Smart Home Security: Enhance Protection & Convenience

Buying a new home can be a thrilling yet scary task. Security through home automation is a must.

Whether you are a first-time homeowner or moving to a new house, there are plenty of matters to keep an eye out for and double-check to ensure your property is safe and secure.

Simple solutions can resolve initial concerns, making your life easier and your home more efficient. And smart devices are the fastest route to convenience and safety.

Just think about it: smart technology can improve every aspect of your life, including home life.

Smart home automation technology revolutionizes the way you manage appliances, lighting, security, and even the temperature in your home.

But, what is smart automation technology when it comes to securing your household? And what are its capabilities and limitations?

In this guide, you’ll learn how smart home automation improves your home security. The great news is that each of these home automation devices is compatible with your home security system.

Whether you are a young family with small children or care for the elderly,  security automation has crucial benefits when it comes to safety. Lights will automatically switch on when an older person gets up to use the restroom. Cameras can watch the children while you’re in the other room. Alerts can notify you of dangers such as carbon monoxide or smoke. And the list could go on.

Here are some of the greatest gadgets that allow you to do a lot with home automation. Many of these are incorporated into automated security systems.

Smart Doorbells

The doorbell camera is one of the most popular and security-centered elements of a smart security system.

These hold a small camera in the doorbell button, so when the visitor rings the bell or comes closer to the door, the doorbell sends an alert to your phone. The alert activates the camera, permitting you to get a clear picture of the visitor, regardless of where you happen to be.

Doorbell cameras are truly useful, and there are several excellent options. Here are some of the features you’ll want to consider in a video doorbell:

• high-resolution

• video motion sensing

• two-way audio

Smart Locks

Smart locks are exceptional not only for security but also for convenience, often allowing you to give up keys altogether.

What makes them smart is their capability to communicate with your smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, enabling you to lock and unlock your door from anywhere. Several types also automatically lock or unlock when they sense your phone approaching so that you can come and go without worrying about whether the door is locked or not.

There are a few different styles of smart locks you can choose to better fit your household needs.

You can find traditional types, with a number pad or touchscreen, where you insert a code that unlocks your door. 

The other type drops the keypad and screen entirely, and it instead is based on an app on your smartphone to control the locking and unlocking of the door. 

Note: One thing to think about when choosing a smart lock is whether or not it can also accept keys. Some homeowners feel safer knowing they have this alternative, but not all smart locks provide a traditional key slot.

Smart Cameras

Smart cameras take the traditional security camera concept and upgrade it. These cameras include Wi-Fi connections that allow them to be viewed and managed using a smartphone app.

Many of these systems can upload the footage to the Cloud for storage, reducing the need for a likely intricate on-site storage setup.

Picking a smart camera starts with determining whether you want indoor or outdoor cameras. The main distinction is construction.

Outdoor cameras need to endure the elements, which usually means they are sturdier and made from more durable materials like metal.

Indoor cameras can be smaller and more discreet because they aren’t as likely to get tampered with or exposed to natural elements.

In either case, features you’ll want to look for include high resolution, a wide field of view, motion detection, and audio recording. Usually, Wi-Fi connectivity is an essential feature, but since we’re discussing smart cameras, Wi-Fi should be a given.

Smart Thermostats

A good smart home security system can also include smart thermostats. These ingenious devices can help to save energy, which is great for both the environment and your wallet.

Like other smart home features, they connect to your home Wi-Fi network and are managed by an associated app on your smartphone.

The smart thermostat takes away the need to adjust your thermostat when you return home from a long trip. The system can set your home at just the right temperature when you enter the house.

The nice thing about many of these thermostats is that they learn your preferences, such as whether you like it warmer in the morning and what times of day you’re home and away. This means they can work effectively to maintain your home at the most comfortable temperature without you having to lift a finger. And they do it all with a high degree of performance, decreasing energy consumption by 30% or more in some cases. 

As an added benefit, smart thermostats can send you an alert if the temperature in your home becomes unreasonably high or low. These temperatures could indicate a fire or a pipe freezing risk.

One of our clients received an alert of a temperature drop. When she looked around to see what was causing it, she found that one of her children had left a window open.

Talk about a security risk! A burglar could have walked right into the house and bypassed most alarms easily.

Smart Lights

Smart lighting combines both convenience and improved security. These Wi-Fi equipped LED light bulbs can be managed from a smartphone app.

You can turn the bulbs on or off, at random, manually or automatically, or on a schedule. You can also dim the light, and choose its color from an unlimited array of hues. And all these actions can be performed from anywhere. 

You don’t need to trouble yourself if you left a light on before heading out on vacation. You can set your automated lighting system to turn on and off when you’re gone to make your house seem like you have someone at home.

Smart Smoke Alarms

The last home automation feature of a security system is the simple smoke alarm. This smoke detector device takes the traditional smoke alarm into the digital age.

With Wi-Fi, it can indicate exactly where a fire is located, using a human voice and warn you with the obnoxiously loud alarm.

The nice thing about these alarms is that they can also send alerts to your phone so you can be informed of any issues even when you’re away from home.

You can also effortlessly silence them in the event of a false alarm. Who hasn’t set off their smoke alarms at least once while cooking?

Bottom Line

When you install smart home security automation correctly, it not only improves comfort, it increases system effectiveness and usually saves money.

You have the pride of being a homeowner. You have the urge to protect your property at all costs. So you’ll be happy to know it has never been simpler to equip your home with the latest and greatest in home security.

A smart house will ensure an experience where everything you want is just a voice command or a click away, even when you’re far away from home. 

Would you like to know more about how to choose what you need? Check out our article on How To Choose the Right Home Automation Equipment.

If you have any further inquiries about home automation systems, drop us a line or book a call with us today.