ought to think about a home security alarm system. This should consist of contact sensors on all outside doors and windows, vibration sensors on all widows to alarm you in case of breakage and PIR or microwave motion sensors in the corridors and hallways.

Then, if you want to go even further in your home security system, you can fit surveillance cameras on each exterior wall of the house and maybe one in the interior too. You do not have to take all these precautionary measures at once, if you are short of cash, but they should be taken in that sequence.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with home security systems comparison. If you are interested in Security Systems For Home Use, please click through to our site.

categories: alarm systems,security,home,business,family,home business,home accessories,consumer electronics,elderly care,other,uncategorized,happiness,retirement,interior design

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