A Quick Guide to Smart Home Security

There are a lot of different home security systems out there. If you’ve been considering upgrading your home with some security features, you might be asking yourself whether to go for the standard system or how to upgrade to a “smart” version. Below, we break down what makes a security system smart and why you should take advantage of these innovative technologies in your Providence, UT home.

What’s Included in a Smart Home Security System?

With smart home automation, you have full flexibility to customize the system to fit your lifestyle. That’s just as true for the security part of the system. If you’ve had trouble with flooding in the past, you might want to add in smart water leak sensors. If you prefer not to have loud alarms, you could opt for silent ones instead.

In short, you can include whatever you want. That said, here are some popular choices to consider:

• Surveillance Cameras: Instead of fixed, low-res cameras that make it a pain to review footage, you can get cameras that are fully controllable in real-time with 4K resolution visuals. Just pull out your phone, select the room you want to view, and you can see exactly what’s going on. You can even pan around the room or zoom in on a specific area (useful if you’re trying to remember whether or not you left the oven on).
• Sensors: There are a lot of different types of sensors you can add to your home. A traditional security system might include door or window sensors so that you can tell if someone is trying to enter, but you don’t have to stop there. You could add motion sensors that are smart enough to differentiate between normal movement by you or a pet and movement by intruders. You could also add “geofencing” sensors that detect when you are within a certain radius of the home. Geofencing could be used to disarm the security system as your car enters the driveway, for example.
• Alarms: While you could stick with one basic alarm that blares out at the first sign of trouble, is that really the smartest approach? Instead, go for a system that has customizable tones and alerts for different issues. You could receive a text message if the garage door has been left open too long, a simple chirp if a window opens at an unusual time, and a loud alarm and phone call if a fire is detected in your home. These alerts are customizable to fit your lifestyle, so if you’re out of town a lot, you could set up text message or phone call notifications for key events.
• Smart Locks: Physical keys are an outdated and inefficient way to secure your home. With smart locks, you can always control who has access to your home, even when you’re away. Through geofencing, have your front door unlock before you even reach for the handle. You could also set up custom access codes for friends, family, maintenance workers, etc. And because all access is tracked and logged, you can easily see who is in your home at any given time.
• Lighting Control: Lights aren’t typically what comes to mind for home security, but they can definitely help keep your home safe. Use floodlights on your property to illuminate intruders or pathway lights to guide you safely inside on dark evenings. If a fire alarm goes off at night, all the lights in the house can turn on so that you can clearly see where to exit.

What Makes Smart Home Security Smart?

All of the security devices listed above are great on their own, but what makes the system smart is the fact that they all work together to make your home safer. For example, if outdoor motion sensors detect movement in the middle of the night and you left the front door unlocked, the system could automatically lock the door to keep the intruder from easily entering your property. If a fire starts in the kitchen, your system could automatically power down all electronic devices, turn off the HVAC system to avoid fanning the flames, and immediately alert both you and the fire department.

Take a step up from a generic security system with smart home automation. If you’d like to learn more about the possibilities for your Utah home, contact us today by calling (435) 752-6564.