Smart home security is becoming one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the Smart Home Technology sphere. It’s simple to install, easy to use, and is incredibly cheap compared to other home security systems.
Home security has always been a fine balancing act between effectiveness and access. Nobody wants to live in a house with security screens over the windows, steel doors and barbed wire fences surrounding the property, but neither does anyone want a house which anyone can simply walk into, notwithstanding the aesthetic.
And so a compromise has to be met. Of course reasonable precautions are quite sufficient for most of us. Sturdy doors and frames, toughened double glazing which not only keeps intruders out but keeps the heat in at wintertime keep us, our property and possessions safe. So where does Smart home security come in?
Smart Home Services become desirable for homeowners who embrace technology and prefer to boost their smart home security systems without compromising on style and aesthetic. Steel security grilles might tell a burglar “you’ve not getting in here today” but a Smart CCTV camera will send the message “you can try, but the police will be on their way and we’ll have HD footage of every move you make”.
Burglar alarms and CCTV have been available to the public for years, and to business for decades. The problem with them was that they weren’t Smart. A burglar could just as easily break in, but the video cameras recorded footage onto old tapes which have been recorded over again and again for years, unmonitored self-installed burglar alarms might sound but they’d be more likely to annoy the neighbours than to prompt them to call the police. If the alarms were being monitored by a security firm the process of confirming whether it was a real burglary or not was time consuming, meaning that anyone in your house could be long gone by the time the police arrived.
The Smart Way To Do Security
Smart home security systems are entirely different. Instead of simply recording onto old tapes, smart CCTV cameras record in high definition, even in darkness, saving the footage to a remote server as well as sending a feed to your phone or computer. Because storage is remote there’s no chance of the intruder stumbling over the recording device and removing it or destroying it. Smart burglar alarms are connected to discreet door and window sensors which can do a variety of things alongside setting off alarms. They can trigger indoor cameras to start recording, lights to come on and notifications to be sent to apps. This is on top of sending an alert immediately, or after a delay, to the police or security monitoring service.
Because they’re smart they can be linked to other Smart home systems such as geofences which will use your phone to sense whether it’s you, a family member or anyone else, helping to prevent false alarms if you open a window after forgetting to turn the burglar alarm off, and telling you that you’ve left a window open if you happen to forget when you go out.
Are We Really Less Safe Today Than Our Grandparents?
The advantage that Smart home security systems have is that they fit in so well with the modern way of life. We’re all too familiar with the old adage that people of our grandparents’ age like to trot out that “when I was young you could leave your front door open and nobody would steal anything!” and of course this is rot. People living in dense housing lived in tighter knit communities where everyone knew their neighbours, that is true, but then it’s also true to say that the standard of living for the average household was so low that there would literally be nothing to steal in most homes. People living in nice leafy suburbs who had possessions worth taking would certainly have kept their doors locked and windows barred.
Science Fiction As Standard
But today is very different from our elderly relatives’ times. Our standard of living is so much higher that what we regard as ‘basic’ would, for a vast majority of the people back then, be the stuff of wonder, even science fiction.
TV and other media shapes the way we see the world around us. The news is naturally full of crime statistics, reports on crimes which happen locally, nationally, and internationally, reports which make the news because they are so remarkable. However, because they’re considered newsworthy, they’re all we get to hear about, making us fearful of the unknown and strangers who live outside our area of familiarity. It also has the reverse effect on the audience too.
People to whom breaking into someone else’s home isn’t beyond the pale see news reports and TV documentaries and dramas and see a lifestyle which is theirs for the taking, if only they can get away with it. The threat of punishment seems a small enough consequence for their actions that they are willing to break the law to get what they want. They see other people have it and stealing it would be easier than obtaining it legally.
Consequently, if you have worked hard to achieve your goals, saved money, embraced the concept of delayed gratification to get what you want it’s a loathsome exercise, but unfortunately a necessary one, that you will have to spend money that you worked hard to earn on protecting your property.
Being Smart Is Cost Effective
Fortunately many of the Smart Home Security devices which are on the market today are relatively inexpensive and incredibly easy to use. They also have other functions which ameliorate the outlay somewhat, as they have more than just the facility to keep intruders at bay. For example CCTV cameras have two-way audio, something older VHS CCTV cameras didn’t. The ability to use the camera almost like an intercom means that not only do you know who’s on your grounds, but lets you talk to them too. Tell friends to hang on as you’ll be home in a minute, ask delivery drivers to leave a package around the back, even tell unwanted visitors to go away before you call the police! In this way the usefulness of the device eventually overtakes the purpose for which it was originally intended, simply to keep intruders away.
The same can be said for Smart intruder alarms. You may not want cameras watching all your doors and windows, so sensors which detect movement and an alarm which is more discreet may be what you’re looking for. It makes sense to synch an intruder alarm with your other detection sensors such as smoke, fire, carbon monoxide and flood as these are more geared to alerting you to an emergency rather than day-to-day comings and goings. In this case you get security against intruders, but you also feel secure knowing that you’ll be informed as soon as other events unfold at home, meaning you are in a position to take immediate action.