How Do You Set a House Alarm?

Setting Your House Alarm System Jacksonville FL

Homeowners in Jacksonville, FL, find that they need the security offered by a residential alarm system. As the city continues to grow, the crime rate keeps climbing. While there are plenty of things you can do as a homeowner to decrease the chances that you will be burglarized or experience a home invasion, investing in a home alarm is one of the most crucial. Of course, it’s also important that you know how to use that deterrent. How do you set the alarm on a residential security system?

First, understand that there are usually two modes for a residential alarm system – stay and away. Both of these work differently. Stay is used when you’re going to be at home, but want the alarm to be set. Away is used when there will be no one inside the home at all. So, if the home will be empty, set your alarm system to away. If you or someone else will be in the home, but you want an added layer of security, set the system to stay.

Regardless of which mode you choose, you’ll need to make sure that all of your home’s doors and windows are closed and locked. You will also need to make sure that all of your interior sensors are on (most of them are pet-friendly so Fido won’t set them off as long as he’s a smaller breed), and some systems allow you to program which interior sensors are active in both stay and away modes.

Once you’ve ensured that all your doors and windows are locked, you simply need to arm the system. This should be possible through the main control panel, but depending on the system you own, it could also be possible through a remote control, or via an app accessed from your smartphone or tablet.

Note that once the system is armed, you will have a countdown timer that allows time for you to exit the home (if you’re using the away mode). You will also have time to open interior doors before the system fully arms. Many systems have a warning beep that counts down until full system activation, but this can be disabled if you like. However, understand that disabling this may extend the countdown time from a minute to two minutes (this varies by system).

The best way to ensure that you have the security offered by a residential alarm system and are familiar with its use is to work with a reputable security company in Jacksonville that can guide you to the ideal system and provide support and training for using it.