How to Make Your Home Secure

Let’s face it. The world is a dangerous place. You might not even be safe in your own backyard! If it isn’t the threat of a home invasion when you’re out grocery shopping, it’s waking up to find that your kitchen is on fire. Whether it be burglaries, natural disasters or unfortunate accidents, owning your home carry a lot of risk. You have to make sure your home is secure.

With regards to home invasions and burglaries, they are all too common. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, an estimated 3.7 million burglaries occurred every year from 2003 to 2007 in the US. In fact, there’s a break-in every 18 seconds. People can break into one’s home for a variety of reasons, but mostly theft is the main driving force. Individuals are looking for whatever they think is valuable that they can get their hands on.

Even if break-ins and home invasions are something that you don’t need to worry about, there’s still the prospect of accidental fires and maintenance issues, such as busted plumbing. You’ve worked hard to attain what you have in your home – you need to protect it from both thieves, and from the unknown. Keeping this in mind, it may be well worth your time and money to invest into a home security plan.

What does having home security entail? Well, to bluntly put it, it’s basically having peace of mind knowing that you, your property, and the valuables in it are covered in the event of unfortunate incidents. In fact, it goes hand in hand with home insurance. People get home security systems in place for a variety of reasons:

Theft Protection

What’s the main reason for people to have security systems? To protect themselves, their family, and property from home invaders and thieves. According to the FBI, assaults can occur 38% of the time whenever there is a home invasion, and more often than not, the perpetrator is armed with a weapon. The last thing you need happening is that you’re enjoying your favorite activity with your family, when suddenly, some random guy busts into your house with a weapon and robs you. Not a very pleasant experience. Home security systems can catch robbers and alert you before they strike.

Fire Protection

According to the National Fire Protection Association, there is a fire in a home every 86 seconds. You can prevent yourself from becoming another statistic by doing some very simple things. You can consider purchasing and installing an indoor sprinkler system that can activate from the slightest detection of smoke. Another thing to protect against fires would be to invest in a fire extinguisher.

Carbon Monoxide Protection

Do you have a car? Well, as you may know, every time you’re driving and running its engine, it produces exhaust. A major component of that exhaust is carbon monoxide, which is extremely poisonous. As a matter of fact, during 1999-2010, a total of 5,149 deaths from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning occurred in the United States, an average of 430 deaths per year. And this stuff can be made right in your house!

Common household appliances such as stoves, refrigerators and water heaters can all produce carbon monoxide if left to burn without proper venting. This can cause a buildup in your home, and more often than not, prove fatal. The best ways to deal with carbon monoxide would be to either properly vent your home, or installing a smoke detector to specifically pick up carbon monoxide and alert you when it’s at dangerous levels.

Technology

With all these things that can threaten your home, you must be thinking to yourself: “What else can I do to better protect my home?” Well, you actually have more options than you realize. Taking out insurance against various forms of possible disasters is one. Installing various security devices can prove to be useful, and cost effective in the long run as well. CCTV cameras, motion sensors, an electronic gate, the list goes on. However, the main disadvantage to doing this is that you’re the only person monitoring your home. If you’re unavailable, being the sole watcher can leave your property unguarded. You’ve spent so much cash to obtain your home. Protect it.