Making a Home a Secure and Safe Place to Live

By: Art Gib

When most people think of home security they commonly think of an alarm system that is set up on the interior of a home to create a protective perimeter. Sensors placed on doors and windows are made up of a magnetic contact that when broken sets of the alarm. Also available are sound sensors, commonly called glass break sensors. Glass break sensors work on a dual sensor system.

The first sensor is designed to pick up the subtle vibration of a windowpane being broken. If filmed in slow motion, the viewer would be able to see the glass shake or ripple at the point where it cracks and breaks. The vibration generated by breaking glass sends out a tremor that is picked up by the glass breaks first sensor and a signal is sent to the control panel that the alarm has been triggered. The second sensor is a sound sensor that is tuned to pick up the frequency of sound that breaking glass makes.

The combination of the frequency of sound and the vibrating tremor together trigger the system to sound the alarm. The control panel simultaneously sounds the alarm siren inside the home and sends out a signal through the telephone line to the systems monitoring station who then contact the authorities regarding the type of alarm and which area of the house has been penetrated. The monitoring station also calls into the home to alert the occupants and determine if the alarm is a real emergency or a false alarm.

Due to its dual sensor system the glass break detector is its own failsafe device. The number of false alarm calls has been dramatically reduced because of the development of the glass break sensor.

There is another benefit to glass break sensors, that is a single glass break sensor can cover a 25 foot area on a 90 degree angle, meaning that as long as multiple windows are in the line of sight of the glass break sensor the need to place a magnetic sensor on each window is eliminated.

Another benefit is that glass break sensors allow the homes occupants to move freely around the home while the system is active without the fear of triggering the alarm. When combined with magnetic door sensors glass break sensors add an invisible barrier of protection to any home giving the owner a greater sense of security and peace of mind.