Vacation-Proof Your Home
When planning a vacation, you are almost always considering what clothes to pack or booking a place to stay. But while you are away, you need to make sure that your home will be safe from burglars or thieves who may target an empty home. Before you pack up and leave for your vacation, there are some things you need to prepare to adequately protect your home. We have created a quick checklist with top tips on how to vacation-proof your home.
Plants and Pets
Something that you will need to prepare depending on the length of your holiday is the care for your pets and indoor plants while you are away. If you ask someone to stop by and water your indoor ferns, you will need to let them know how to get in and lock up once they leave.
With keypad door locks, you can create special codes that your friend or pet sitter can use for the week. Once you are back, you can easily change the door code so that only you have access to your home. Alternatively, smart locks can also allow you to unlock your door remotely from your smartphone, so you know when someone is coming or going.
FSS Technologies offers zWave locks or smart locks from Yale, Kwikset, and Schlag.
Unplug and Shut Off
To keep your property safe from any electrical fires or sparks that may turn into flames, unplug the electronics in your home and turn off the lights. This is also a simple way to save on your electricity bill while you are not there. Double-check that electronics like curling irons are unplugged before you leave.
Depending on the weather of the area you live in, you may choose to shut off your water to avoid any leaky faucets from exacerbating your water bill while you are away. If you live in a cold area and are worried about frozen pipes bursting, open up your cabinet doors to allow warm air to circulate, disconnect your hose from the outside faucet, and install heat tape around any exposed pipes.
Don’t Brag About Your Trip… Yet
Sharing on social media that you will be on an extended holiday can make your vacated home a target. Wait until you return to share updates from your trip. As a bonus, time unplugged from social media can be a great way to de-stress.
Automate Your Home
To maintain a reasonable temperature inside your home, a smart thermostat can control the heating and air conditioning automatically. This is an excellent option for those with pets, plants, or pipes you need to keep warm in the winter.
Similarly, smart light controls allow you to turn on and off some of the lights in your home to create the illusion that someone is home. This is a simple but effective way to deter potential thieves or home invaders.
Lock Everything
From your windows to your doors, ensure that every opening to your home is completely locked. This will prevent someone from gaining easy, unforced access to your home and your belongings.
Monitor Your Home
With FSS Technologies’ home security systems, we can help give you the peace of mind you need to fully relax on your trip. We can help you create a residential security package that suits your needs and is customized to your home.
Video doorbells allow you to see who is at your front door, and the Alarm.com mobile app gives you complete access to your security system—from anywhere in the world.
If you are looking to fully unplug or will be in a place without internet access, you should consider home monitoring services offered by many security companies.
Home monitoring means that you have a 24/7 team of security experts ensuring that your home is safe. With FSS Technologies, our highly trained team is immediately notified when an alarm is triggered and they take the proper steps based on your system requirements to make sure your home is safe for you when you get back.
For help vacation-proofing your home, call our experts at FSS Technologies.
Explore Our Other Blogs
What to Know About Smart Locks
Smart locks have been on the market for several years and continually gain features as technology advances. Learn how useful they can be and how to find the best option for your home or business. What’s a smart lock? Smart locks are door locks controlled digitally. These locks can be monitored and controlled by an…
How Savance Workplace Can Work for You
Savance Workplace is one of the nation’s leaders in workforce management solutions, offering tools that help declutter your company’s processes and optimize your productivity. With a wide variety of fully customizable products branded for your business, Savance Workplace can help your organization take its efficiency to the next level. As a trusted partner of Savance…
What Are The Different Types of CCTV Cameras?
Your company’s security camera is part of a closed-circuit television system (CCTV). CCTV uses one or more cameras, through either wireless or wired transmission, to send the broadcast from the camera directly to a monitor, set of monitors, or a recording device—providing you peace of mind in the case of crime, fire, theft, or accidents…
Can You Get a Discount on Home Insurance if You Have a Security System?
Home invasions or burglaries are a threat to any household, regardless of where they are located. One of the biggest deterrents for burglars is a home security system that could record evidence of their actions or could notify the authorities at the time of a break-in. This is a huge motivator for homeowners when deciding…
How Your Internet Speed Affects Your Security System
Internet speed is a precious commodity in today’s connected homes. Internet speed is responsible for how quickly or slowly data moves from the internet to the application on your computer. Things like your mobile phone, television, computer, gaming system, and even appliances use the internet. And your home security system probably does too. The average…
Can Video Surveillance Be Used In Court?
You should talk to a law enforcement professional in your area to know for sure what is admissible in your local court, but here are some general guidelines about criteria that law enforcement will take into consideration regarding your security camera video. Authenticity A digital watermark is undetectable to the human eye, but it can…
Holiday Security Tips
It’s a beautiful time of the year, but the holidays come with some inherent risks that you should prepare for amidst all the gift buying, cooking, and decorating. Here are some of our top holiday safety tips to keep your home and loved ones safe over the season. Theft and Burglary Prevention Do not put…
3 Types of Security Lights
Your security system is only useful if you can see what is going on when you can’t be there. This also means that when it gets dark, your cameras need to be able to capture the image clearly. To do this past dusk will require that you set up security lighting. Additionally, check out the…
What Is a Central Station Alarm?
A central station alarm system is one that feeds directly into a central monitoring station. If a sensor on the central station alarm system is triggered, such as fire, smoke, C02, or burglar, the system does much more than just set off a loud siren or send an email alert telling you to log into…
Hard-Wired vs Wireless Security Systems
The chicken or the egg. Not asking which came first in this case, just which one you like better. In the world of security systems, which came first between wired and wireless was answered long ago. But the question of which is better remains. Let’s start with a quick overview of how each of these…