Your Vacation Checklist

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If you have a security system, you can use these steps on your vacation checklist to help you make the most of its features while you’re away.

We’ve talked about how technology can help you keep an eye on your home while you’re on vacation, so now let’s take it a step further! There are the traditional things you should do before taking off, like asking a neighbour to get your mail, or leaving an emergency phone number, but here are four things on your vacation checklist you can do at home that will help you have a stress-free trip.

Let your monitoring company know you will be away.

Telling your alarm company when you’ll be on vacation can greatly assist them in protecting your home. Suppose the alarm goes off and the monitoring station calls your house. Maybe someone answers claiming to be you, and that they’ve forgotten the ‘All OK’ word. Now, it is possible that you could have forgotten your ‘All OK’ word, but if the station knows you are away from home, they will be far more suspicious of whom they’re talking to.

Assign a separate code to the person looking after your house.

This not only prevents you from having to give out your personal access code, but also allows the alarm system to track who is coming and going back at home. Most alarm systems are equipped with an ‘Event Buffer’, which records each time someone disarms and rearms the alarm system. By giving each person a different code, the system can track each time an individual has been at your home while you’re away. When you return home you can simply delete these temporary codes. If you are using a service such as Alarm.com or Honeywell’s TotalConnect, you can also receive an e-mail notification when people come and go from your home.

Update your contact list.

If your alarm goes off for any reason while you’re out of the country, your monitoring station is going to need to get in touch with the right people. Provide your alarm company with a new list each time one of your emergency contacts’ numbers changes.

List service companies you deal with.

Break-and-enters aren’t the only thing that can happen while you’re not at home; your furnace could run out of oil, or your basement could flood. If you’re receiving notifications through a service like Alarm.com or Honeywell’s TotalConnect, you’ll know what’s going on in real time. However, if you happen to be out of range of WiFi during the time an event is occurring, you’ll want to provide the people on your emergency contacts list with a list of the companies you use for services such as your heating company, your electrician, your plumber, and your locksmith.

Going on Vacation?

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You’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what to pack, but have you given any thought to how to prepare your home for your absence?

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Okay, so you’ve just made it through a long, cold winter and now you’re going to treat yourself to a trip down south. We’ll focus on how some recent advances in technology can help you stay in touch with your home when you are a thousand miles away.

Security Alarms

Monitored security systems help deter vandals; if you have one, insurance companies even offer discounts on home insurance. However, modern security alarms can now do a lot more than just notify of a break-and-enter. With your system hooked up to the Internet, you can use an app to not only control your system from wherever you are, but you can also receive other types of notifications right to your smartphone. Would you like to know when your neighbour arrives to feed your cat? Receive an e-mail notification when they arrive in real time. Are you unsure if you armed your system before your plane took off? Maybe your caretaker is having trouble shutting off the alarm. No worries! You can do those things right from a convenient app on your phone.

Cameras

Look in on your home while you’re away, and keep recordings of any alarm-triggering events. Just like the alarm, you can use a simple app on your smartphone to access the cameras in your house and observe what’s going on, from anywhere in the world. I recommend pointing your cameras toward areas of concern, like the front and back doors, as well as areas that are prone to flooding, like the sump pump.

Automation Control

No longer just for the rich and famous, “home automation” is now affordable for any homeowner with the help of apps such as Alarm.com or Honeywell’s TotalConnect service. Imagine being able to check in on your thermostats when you hear that there’s a cold snap back home while you’re relaxing in the sunny south. Now you can turn up the heat to prevent frozen pipes, right from your smartphone. Or maybe you want to control certain lights on a schedule to deter burglars. Give your home a lived-in look while you’re away, simply by using the app.

Environmental Sensors

Sensors can be added to your alarm system that monitor all kinds of conditions. Smoke Detectors, Carbon Monoxide Detectors, Propane Leakage Detectors, Low Temperature Sensors, and Flood Detectors can keep you informed as if you hadn’t even left. If any of these devices goes off, your central monitoring station will know exactly what the problem is before extensive damage occurs.