The home is always looked upon as a place of refuge where one should feel safe and sound. But did you know that according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly 75% of all crimes committed in US are crimes on property?

In 2003 alone, there were roughly 14 million thefts, and in 83% of these thefts, the burglars entered the house or building to steal personal property. Burglary can happen to anyone, whether you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area. You could live within a mile of a police station, and you could still be burgled – there have been similar cases before.

Experiencing a burglary is very upsetting. Not only are you facing the cost of the lost items, you will not be able to feel secure in your house for a time. It’s as if you lose your peace of mind because you’ll always think that your house was robbed once, and it could happen again.

What Are the Chances?

So the question is this;  will you wait for a burglary to happen in your own home before you do something about it?

The problem is that people usually trust too much in their door locks, but these can be picked by skilled people easily. In addition to this, thieves are also increasingly more resourceful and creative in finding ways to enter a house unnoticed. They sometimes do so under the guise of being repair or maintenance crews, or furniture delivery companies, and enter your house in broad daylight when everybody is at work or school.

People sometimes trust too much in neighbor watches as well. However, come to think of it, what neighbor will spend every minute watching your house? The best solution to prevent burglary is installing a home alarm system. The security company you hire can readily install sensors in various areas of your house.

Home Alarm System Remote Monitoring

Once a sensor is triggered, the security company will immediately call to verify whether there is indeed an emergency or an accident triggered the alarm (which happens fairly often). If they can’t get you on the phone, they will immediately alert the proper authorities to request for assistance. 

You may also have surveillance cameras installed as part of your home alarm system. These are very useful to check unsupervised people you hire around the house such as house cleaners and babysitters. If an attempted break-in happens, these are also useful in identifying the potential thieves.

As an added feature for your home alarm system, you may also request the security company to hook up your smoke alarm to the house alarm system. If the smoke alarm goes off, the company will automatically contact the fire department. This is useful especially during the night, or when you leave your pets or children at home alone for a period of time.

Your home alarm system comes with strategically-placed panic buttons. You will appreciate the importance of panic buttons if you are trapped at home during a break-in or when there is a medical emergency.

Home Alarms Can Reduce Insurance Premiums

Besides all these benefits, once you have a home alarm system in place, you can usually get a discount in your house insurance policy (depending on your insurance company of course). This is because they recognize that the risk of having burglary in your house is significantly minimized when you have a home alarm system.

Any home alarm system comes with a very visible lawn sign to announce that your home is being protected by an alarm system. This is a great deterrent as thieves will always choose to break in a house without a home alarm system as opposed to a house that has one.

Now that you have seen the benefits, let’s look at the costs involved in a home alarm system. Getting a home alarm system can usually be afforded by the typical American family. However, you have to remember that aside from purchasing the home alarm system, you also need to pay a fixed monthly fee to your security company to provide you with 24-hour home monitoring.

Do some Internet research and ask around to find the best security company so that you can get the best value for your money. Remember though that the benefits of getting a home alarm system surely outweigh the costs.

This is among the major reasons why home safety should become everyone’s main concern.

The problem is that sometimes, many people are thinking that home safety products and devices are enough to ensure that they will be ready for any coming emergency.

Owning such items are good but you must remember that home safety does not only involve purchasing the necessary gadgets, but starting lifestyle changes as well.

To illustrate this point, do you know that 97 percent of homes in the US have a smoke detector in their house but only 19 percent of them have really tested the alarm at least quarterly?

You may ask, what is the problem about not testing the smoke alarm regularly? Untested tools prove to be useless in times of emergency if they won’t work!

Seeing the small alarm on your ceiling gives you a sense of security and makes you confident of your home safety. However, if the battery has died out or the detector has malfunctioned for whatever reason, it will be useless to you in cases of fire.

Although you have the home safety product installed in your house, not having the habit of checking it regularly could defeat its purpose.

The practice of home safety is like building up your physique. It’s not enough to purchase an exercise machine – you have to regularly use it too!

Some people make the mistake of assuming home safety without making actual plans, and then they are shocked when something happens to them. To ensure home safety, here are some practical steps you can apply:

1. Smoke test alarms should be tested by pushing the button repeatedly until you hear a loud noise. Make sure that all smoke alarms are connected in such a way that if one goes off, the rest would go off as well. Put new batteries yearly and replace smoke alarms every 10 years.
2. Install smoke alarms in every floor of your house. Always make sure that there is an alarm near every sleeping area, and that everyone can wake up to the sound of the smoke alarm. Home safety during a fire depends on early warning and swift evacuation.
3. Create an emergency fire escape plan with your family, and clearly identify with everyone your home’s possible exits such as backdoors and windows. These points of exit must be easily opened from the inside. Remember also that home safety during a fire is highly reliant on being able to evacuate quickly. Assign someone to every handicapped person or child in your house who may need assistance in getting out.
4. After making a fire escape plan, have a fire drill done at least once in a year. It’s a great thing if you have an accurately written plan, but it’s entirely another thing to actually make the plan work. Set an area outside your house where everyone should meet after an evacuation. Remind everyone that under no circumstance should they return to the burning house to get anything such as their valuables.
5. Keep all those household chemicals, medicines and other cleaning products in their original packaging with the labels on. Make sure that they are inaccessible to children by placing them inside locked cabinets.
6. Make sure that everyone knows where the first-aid kit is located, and make certain that this is always completely stacked with all the necessary medical supplies.
7. A list of important numbers should always be kept or placed near your telephone.
8. Make sure of your home safety regarding accidental drowning by keeping the gate to your backyard swimming pool locked at all times. Never leave children alone with water whether in buckets, wading pools, or bath tubs.
9. Put on and off switches at the top and bottom of the stairs in your house. Ensure that all stairways have handrails no matter how short they may be. Keep them clean of clutter as tripping over an object while climbing the stairs is the most common reason for falling accidents in the house.
10. If there are young children who live in your home, it is best to install safety gates both at the top and bottom of each stairway to prevent them from wandering off the stairs.

Regardless, there are some safety precautions that should be taken when dealing with electrical wiring!

Before beginning any electrical repair, shut off the power.

Remove the fuse or trip the breaker for the circuit you will be working on in your service panel. Use a neon tester to be sure the power is off. If there is any doubt, you can remove the main fuse or trip the main breaker.

Remember: Removing the main fuse or tripping the main breaker will usually shut off the power to the entire house. In my opinion, better safe than sorry! Electrical wires are color coded to prevent wiring errors.

White wires almost always connect to other white wires or to chrome terminal screws on switches and receptacles.

Some electrical wiring devices–such as receptacles–are back-wired by pushing the bare wire end into spring grip holes. These wiring devices are plainly labeled to show which color goes into each spring grip hole.

Switches are nearly always connected into black wires in cables. The only exception is where a cable is extended, making it necessary for the white wire to play the role of the black wire. When this is necessary, the white wires should be painted black to prevent future wiring errors.

Study the wiring diagram. This will help you understand the basic principles of good wiring. Also, find a good electrical how-to book. It’s one book every homeowner should keep on hand for ready reference. If you know an electrician, ask them which one is the best for the average homeowner!

Most home electrical wiring is complete with either No. 14 gauge or No. 12 gauge wiring. No. 14 is the smallest wiring permitted under most codes. Always use the same size cable for a continuation of any extended wiring circuit.