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Timed Lighting for Your Home

The first question a burglar asks is “Anyone home?” Being at home is the greatest deterrent to criminal activity in your house. Most intruders break in to houses with the hope of a grab and go. An intruder is more than likely going to detour a house when there is a chance of a showdown with the owner. Since this is a reality and you want to do everything in your power to protect your property, say goodbye to your job, shopping, and vacations. Doesn’t this seem to put a damper on home security? There is an answer to your problem. Make it look like you are home.

You can easily install in your house timers that will activate lights or other appliances in your house. Timers give an ambience of your presence by automatically turning on and off lights, televisions, and other machinery at specific times. So take that vacation. While you are away, your lights will turn on and off as the timer dictates. Unless you leave a sign saying, “I am not home and the house is on timers,” the burglar will never know and may not want to take the chance of finding out.

The problem with timers, however, is that, if the burglar is watching your house, he will notice that every night at 8:22:13 pm the lights come on and no one has pulled up to the house for an hour or so. A smile will spread over his face for he is reasonably sure that no one is home and the lights are on timers. Motion sensors alleviate that problem.

With motion sensors, the lights are activated when the sensors are tripped. The burglar, fairly certain that the dark house is quite empty, slinks up the drive. The driveway lights turn on and an alarm goes off. Within seconds, the houselights begin to turn on. Surely, it seems, the owner is home and may be coming to the door or calling the police.

A combination of motion sensor activated lights and timer activated lights can be more effective than one or the other. The timer makes certain that there is recurring activity in the house. The motion sensor ensures that there is a show of activity triggered by an unwanted presence.

Monitoring is another advantage to the motion sensor. You can connect your motion detectors to your monitored home security system, which will enable the system to call for help if the sensors are activated. What this assures is that, if the crook is intelligent enough to realize that no one is home, the police will be on their way to investigate and make an arrest.

Burglary is not like trick-or-treating. While your children might be smart enough to avoid dark houses, burglars see them as gold mines. Timed lighting systems offer a deterrent to crime by creating the appearance of a human’s presence.


You might also be interested in . . .

Driveway Alarms

You have seconds to react once an intruder is in your house. Most home security only alerts you or a monitor when the house is actually invaded. Are two seconds all you need to respond? Or do you want more time? The best security strategy is to have the earliest warning possible. You cannot realistically monitor the highway, but you can reasonably and affordably monitor your driveway. more


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