Hi-Tech & Lo-Tech Combine For The Best In Home Security

10 June, 2010

Generally speaking, putting all your eggs in one basket is usually a bad idea. We diversify our investment portfolios. We have more than one channel on our televisions. We eat a variety of different foods. There's sage wisdom in this old adage, and the same rings true for home security.

Relying on any one thing to keep your home and your family protected is shortsighted and a mistake just waiting to be exploited If you only have smoke detectors in your home, then you've got pretty good coverage against heat, smoke, and fire damage. But what if a pipe bursts and floods your basement? Your smoke detectors will look on with nothing to do or report. Why protect all of your exterior doors if you're going to leave your windows unlocked?

No doubt you're starting to see the point. Effective home security is a combination of high-tech and low-tech solutions, coupled with a sense of awareness and common sense. What do we mean by low-tech home security? These are what you find in most home security tips: Deadbolt locks for your doors and sash locks for your windows are forms of low-tech home security. The strong dowels or metal rods you use in the tracks of your windows to prevent them from being opened from the outside are also low-tech. Changing light bulbs, trimming your hedges and shrubs, putting lamps on timers, and even outdoor lighting are all forms of low-tech home security.

Without the low-tech the high-tech items aren't nearly as effective. So, what are these high-tech home security items? A monitored ADT home security system, professionally installed, is a high-tech from of home security. The door and window alarms, motion detectors, flood and freeze alarms, smoke detectors, and wireless cameras are all integrated into a single web of home security, monitored by professional home security experts trained in emergency readiness. But what good is a front door alarm if your door is unlocked or left open? Separate and apart a door alarm and a deadbolt lock are OK forms of home security. Working in tandem, however, their sum exceeds the combined total of the individual parts.

It's easy to focus on one set of things and unintentionally ignore another. A great way to avoid this problem when creating your home security master plan is to make a list with two columns, one for high-tech and one for low-tech. Each time you add an item to one column, take time to think about an item for the other column. If you're going to add outdoor lighting with motion-sensor technology, which is a high-tech item, then you should be thinking about ridding your yard of potential hiding places by trimming bushes, shrubs, and hedges so potential burglars can't hide when the floodlight comes on.

Being aware of your surroundings – your house, yard, additional structures like sheds, your neighborhood – paired with a common sense approach to both the high-tech and the low-tech elements of home security will have you protecting your home as thoroughly as possible, and you won't be relying on just one form of home security to keep your family well protected.