Home Insurance Guide

So you read my series on how to save money with your homeowners insurance and the tip about how an installed home security system can knock a few dollars off your premium, and now you want to know what you should look for in a home security system, right? Excellent! You need to know two basic concepts with home security systems, you have your central box and you have your various intrusion sensors.

Control Box:
The control box is the box that sits right next to, likely, your front door and is the brains of the operation. It talks to your monitoring company (ADT, Slomin’s Shield, Brinks, etc) in the event of an intrusion and will sound the alarm. It’s the box that you use to arm the system when you leave and disarm the system when you come home, with it your system does absolutely nothing. It’s the brain.

Sensors:
You have basically two types of sensors: motion and door/window sensors. Motion sensors work on the basic principle that there shouldn’t be movement in the house when you’re not home. They generally work off size as well so wandering pets won’t set the thing off but a human being will. The other type of sensor is a door or window sensor. These sensors have two pieces usually very close together, within an inch, one on the wall and the other on the door or window. When the two are separated, the sensor goes off.

There are other components to a home security system but those two are the main ones you need to be concerned with. You will want as many door and window sensors as you have accessible doors and windows; and you’ll want an easy to use control box. And remember to tell your insurance company if you get service!