ASmart Home Security
Carefree Vacations
By Robert Hessel
vacation is the time to relax. That is hard to do when
you start to wonder if everything is OK at home while
you are gone. These intrusive thoughts can creep
in to your mind, and when they do, they stop you
from enjoying yourself. Did the pet sitter show up? Did that
thunderstorm damage our deck? Did I remember to lock the
back door or close the garage? These and other questions can
unnerve you while you are away.
However, when you have a high-tech connection to your home
through a smart security app, you can resolve these questions
easily. Smart home security frees up your head space, so you can
get back to the business of enjoying yourself on your vacation.
You will stop wondering if you remembered to lock the back
door, close the garage, or arm the security system if you have
set up smart security reminders for these actions. By doing so,
you will have a proactive reminder if you indeed forget to do
any of these things.
With this technology, you’ll enjoy a whole new level of carefree
traveling, knowing that your home is professionally protected
with 24/7 monitoring. You can set up your system to signal for
help in the event of a fire or break-in, alerting your monitoring
station to dispatch emergency services.
Even if you have a trusted neighbor watching your pets, it’s
always nice to be able to confirm that your animal companions
are safe and cared for, which you can do by creating a “pet-sitter
alert” that will give your pet-sitter their own user code that will
trigger a smartphone alert to you each time the person arrives. If
you want, you can set up a no-show alert that will notify you if
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the sitter doesn’t arrive. With smart video monitoring, you can
easily look in on your pets anytime from anywhere.
When a home is unoccupied, small problems can escalate into
large ones. A sudden water leak, which you might normally spot
quickly, can turn into a flood while you are away. A door left
unlocked can blow open. Smart home security can detect events
like these and alert you when they happen, thus enabling you to
make an emergency call to someone to fix the problem.
A smart lock can be installed to give immediate access to your
home in an emergency. By using a smart video doorbell, combined
with a smart lock on your front door, you can verify a visitor’s
identity, let them into the house, then lock the door when they leave,
all from your phone. This feature is not just useful in emergencies
or while you are on vacation. Things happen all the time for which
we are not prepared, but these new systems mean that you no
longer need to leave an emergency key under the flower pot.
The beauty of a smart home security system is that all of the
devices can communicate and cooperate with each other. For
example, you can set it up, so that when you arm your system as
you leave for vacation, your smart thermostat will automatically
set itself back to save energy. Likewise, you would not have to
come home to a too-warm or too-cool house, as you can even
enable Geo-Services to alert your system when you’re getting
close to home, so that your thermostat will automatically make
things comfortable for you before you arrive.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Hessel at Source 1 Solutions can be contacted
at (727) 538-4114 or source1security.com.
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