Keep your home safe and sound
October 26, 2018
As part of your home maintenance plan, an annual review of your security and safety systems is always a good idea. It is easy to forget about all the hard-working systems, especially when they are working so well! I like to put a reminder in my calendar, usually around this time of year, when my family is clearing the yard for winter. Here are five tips from GVHBA member Anima Integration Corp., specialists in home safety systems.
1. Replace ionization with photoelectric smoke detectors.
Most residential fire fatalities are due to smoke inhalation. In smouldering fires, ionization smoke detectors respond an average of 15 to 50 minutes slower than photoelectric ones. Several studies show that ionization smoke detectors will fail to activate 20-25 per cent of the time, compared to photoelectric units that activate 100 per cent of the time.
2. Add motion detecting cameras that alert you in the daytime.
Contrary to popular belief, most home burglaries take place during the daytime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. when people are at work or school. Adding security cameras that have motion or line crossing detection can keep you alerted at all hours if there’s any suspicious activities at home. You can check on your home throughout the day and react immediately if there’s trespassing and an attempted break in.
3. Check your door and window contact break gap.
If you have the chime enabled on your alarm system, check how many inches you have to open your door or window before the alarm system activates with keypad beeps. If your door or window opens more than six inches before activating your alarm system, have the door or window contacts replaced. Opening your door or window should cause the keypad to beep right away.
4. Add guard service to your alarm monitoring plan.
The Vancouver bylaw states before an alarm company can request a police dispatch, it must get in touch with its client or emergency contact. If the monitoring station is not able to reach someone, instead of relying on the police to arrive, guard-service certified and trained guards can provide verification if an alarm is false and alert police if there’s a true alarm.
Guard service reduces response time, gives you peace of mind when you’re away and saves on costs incurred if police are dispatched to a false alarm.
5. Add construction cameras if you’re building a home.
Construction site theft can cause thousands of dollars in damages as well as add up remedial expenses and delay projects. With construction site video verification surveillance, your motion-activated site cameras can automatically send video clips of site intruders to the monitoring station and alert you via your phone, enabling quick response time to prevent further damage.
Related reading
About Bob de Wit
Bob de Wit is a NextHome contributor.