Home Alarm System

Home Alarm System

By Greg Vernon

Aside from changing the locks to your new house, installing a home alarm system is one of the best things you can do for your personal security. A home alarm system acts as both a deterrent as well as a first alert system to protect your valuables.

There are two options for people wishing to use an home alarm system to protect their houses or apartments. You can choose a monitored service (provided by Brinks or ADT to name a few) or you can install your own system from easily purchased parts.

For basic features, having a monitored home alarm system gives a homeowner higher quality products (they can detect fire and intruders) at a cheaper price – plus you do not have to do any of the install work yourself. This is because the monthly service fees more than make up for the losses on equipment and gives companies a competitive pricing edge. Even though a monitored system can be nice, an unmonitored system equipped with a camera and digital video recorder is more than enough to satisfy the needs of a worried homeowner. Most do-it-yourself home alarm systems use wireless transmitters, which make installing these systems faster, easier and safer.

The equipment needed to secure your home, such as motion sensors, door and window sensors, and the base unit can be found at any big-box retailer such as Kmart and Wall Mart for a very reasonable price. Higher quality parts, which also cost more, can be found at electronics outlets such as RadioShack.

When you install your own home alarm system, you should think with the mind of an intruder; where is the easiest place to enter? Where can I easily hide from the street and neighbors? It is these areas, where intrusions are most likely, where you need to have the most security. Though, even in the best security situations a break-in is always possible. Even with your beefed up home alarm system in high-risk areas, you should plan for the worst by installing security options throughout your house.

The basic security measures you should implement throughout your house include locking doors, keeping ladders chained and away from your house, and changing the locks to the doors on the perimeter of the house.

In high-risk areas, you should add motion detection sensors and door/window sensors to easily detect intruders who are either inside your home or attempting to break in. Motion detection units typically cost around $20 while window/door sensors typically cost less. In order to operate, most sensors require a compatible base station as well.

The base station price varies between systems, sometimes costing as little as $20 or as high as $500 or more. The base stations should be located in an area where you enter and exit the home frequently, allowing you to arm and disarm the unit with ease.

When planning for your home alarm system, you should also consider security cameras. If an intruder makes his way into your house, a picture can help police identify the intruder and recover lost items.

High-quality security camera kits can cost hundreds of dollars, but include multiple cameras and a digital video recorder backend, which would become an awesome addition to your home alarm system.

If you choose to install a camera system, remember to bolt down the DVR backend to keep an intruder from stealing the evidence needed to track him down.

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