Home Security Systems Incorporate Wireless Technology

By: Art Gib

Home security systems are becoming ever more commonplace in suburban homes and neighborhoods. With home invasions on the rise across the country homes owners are arming themselves against crime by installing state of the art home security systems. Thanks in large part to technological advances in the telecommunications industry home security systems can now be operated without the use of a hard wired telephone line.

As many families are steering away from having a traditional home phone line connected to the house and relying solely on cellular telephones the home security industry has made advances in the development of cellular signal devices that transmit over emergency frequencies, regulated by the federal government, to cellular towers, allowing completely wireless home security systems to be installed in houses that once required the additional expense of a hard wired telephone line.

Cellular security systems offer users the protection of being able to send an emergency signal out of the house without the worry of a potential burglar cutting the phone lines at the demarcation box located outside the home.

Many criminals have taken up the practice of cutting phone lines prior to attempting a break in as the emergency signals carried by security systems are incapacitated by the interruption of a severed line, so that no signal is sent to the monitoring station and no emergency services can be notified or dispatched, allowing criminals a clean getaway. However, with the advent of cellular security control panels, this issue is no longer a concern as the cellular antenna that sends the signal is located inside the house.

Another aspect of the advances in home security are upgraded motion detectors. Old infrared sensors that detect all motion, including pets and even headlights moving across a room from a passing car, have been updated to thermal sensors.

Thermal sensors detect body temperature and motion, alleviating many false alarms that were once triggered by pets or ceiling fans gently blowing against a curtain. The thermal motion detectors are set to pick up body mass as well as temperature allowing pets up to 80 pounds to move freely about the house without setting off the security system.

Many home security systems are also equipped with smoke detectors and key fobs allowing owners to summon emergency medical personnel in addition to the burglar alarm to call the police. Smoke detectors can also be wirelessly connected to the control panel, setting off interior alarms as it sends out a signal to the monitoring station to summon the fire department, alleviating the need to get residents safely out of the house before calling 911.