Undeniably, smart home security can be important for your lifestyle and peace of mind. While break ins and intruders are obviously a serious and terrifying thing, the prospect of stringing sensors and cameras around your castle to deter beanie-wearing intruders can be exciting. Home security used to rely heavily on outsourcing. That means that when something strange happened, call centers would get your signal and ask if you were okay, offering to notify the police on your behalf. But with smart home security, the cameras and sensors can be fully in your hands.
There’s a lot of different ways that you can invest in your security, sanity, and peace of mind. In this post, we’re going to look at the types of gadgets that are out there for home security. Then, we’ll look at a couple of top brands and what they offer as a complete home security solution.
Features and Options
There’s a lot of different smart home security providers out there. But many of them offer similar kinds of products. So let’s take a look at the kinds of things that you can get for smart home security, and how it might help you protect your space.
An App
What makes a smart home security system smart? Well, it usually gets its name from a connection to your smartphone. Most smart home security systems will have an app that allows you to check the status of your system. You might be able to disarm and arm the system from the app, but you also should be able to view the status of sensors. There might be electronic locks that can be opened and closed from the app. You probably will be able to view the feed on any cameras as well.
Base Stations
Some smart security systems will have base stations that will be able to alert authorities if something goes wrong. The base station might be a hub that has additional sensors, it might contain a keypad, or it might simply be a cell tower that can call a monitoring service.
Glassbreak Sensors
Sound sensors that can detect the pitch of glass breaking. These are helpful for areas that have exposed windows that might tempt a shadier kind of entry. They are usually hooked up to your phone and the main base station.
Cameras
Yes, a good old fashioned eye in the sky. The thing with smart security systems is that it allows you to put cameras in the perimeter and interior of your house and then pull up the live feed on your smartphone. Cameras are usually easy to connect to your phone and the internet, and may store a certain amount of feed in case anything goes missing.
Smart Doorbells
Smart doorbells can allow you to lock and unlock the door from a distance, view who’s at the door with a camera, and receive packages without even being there. When someone rings the doorbell, you get a notification right on your phone like a phone call.
Motion Sensors
Allow you to tell when people are moving through a room or not moving through a room. Motion sensors are helpful because they create a binary of security and insecurity. Cameras don’t help that much in the dark, because they aren’t built for motion sensing. You could only use cameras to see what is happening or what happened after the fact. Motion sensors help you prevent robberies and intruders in the first place.
Professional Monitoring
Many smart home security systems offer the ease, convenience, and security of also allowing experts to look in on your situation. That means that if any of the sensors are triggered or anything occurs while your smart home is locked down, there are people that can get in touch with you, stay on the line, and alert the police if necessary. This professional monitoring usually comes with an additional monthly fee, but might be the right solution for people that need a little extra security.
Keypad
This is generally how the system is armed. You can place this almost anywhere. Unlike more ancient security systems, you won’t need wirings or different types of connections in order to hook it up to the base station.
Brands
SimpliSafe
SimpliSafe is one of the more popular kinds of systems out there because it combines the convenience and ease of self-monitoring with the professional assistance of a more traditional monitoring system. SimpliSafe offers a ton of different technology that can help your home remain professionally monitored, but you can also use their app to get constant access to your data on your phone.
Plus, their system has alarm verifications which can get police to your door up to 350% faster than other types of solutions. The whole system hooks up to a single base station that has a cell phone connection, alerting their monitoring team if anything looks sketchy or goes wrong.
Google Nest Security
Yes, the Google Nest line of products also has a great smart security system that easily integrates with all your other Google products. The main hub, the Nest Guard, has an alarm, keypad, and motion sensor. The Google Assistant is also built into the system. They also have motion sensors and an app that lets you track everything. While the Google Nest has a lot less sensors and gadgets than something like a Simplisafe solution offers, it has plenty of tools to help protect your perimeter and space.
ADT
ADT had to make the list because they are a long time player in the home security market. They’ve somehow been doing home security for over 145 years, which means that they were running home security in the 1800s. It’s difficult to imagine what that might have even looked like. But ADT isn’t stuck in the 1800s, and they’ve brought a lot of heavy hitting technology to play. They have a sophisticated command hub, integration with emergency detection like smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, and a bunch of cameras. With a few different plans, you can get exactly the kind of security that you need.
