Tips for Making Your Home More Secure

Helpful Tips For Protecting What is Really Important

Here you will find sound advice on home protection and safety, including the role of wireless security in the home environment. More importantly (independent of any purchase decision), this guide outlines measures you can take today to ensure the safety of your home and family tomorrow.

Fire and Smoke

The best way to protect against fire is to ensure you are practicing good fire prevention in the home.

Begin by--

• Contacting your local fire department or the National Fire Protection Association for free information regarding home fire hazards.
• Making fire prevention a family affair. Involve everyone in a home fire safety program. Identify and remove potential hazards like frayed electrical cords, overloaded sockets, and piles of rags.
• Keeping matches and lighters out of the reach of children.

In addition to prevention, you must make certain that your family is protected in the event of a fire. Studies have shown that three leading causes of death due to home fires are:

• No smoke detectors
• No batteries in smoke detectors
• No escape plan

Why are smoke detectors so important? Statistics show that more than half of all fatal home fires occur at night when people are asleep. The sooner a sleeping person awakens and begins an escape, the greater the chances of surviving the fire.

For these reasons, installing smoke detectors and creating an escape plan that everyone knows how to use are vitally important steps you can take today for the safety and well-being of your home and family.

Smoke detectors should be installed on every level of your home, including the basement. Contact your local fire department or security dealer for professional advice on smoke detector placement. And make sure your smoke detectors are working. Roughly one-third of the tens-of-millions of smoke detectors in homes are not in proper working condition and therefore cannot help save lives.

If you install battery-operated detectors, replace batteries according to the manufacturer's directions and test detectors at least once a month. Stand-alone smoke detectors only warn occupants inside the home who then must act to protect property. A complete life safety system will warn the occupants of the home and also make certain the appropriate authorities respond to your emergency.

If the electronic sensor detects a problem, it warns you and relays an electronic signal to a Central Monitoring Station, which immediately dispatches the help you need. In this manner, your home is protected even when you are not at home. And because wireless systems are self-testing and supervised, you know that your system is working 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Remember: roughly two-thirds of home-fire deaths are caused by inhaling smoke and toxic fumes. Smoke detectors alert you to deadly smoke, which allows you time to escape. Take steps today to make sure your home has smoke detectors and an escape plan that everyone knows and practices!

Burglary and Robbery
More than seven million burglaries are committed in houses and apartments each year. However, you can take steps today to increase your personal safety and protect your personal property:

• Get to know your neighbors so you can watch out for each other and for your neighborhood.
• Get the neighbors together and ask for a meeting with your local police to discuss common-sense security measures.
• Keep your possessions inside and locked up when not in use. Make sure to keep your garage door closed, even if you're only going to be away for a few minutes.
• Maintain good lighting at every entry point to your home.
• Make certain that your doors and windows are secure and have adequate locks.
• Never put an identification tag on your key ring. Your keys may become lost and fall into the wrong hands. And never hide your keys outside; burglars know all the hiding places.
• Put a hold on your mail and deliveries while on vacation. Use timed lights so it appears that someone is home while you are away.

Of course one of the best ways to protect your home is with an alarm system. You are far less likely to be a victim of a burglary if you have an alarm system installed.

Wireless security systems allow you to design a system protecting all outside doors and window entry points against intrusion, with the added security of interior motion detectors.

Using electronic sensors, wireless security informs you of any unauthorized entry to your home--or unauthorized movement inside your home--with sirens, alarms, and flashing lights. Simultaneously, an electronic signal is sent directly to the Central Monitoring Station and the police are immediately dispatched to your home.

Door/Window Sensors detect the opening and closing of doors, windows, drawers or just about anything that opens and closes. Unauthorized entry will trigger the sensor, alerting you with an alarm. Panic Buttons are a portable means of sending out an emergency signal. You can place one on your bed stand at night and keep it nearby when you bathe. Panic buttons are also available as lightweight pendants that can be worn around your neck day and night if you choose.

CroppMetcalfe Security is more than just a burglar alarm. It monitors your home or business for intrusion; detects fire, smoke, and carbon monoxide; it even controls temperature and lighting.

Using a variety of electronic sensors, CroppMetcalfe Security monitors your surroundings. When a problem is detected, it relays the message to a Central Monitoring Station and help is dispatched 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Monoxide is an odorless, silent killer. There is no way to know if carbon monoxide is in the air without the use of some form of detector. Carbon monoxide in the home is most likely to come from one of two sources: your furnace, or a running automobile.

Protect your home from this silent killer:

Do not run your car in an enclosed space, such as an attached garage. Carbon monoxide fumes could quickly fill the area and overtake anyone present. Keep your furnace in good working order, following manufacturer's directions, and maintain a program of maintenance and inspection using CroppMetcalfe’s heating system maintenance checks.

Carbon monoxide detectors are available to protect your family and home. Battery-operated detectors for carbon monoxide must be maintained with routine battery replacement and checks. Battery-operated detectors do not work for both smoke and for carbon monoxide. You must purchase a carbon monoxide detector separately from a smoke sensor.

Secure your greatest assets today
Take the actions necessary to protect and secure your greatest assets--your family and your home--with the following common-sense measures:

• Use working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors
• Have a fire escape plan
• Secure all doors and windows
• Maintain a safe and efficient furnace

No matter how you choose to protect your home and family, take action today to guard against the potential tragedies brought by fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, furnace breakdowns, and intrusions. The action you take today may well prove life-saving tomorrow. Contact CroppMetcalfe for more information.