Sunday 7 June 2009

What Is The Best Home Security Systes: An Investment In Peace of Mind

Your home is your refuge, the place where you come to relax, and unwind from dealing with a stressful world. Keeping your home your refuge is a concern, and home security systems are geared to address that concern.

There are a lot of options for home security systems, ranging from burglar alarm systems (that just make a loud noise) to silent alarm and monitoring systems, such as those offered by ADT services. Even a dog is a good home security system, if he'll bark at the right people at the right time. Whichever home security system you get – from a dog to a top of the line monitored alarm system – is a matter of how much you're willing to spend and what kind of threats you expect to deal with.

The reality of home invasions is that their incidence per 100,000 people has fallen dramatically since their peak in 1992; indeed, violent crimes have been declining steadily for nearly two decades, a trend that's ascribed to everything from higher incarceration rates and "three strikes" laws to improved police procedures and increased funding mandates to put police officers on the streets, to community and neighborhood watch programs and a wider assortment of home security systems making it into the consumer market and widespread deployment.

To find What Is The Best Home Security System you are going to need monitoring, and filtering to eliminate false positives. A false positive is anything that triggers the alarm that isn't an actual problem; enough false positives, and the home alarm system ceases to be used, because it trains people that the alarm is always going to be false. Most motion detector car alarm systems are in this category.

Higher end home security systems use cameras, motion detectors and other sensors to provide an integrated approach to home security; these systems are able to tell if it's the cat walking on the kitchen counter setting off the motion detector and not go off rather than inundate you with false alarms. Lower end home security systems include motion detectors and alarm systems, designed to scare an intruder off. These systems also require a bit of extra wiring put into place – most of them will go off if a door or window is opened unexpectedly while they're armed. This has its advantages – they're simple to set up – and its drawbacks, say when a teenager is sneaking back into the home after being out past curfew, and waking the entire neighborhood.

An important concern with setting up the best home security system is whether or not you want immediate deterrence with a loud alarm and flashing lights, or a silent alarm system that reports to an offsite monitoring station; the former is usually less expensive. The latter results in more arrests for burglaries.

Whatever kind of home security system you get, think carefully about the cost of installation and the cost of any maintenance systems. Home alarm systems are a proven value add to the resale value of the home; most of them more than pay for their installation when a home is re-sold, and getting a professional off-site monitoring system is even likelier to do this. Think of your home security system not just as an investment in your peace of mind, but as an investment into your home as well.

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