The Holidays are a great time of year. Family and Friends gathering to celebrate and exchange gifts and spend quality time together. For many of us, the holidays are serious business. Getting ready for visitors involves hours of preparation and decorating. It’s a time we take to show pride in our homes and to be grateful for the things we have.
This is also the time of year when burglars know they are likely to find high priced electronics, jewelry, and other easy to sell gifts in you home. And it’s when holiday lights go up and amatuer chefs are in the kitchen, causing an increase in the possibility of electrical and cooking related fires.
Here are 5 suggestions that you need to consider.
1. Test your Security System.
Taking a few minutes to verify that your monitoring company is receiving your alarm signals is critical. Most people invest in a security system for the 30 seconds it is needed to detect an intruder. If the signal doesn’t reach the monitoring center, there is no way for them to help. It doesn’t matter if you have a telephone line connected system or a more advanced cellular or internet connected system. Test it. Call your security system provider and ask them for the procedures to test your system.
2. Update your Monitoring Center Call List and Password.
Face it. There is a good chance you don’t even remember who is on your call list. You probably know the password, but does everyone that has a key and a code for your property know it? They should. If they make a mistake using the system and the monitoring center cannot reach anyone or the person they do reach doesn’t know the password, the police will be sent.
Verify and update the individuals you want to be called and the numbers where they can be reached.
3. Change the batteries in ALL of your Smoke Detectors and CO Detectors.
You may remember changing the battery on the smoke detector that woke you up beeping at 2AM last summer, but what about the other ones? What about the CO Detectors? Now is the time to change all of the batteries. Holiday lights and fireplaces increase the risk of accidental fires. Not to mention, it’s amatuer hour in the kitchen this time of year.
According to the NFPA report issued in November 2017, 47% of all reported home fires involved cooking equipment. Unattended cooking was the largest contributing factor to these home fires.
Having properly working smoke detectors and CO detectors can provide early detection that can save lives and property.
Contact your security system provider to schedule a professional service call or get instructions on how to change the batteries yourself.
4. Let Your Alarm Monitoring Company Know If You Will Be Out of Town.
Before you go out of town this holiday season, call your monitoring center and let them know your plans. When I tell people this they think, “Why would I need to do that?” Many people forget that they are paying for a service. In order for the monitoring company to help you better protect your home, they need to know things like this. Here are several things that will help-
- Give them the phone number where you can be reached out of town if they cannot reach you on your cell phone.
- Give them the dates you will be gone and any special instructions they should follow while you are gone. For example, “Please call my neighbor first while I am gone.”
- Let them know if anyone like neighbors, house sitters, or dog walkers will need a temporary password.
5. Update, Upgrade, Add-on.
Is anyone on your Christmas list asking for smart home devices? Before you buy any of these systems or devices, you should look at what your security system company has to offer. Smart Home Security is on fire right now and if you already own a professionally installed security system, you can bet that there is a way to have smart home Z-Wave devices added to your current system. It may require an upgrade, but it is well worth the effort. The best part is that it is professionally installed and makes using your security system even easier with a mobile app.
Call Johns Brothers Security today to learn more about our current specials for smart home connected devices for current customers.