Monthly Archives: July 2011

Wireless Home Security–Changing The Industry

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Wireless Home Security–Changing The Industry

Technology changes every industry.  Sometimes it’s disruptive and sometimes it expands an industry by making the goods or services more accessible, easier to use, more fun and more reliable.  In the home security industry, the technological shift from phone line based monitoring to cellular monitoring is lowering the barrier to purchase, improving interactive services and delivering more reliable service–and it’s a lot more fun.

Phone line is an adequate form of alarm monitoring communication:

  • Remote Locations: if your cell phone doesn’t get any signal, your alarm panel may not either.  Homes or businesses that are far off the beaten path, high up in the mountains or way out in the country may be candidates for a phone line based security system
  • Already Installed: if you live in or move into a home that already had everything prewired and it’s working properly you will have basic functionality–adding a wireless back up until to make sure your system can’t be disabled is highly recommended

Problems with phone line monitoring:

  • Vulnerability:  A phone line system is disabled when the phone line is cut and your system becomes totally useless.
  • Cost:  Paying for a phone line each month and having to wire an entire home is expensive and time consuming.
  • Boring:  Frankly, it’s just boring.  You can’t incorporate home automation, you can’t download a cool app from iTunes and you can’t check your systems status remotely! 

Cellular is the best form of alarm monitoring communication:

  • Cost Savings: Getting rid of your phone line and not having to run a phone line to the panel can save you enough to pay for the difference in cellular monitoring.
  • Improved Pricing: Cellular service was once much more expensive than phone line communication.  Some companies still charge between $40 and $70 for basic cellular service, but there are also companies that offer basic cellular monitoring for less than $20 and interactive services for les than $30.  No longer is cost a barrier to reliable service.
  • Reliability: With a cellular system, a criminal can’t disable the system because there is nothing for the burglar to cut.
  • It is really easy to use: Some companies now offer systems that are configured on the back end and when it arrives in the mail, it is ready to install in only about 20 minutes!  This is a great video explaining how anyone can install a system on his or her own and save $100s.
  • It’s more fun:  Cellular communication opens up all kinds of doors for interactive services. Panels like the Simon XT allow the customer to control their lights, door locks, thermostats and allows the customer to check on their system from their phone or computer

The bottom line is that phone line systems aren’t as reliable, they can cost more money than cellular systems and the technology is far inferior to cellular systems.  If you’re thinking about a new security system, make it cellular.

Learn 5 Easy Ways to Make Your Home a Safer Place

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After years of working in home and commercial security, there are a few simple steps you can take to quickly (and inexpensively) make your home a safer place.  Certain simple (and inexpensive) steps that you can take to make your home a safer and more secure place.  You can make your home safer and more secure from the moment you move in.

  1. Eliminate or trim bushes and foliage that are in front of windows and doors, which obscure the view of that window and door. Large bushes in front of accessible windows and doors provide great hiding places for intruders to work on opening that window or door.  Eliminating that hiding place can also take away places for stalkers or peeping toms to hide. Not only does this improve your view of what’s outside, but it eliminates hiding places for intruders.  This is a simple and free tip that can really make a difference.
  2. Install smoke detectors in your home (and if you already have them, test them to make sure they are working.  Almost 400,000 home fires occur every year.  The National Fire Protection Association states that you can become disoriented and consumed by a fire in as little as 2 minutes.  Every second counts.  Because you want to focus on getting out with your family and not having to call the fire department, I recommend a monitored smoke detector, such as the GE Wireless Crystal Smoke Detector that works with GE Simon XT systems to call the police automatically for you.  These always-on, always-monitored, 24/7/365 (and 366 during leap year!) systems watch your home and family for you all the time (even when your alarm system is disarmed).  This is the most important part of a well designed security system.
  3. Make sure that you change your locks within the first 24 hours of moving in.  This is critically important.  There are many people that the previous owner could have given a key to, such as a housekeeper, handyman, friend, ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, etc.  You don’t know any of them.  If they see the movers bringing in that nice new flatscreen TV, you are a quick target.  Change the locks.  I suggest when you do it, to get the locks keyed alike and get a wireless code lock.  A lock like this allows you to set many codes for many people (instead of giving them keys).  This is great in case that dog walker, babysitter or maintenance person is someone you don’t want to have a key in the future.  With a code set like this, you won’t ever have to change the locks again, you just eliminate the code for that person.  You can even save money by having pre-keyed locks sent to you for self-install.  This can save you big money on service calls from locksmiths.
  4. Get a security system for your home.  The latest systems are all wireless and with a service like Plug & Protect from SafeMart, you can be up and running in 30 minutes or less while saving 30-70% off of ADT.  Another study from Northeastern University states that alarm systems really do make homes safer from intrusion and burglary.  In fact, it found that, “Most offenders, though, wanted to avoid alarms altogether and, upon encountering such devices abandoned all thought of attacking the dwelling.”
  5. A recent study from Rutgers University found, ““Neighborhoods in which burglar alarms were densely installed have fewer incidents of residential burglaries than the neighborhoods with fewer burglar alarms.” 

 

Brad Morehead is a Licensed Home Security Expert and Do-It-Yourselfer that is passionate about technology and innovative products to secure families.  Learn more at: SafeMart (www.SafeMart.com)  Follow Brad @BradMorehead to get more great tips.

 

SafeMart Tech Support: A Whole New World

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Friends,

As you know, one of SafeMart’s foremost goals is customer delight; not customer service, or customer satisfaction, but actually delivering an experience that leaves a customer (or just a passerby) truly delighted.  It may sound cliche, but at SafeMart we really stand by the policy that if a customer spends time with us and is merely satisfied, then we failed.

“Interesting,” you may be thinking, “but what does all of this have to do with SafeMart Tech Support?”

Customer Delight and SafeMart Tech Support intersect with you.  We’ve taken the feedback from our customers, best practices for our industry and others, and created a special section of our website just for you: Introducing: www.safemart.com/support.

At SafeMart’s Support Section, you can get the answers you need as quickly as you want.  From the industry’s top Video Tutorials to our Community-Based User Forum, our thorough Quick Start Guides, and more, www.safemart.com/support represents the best of what sets us apart as America’s best choice for home security.

Have suggestions for how we can continue to improve this section?  Leave us your ideas in the comments section.

Hostility

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  My brother just spent a few weeks vacationing in the Emerald Isle. He and a few of his friends traveled together, witnessing historic sites and gathering authentic experiences. One of the most vivid memories seems to have been the Irish weather, renowned especially in this season for its preponderance of rain. They had arrived well-equipped with camping gear, but abandoned the idea after only one night’s effort, learning quickly that the cost outweighed the gain. The rest of the trip found them mostly in hostels, and that brings us to the current topic…

 

    Hostels — low-budget supervised lodgings more common in Europe than North America — have always been an ominous idea to me. I had a friend who once got quite a scare at a hostel in Poland when several young men – the worse for drink – broke in during the night, shouting and acting boisterously. Thankfully nothing came of it, but that remained my only impression of the hostel idea, so it stuck with me. I asked my brother Joe about it when he got back and he was surprised to hear my dubious thoughts. He said there are all kinds of hostels, from wow-are-you-sure-this-isn’t-a-hotel to you-might-as-well-be-sleeping-on-the-street, and it totally depends on what you go with. He himself searches on www.hostelworld.com, sorting by reviews to choose a good hostel in the area, since the price doesn’t always reflect the quality.

 

    Still, I’m unsure whether I’d ever stay in a hostel, or that I’d recommend women traveling by themselves to do so. My brother met a German girl who was traveling on her own, just staying in hostels along the way, but I don’t know that I could ever see myself doing that; the dangers just seem too great. I have traveled alone on transatlantic flights and day-long trips on trains, but to spend the night in a hostel strikes me as a whole different story. The benefit is the savings on travel expense, so I’m interested in what you think. Do any of you ladies have experience with this? Stories, comments, tips? I’d love to hear them if you do so please share! And in the meantime, stay safe in your travels this summer, especially if you go abroad!

Friend’s Home Caught Fire Saturday Night at 2:30AM

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Friend’s Home Caught Fire Saturday Night at 2:30AM

Last weekend I received several calls at 2:30 in the morning.  Multiple calls at 2:30AM are never a good thing.

A friend was calling to tell me that his family’s building was on fire (below is the actual picture of the fire) and they needed somewhere to stay for a couple of nights.  Luckily, everyone made it out okay.

To think about what could have happened is completely disheartening.

The fire was caused (apparently) by others in the building grilling out on what was otherwise a beautiful summer day.  It seems that a coal fell out of the grill and smoldered for 12 hours until it caught the dry wooden deck on fire and it burst into the flames you see below.

I’m so thankful that everyone is okay.  Because of this incident I feel the need to write this to you (my friends and family – both in person and online) so you can know the importance of monitored smoke detectors.  Typically, I think our outstanding solutions, cutting edge products and smiling service speaks for itself, so I don’t usually push our solutions to my friends and family (although so, so many of you have bought them and I thank you for it).

However, in this case, I want everyone to know the importance of having monitored smoke detectors in your home attached to your monitored security system.  My immediate and extended family have this service and I feel that it is one of the most important parts (if not the most important part) of our alarm system.   Making sure you have these monitored smoke detectors with a service like our LiveWatch Monitoring and that you test those smoke detectors and replace the batteries regularly can save lives.

When fire strikes your home, authorities say you may have as little as one to two minutes to escape.  My friends saw this as emergency personnel rushed in to break down their door and wake them up.  When you are exhausted from taking care of the kids, working a long week or dealing with stressful obligations, you might lose precious seconds during a fire.

So many times I hear from people about how they don’t need a security system because they have a dog or a gun or a baseball bat.  However, what happens when you aren’t at home?  Can your dog call the police?  Can your gun dial the fire department?  Can your baseball bat call the paramedics?

Today’s security systems are so much more than what has defined the industry for previous decades.  Today’s home security systems like the LiveWatch system from SafeMart offer:

  1. 24/7 Monitoring by Trained Personnel for Fire, Smoke, Flood or Freeze Alarms
  2. 24/7 Monitoring by Trained Personnel for Burglary or Intrusion Detection
  3. Home Automation
  4. And if none of those get you excited, you get a discount on your homeowner’s insurance (I know your baseball bat, gun or dog can’t get that for you :)

SafeMart was founded by a paramedic to revolutionize the security industry and help you protect yourself.  As friends and family of SafeMart, if you read this, pass it along to your friends and family so you don’t get the call at 2:30 in the morning that I received.

Please be safe this 4th of July when we celebrate the birth of our country with so much good food and great fun, but dangerous possibilities for fire.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July.

 

Fire Statistics:[i]

  • According to the National Fire Protection Association, 80% of fire deaths happen in the home. 
  • Do you cook (or grill)?
    • Cooking causes nearly 40% of residential fires.  If you multitask while cooking (watch TV, the kids or read) or cook with oil, the risk is greater.
  • Do you smoke?
    • Smoking accounts for nearly 20% of fire fatalities each year.
  • Do you use electricity and do you heat your home?
    • Fires caused by electrical malfunctions and heating account for more than 20% of residential fires each year.
  • Are you or is someone you know 45 or older?
    • Someone 45 or older is nearly 4 times more likely to die from fire than someone between 5 and 45.

 

- Brad

[i] http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/profile_fitus_15th.pdf