When the majority of people think about monitoring their home security system, they consider primarily about its ability to alert the police of a break-in. What they are not aware of is the lesser know capabilities of the modern alarm system, which is environmental monitoring.
For instance: you can monitor the amount of carbon monoxide that's present in your home. Smoke Detectors, water level sensors and low temperature devices can also be monitored by home security systems. Even though monitoring of these devices is becoming more well-known, it will be a while before it becomes a regular feature of every system.
News accounts have helped push the awareness of these capabilities. Every time their focus is placed on the effects of radon gas or other dangers like fires in the home, there's an increase demand for this kind of monitoring.
Unfortunately it takes a tragedy to motivate most people to act. Adding environmental monitoring devices to a new security system or existing ones is somewhat simple. Once installed, the alarm system is programmed to make an audible sound or silent alarm based on what kind of device is being monitored.
If you have a low temperature sensor to prevent freezing pipes, you wouldn't want the siren blasting you out of bed in the middle of the night but you'd wish to know if there is too much carbon monoxide in your home.
For those who're aware of the full capabilities of an alarm system, it may come down to the cost issue whether or not to add extra equipment. Even though cost is a logical concern, one must also consider all of the risks involved.
A break-in takes a human and a conscience decision to target a certain house. Whereas fires and other acts of nature aren't so discriminating. Think about all of the things that run on electric in a home. Any one of them has the potential for starting a fire.
Don't get me wrong; I am not talking about spontaneous combustion but normal wear and tear to the electrical cords and so on. A fire or a flooding basement can damage a whole house costing many thousands of dollars. A break-in on the other hand is less likely to reach the same level of damage.
When put into this perspective, it is not as hard to justify the cost of the equipment versus the potential risk you can prevent. Talk with your insurance agent to see what discounts they give for monitoring your home security system.
For instance: you can monitor the amount of carbon monoxide that's present in your home. Smoke Detectors, water level sensors and low temperature devices can also be monitored by home security systems. Even though monitoring of these devices is becoming more well-known, it will be a while before it becomes a regular feature of every system.
News accounts have helped push the awareness of these capabilities. Every time their focus is placed on the effects of radon gas or other dangers like fires in the home, there's an increase demand for this kind of monitoring.
Unfortunately it takes a tragedy to motivate most people to act. Adding environmental monitoring devices to a new security system or existing ones is somewhat simple. Once installed, the alarm system is programmed to make an audible sound or silent alarm based on what kind of device is being monitored.
If you have a low temperature sensor to prevent freezing pipes, you wouldn't want the siren blasting you out of bed in the middle of the night but you'd wish to know if there is too much carbon monoxide in your home.
For those who're aware of the full capabilities of an alarm system, it may come down to the cost issue whether or not to add extra equipment. Even though cost is a logical concern, one must also consider all of the risks involved.
A break-in takes a human and a conscience decision to target a certain house. Whereas fires and other acts of nature aren't so discriminating. Think about all of the things that run on electric in a home. Any one of them has the potential for starting a fire.
Don't get me wrong; I am not talking about spontaneous combustion but normal wear and tear to the electrical cords and so on. A fire or a flooding basement can damage a whole house costing many thousands of dollars. A break-in on the other hand is less likely to reach the same level of damage.
When put into this perspective, it is not as hard to justify the cost of the equipment versus the potential risk you can prevent. Talk with your insurance agent to see what discounts they give for monitoring your home security system.
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