My husband occasionally travels on business, and while he is gone, I am even more vigilant than usual about checking the doors to the house to make sure they are locked. We have deadbolt locks, for which our insurance company gives us a discount on our homeowners insurance, but it doesn’t hurt to get up and make sure the locks are in place every few hours or so, right? I mean, that’s not obsessive or anything, lying awake in bed thinking oh crap, did I lock the door to the garage? I did, didn’t I? Maybe I should check.
When I did that giveaway of the InGrid home security system, it did get me thinking. If you missed that review and giveaway, InGrid is an easy to install system that uses sensors that you attach to doors and windows, with a base and console that controls everything. You set up your account with MyInGrid.com and with a monitoring service, and then you can customize what alerts you receive and how you receive them via any Internet-connected device such as a digital cell phone or web-enabled PDA (one that you already own). It’s even got a remote that goes on your keychain to let you disable a sensor before you open the door.
For example, let’s say you have a child who comes home from school before you get home from work. The act of the child opening the door will trigger the sensor, and InGrid will let you know that the door was opened, letting you know that your child is home. I was a “latch key” kid myself for many years, and I know my Mom had our across the street neighbor watching out her window every afternoon to make sure I came home (and didn’t let in any boys-lol). But a security sensor is much more reliable than a nosy neighbor, don’t you think?
So my question is, how many of you use a home security system? Do you find it reliable? Is the cost of the monthly monitoring offset by the peace of mind you get? Leave me a comment!
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i have employed an intercom system. so whoever comes in has to give a voice recognition.
We had ADT in our last house. The reason we got it well was because we were robbed the day after Thanksgiving. They took everything that wasn’t heavy or nailed down. In our new house we haven’t decided yet if we’ll get anything. On our old house we got ADT service for one year, then after the year we would still set the alarm *which was just designed to go off if someone opened a door or window* but no one would be called because we didn’t subscribe any longer. But…you know if you hear an alarm don’t you think they’d run away? Who knows but it made me feel better at night and when we left to know that even if the police wouldn’t come we would at least scare them.
When my husband leaves for the night I do lay in bed wondering if the back door is locked…I think that’s something everyone worries about (well except husbands) and we all eventually go downstairs and check the door.
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I think it’s terrible that you even have to consider security in your home, but i suppose that’s the world we live in. We had a sneak thief come into our house years ago who stole me mum’s handbag. It was only when she was ready to go to work and couldn’t find her bad that we realized it had been stolen.
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Thanks for the info. I am terrible about leaving the door unlocked, car unlocked, etc. This gave me something to think about!
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The cost of monthly monitoring is not only offset by the piece of mind (think about vacation time here too), but also by the savings on the home owners insurance from having the monitored security system.
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