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KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR HOME SECURITY
There are always things you can do tobetter secure your home. Your home ought to be a safe place, a sanctuary from the rest of the world, where you can truly relax. No dwelling is impervious, but there are still plenty of ways you can protect your home and family from potential criminal trespass. Let’s consider how you can make your property less attractive to a thief. To keep your peace of mind, be on the lookout for any possible vulnerabilities that may come up regarding your locks, points of entry, and the premises. Follow simple daily rules. Lock all your doors and windows anytime you leave, and before you go to sleep. Answer your door only if you know the person. (Install a peephole if you don’t have one. It’s best to use a wide-angle 160-degree peephole mounted no higher than 58 inches.) Keep any valuables well hidden in unexpected places. Unclutter your yard. Keep your shrubs, hedges, plants, and trees properly trimmed, in order to eliminate potential intruder hiding spots. If they’re too tall, not very well spaced, or otherwise unwieldy, a potential burglar will be able to hide easily. Don’t keep a “hidden” house key. Don’t keep your house key inside your mailbox, under the mat, or under a flower pot, because any smart intruder will find it. If you have a fake rock as a keyholder, a professional burglar will already know what it looks like. Instead, give a spare key to a trusted neighbor. Keep all keys and garage-door remotes stored sensibly. Don’t keep your keys and remotes in plain sightnext to a door with a window, or otherwise visible to someone outside. It’s smarter to keep them handy hidden inside a cupboard or drawer instead. Secure your air-conditioning unit. To keep someone from getting through an unsecured window, protect your air-conditioner with a bracket, corner braces, or a sliding window lock. Keep your ladders properly stored. Don’t keep a ladder outside, because a burglar can pretend to be a handyman or contractor, and take your ladder to get in through an upper window, or maybe make it up to your balcony. Keep your garage secure. Don’t forget about the garage door. Keep it closed and locked when you’re not around, and you’ll prevent a potential criminal activity. Use top-quality lighting, and keep your lights in working order. Install outdoor lights with infrared motion detectors near each outside door. Motion detector lights will effectively keep trespassers away because they cannot hide. You can also choose lights that respond to changes in temperature, sound, or light, or time of day. Some lighting systems will even allow you to connect to a smart device with a mobile app, so you can continually monitor for possible undesirable activity and respond immediately. Install timers. You can put your outside lights on timers. Whenever you’re out for the day, or gone for an extended period, you can make it seem like people are home by using timers on your interior lights too, as well as on your radios and TVs. If you’re away on vacation, it’s even possible to monitor and control everything with a mobile app. Reinforce your doors. A hollow door is not as safe, because it’s easier to penetrate. Therefore, as soon as possible, replace it with a solid-core door made of wood or metal. Fortify your doors’ locksby replacing the strike plate (the stationary piece where the bolt enters), and mounting a solid metal plate on the doorjamb for the sliding bolt. Replace any short mounting screws with longer screws that will reach the door’s studs, and this will add more strength to the doorframe. Replace any poor-quality or worn-out locks with upgraded locks. Locksmith professionals will always tell you that deadbolts provide you with extra security. Get a grade-2 deadbolt lock, which penetrates the doorframe. Or, purchase smart or digital locks, which provide an additional layer of security. Secure all your windows and glass doors. Of course, a window left open is attractive to a potential robber. Ground floor windows are more susceptible to break-ins. Upper floor windows can also be fairly attractive if someone can enter from a tree, ladder, balcony, or fence. It’s good to use a secondary blocking device, such as a wooden dowel, on each window. For optimal safety in an emergency, make sure you can easily remove your window blocking devices from the inside. For ground level sliding-glass doors, and for any aluminum windows that slide horizontally, use anti-lift devices. Install screws half-way into the upper track of the movable glass panel, which will prevent it from being lifted out in the closed position. Then you may want to place a decal on each glass door or windowpane, near the latch mechanism, to indicate that you have an alarm system, or a neighborhood watch in place. Install an alarm system. If you have an alarm system, be sure you know how it works, and then don’t forget to use it! If you’re not arming it, it’s worthless. Teach everyone in the family to operate it properly every day. Consider these strategies: Put your system on a timer schedule. Add a fire alarm. Always keep the batteries charged. The batteries’ warning system will tell you whenever they’re getting low, so don’t allow them to drain entirely. You want your home to be protected, even in a power outage. If you live in an area prone to floods, you can install a moisture monitor for your basement to detect flooding. Add a carbon monoxide monitor. With some alarm systems, you can use your smart device to monitor and adjust your security system anytime. Finally, be a good neighbor. Get to know the people in your neighborhood ~ at least on each side of your home as well as two or three across the street. Good neighbors look out for each other. Establish trust by communicating regularly. A good neighbor will keep an eye on your home while you’re gone. You don’t have to be friends; just be civil and help each other out. Some may be willing to care for your lawn, pick up your mail, or do small things that will make it look like you’re home. Be sure to return the favor. When you can’t do it yourself, hire a professional. If you do find any weak spots in your home’s security, ask an expert on the best way to remedy each issue. If you’re in Augusta, GA, you may want to request a free consultation from one of the residential locksmith specialists on staff atAugusta Locksmith. Visit or contact us for more information: Augusta Locksmith 24 Hour Emergency Locksmith Service Monday through Sunday, all day Dispatch Address: 360 Bay Street, Suite 345, Augusta, GA 30901 Email: Tom@augustalocksmith.net Phone: (706) 760-7660 www.augustalocksmith.net/ Further details at:http://www.augustalocksmith.net/news/locksmith-articles.html
HERE’S WHY LOCKS WITH MASTER PINS ARE A LOUSY IDEA AT YOUR PLACE
A master key lockis a pin-tumbler lock allowing a lock to open with two or more various keys. Master pins are utilized to pin up locks so that one master key will function in the lock, as well as a change key. This is what’s usually used in door locks in buildings with numerous occupants, such as hotels, apartment houses, storage facilities, and businesses. All tenants are given a key that unlocks only their own door, called a change key. Themaster key unlocks all the doors in the building. At an elementary school, for example, the custodian often has a master key that will function in every classroom, but each teacher will have a change key, which works only for a specific classroom. There are also subordinate master keys, which typically open every room on one floor of a dormitory or office building. Moreover, a grand master key will open all of the rooms in a whole office building, hotel, or dormitory. There’s also a great grand master key, which will open all the doors for an entire college campus, or every single office in a commercial building complex. The higher you go, the more intricate it becomes. Overall, the lock’s pin stacks have multiple key pins and master wafers above the key pins, allowing several keys to function in one lock. By contrast, a residential lock at your home is different.It has only one shear line, which means that there’s one possibility only for the split to occur between the driver pins and the key pins and the ~ so only one unique key will work. If you were to introduce master pins into the pin stacks, you would have at least two shear lines for each pin stack with a master pin installed. Essentially, that means you just shouldn’t do it, because there will be more ways for a criminal to pick the lock, since there are more possibilities of creating a shear line. In a master-keyed lock, all, or at least some, of the pin stacks in the lock have three pins rather than two. Between the driver pin and the key pin is a third pin, referred to as the spacer pin. Each pin line has two shear points, one where the spacer pins and driver meet, and one where the key pins and spacer meet. The lock opens with two keys: One key aligns the first set of shear points, and the other key aligns the second set. These locks are manufactured so that one set of shear points is unique for each lock, while the second set is identical for all the locks. A more secure kind of lock mechanism has two discrete tumblers, each of which is opened by one key. A typical method professional thieves apply is snap guns and lock bumping. A standard pin tumbler lock by itself is susceptible to lock picking. To prevent this from happening,superior-security cylinders contain specialized security pins, which are designed to catch in the lock cylinder if a snap gun or bump key is used, thus making it much harder for a crook to break in. You can upgrade your locks.Explore your many options first. As anyprofessional locksmith in Surprise, AZwill tell you, deadbolts are a good way to increase your security at your home. A deadbolt lock is, hands down, better than a basic lock. There are actually many different kinds of deadbolts. You may desire a deadbolt with an interior thumbturn, which you can operate without grasping. You may want to look into a bump-proof lock or combination door lock. You can augment your security, right away.A burglar often acts from convenience. So if any lock has an obvious weakness, it will be an easy target. Some locks are less difficult to bump or pick, and others are nearly impossible to penetrate. Combination locks and padlocks are particularly vulnerable. No home can ever be completely impermeable, but anywhere you are, you can take reasonable measures to improve your security. There is an almost endless list of various sorts of locks, so you cannot actually ever know about them all. Therefore, before you install locks, do your homework. It’s also smart to bring your questions to an expert locksmith you can trust, who can advise you on all your property’s security issues. If you reside in Surprise, Arizona, consider choosing an accomplished mobile residential locksmith specialist such as those on staff atSurprise Secure Locksmith. Go high-tech.Is it time to go digital? You can choose to replace all traditional locks with electronic door locks. It’s an excellent way to secure your home, and it doesn’t require any keys whatsoever. Keyless locks offer new horizons today in security technology. They work with remotes; with keypads; with an alarm system with a remote code; from your smart device; and even with biometrics (eye scans, fingerprints, hand prints, and so on). New innovations continue, which could soon become commonplace ~ such as voice recognition, ear scans, and even DNA sampling and heartbeat recognition! The systems that function with your smart device are ideal when you are on vacation, because you can monitor all activity while you’re gone, and be alerted immediately at any sign of trespass. You may want to put timers on radios, TVs, lights, and so forth, to make it appear that you are still home, an effective way to prevent a robbery. Most keyless systems give you attractive features providing added convenience and safety. When you get accustomed to the system that’s right for you, keyless locks are relatively easy to use. They’re also ideal for kids, since your children often forget their keys, but they can usually recall a simple code number you can all agree upon. Or, if you’re frustrated because you’re always misplacing your keys, then perhaps you’ll want to decide to go keyless. Visit or contact us for more information: Augusta Locksmith 24 Hour Emergency Locksmith Service Monday through Sunday, all day Dispatch Address: 360 Bay Street, Suite 345, Augusta, GA 30901 Email: Tom@augustalocksmith.net Phone: (706) 760-7660 www.augustalocksmith.net/ Further details at:http://www.augustalocksmith.net/news/locksmith-articles.html
How to Make Your Home a Smart Home
Your Home in the Age of Technology The smartphones we carry around in our pockets are powerful tools that make life easier, and every advancement in technology enhances their impressive capabilities. The next big step forward for this type of “smart” technology is into our homes.Utilizing integrated technological systems in your homeis one of the most significant new trends in digital innovation. Right now is the best time to start reaping the benefits of these capabilities. Transitioning to a smarter home can improve your control over every aspect of how your house operates, and increase the safety and accessibility of it as well. Additionally, you can reap the benefits of a more efficient home, leading to savings in your energy and upkeep costs! Control at Your Fingertips By installing appliances in your house, such as a smart oven, you can now use apps on your mobile device to enjoy complete control of your home’s functions from anywhere in the world. Did you leave your home and forget to turn your oven off? Air conditioner still running at home while you’re on vacation? No need to stress. You can quickly and easily power off these appliances in seconds from the respective accompanying apps. There are no limitations to the apps that are coming to market everyday. Developers have created apps and devices to control home stereos, water usage, lighting, lawn care, garage doors, your dog’s food dish, and even grocery shopping – all easily and readily controlled by the phone you already have in your pocket. Safety Smart homes don’t just allow us to avert accidental house fires from unattended ovens. These homes also allow us to keep our loved ones safe. Security systems can be installed that allow owners to monitor the comings and goings of guests and alert you when suspicious activity is detected. Doors can be locked, security systems armed, and cameras monitored from your phone, creating a safer and more secure environment for you and your family. For those of you with children, or those caring for elderly parents, these tools can make your life exponentially easier and give you peace of mind. Alerts can be sent to your phone when members of your family leave your house, and you can even keep track of where they go after they leave. Accessibility If you have friends or family members who are elderly or disabled, you know how difficult even the most basic everyday task can be for them.Smart home technology can greatly increase their quality of life,and utilizing voice commands can make the learning curve much easier for someone unfamiliar with computers. Setting up automated systems for activities like lawn care removes unnecessary stress from the lives of these individuals. As the technology moves forward, more and more difficult tasks will become accessible, improving flexibility and independence in housing for people who might not be fully capable of taking care of their homes on their own. Energy Efficiency While many benefits of a smart home include ease and accessibility, there are even more perks to enjoy. Smart home technology allows appliances to work with the least amount of energy needed. For example, induction cook-top stoves now have the intelligence to heat exclusively when a metal pan is placed on top of it. No more burners running uncovered, and no more pans being overheated. Stove tops can even manage a perfect boil while using the least amount of energy possible. Saving money on that water bill has also never been easier. Certain faucet technology can maximize shower water usage by shaping the individual droplets of water to create a more full and fulfilling shower experience while still using less water than the everyday shower head. Cost Effectiveness If “going green” wasn’t enough to pique your interest in smart home technology, the financial savings will get your attention. In a study done by the US Environmental Protection Agency, it was reported that users of smart home technology for thermostat control alone saved anywhere from 10%-30% on their energy bill. Over the course of a year, or 5 years, those savings add up quickly. Saving money with smart home technologies is simple and easy. Timers and monitors make sure you only use the money and energy you want, and incredibly intelligent occupation detectors insure these products are only active when users are present. To further your savings, the addition of solar power or other energy transmuting devices can save costs, and help you become more self-sufficient. Not only do these improvements save on your bill payments, the resale value of your home increases with each addition of these technologies. It may be a chunk of change up front, but these additions soon pay for themselves. The Future While some technologies are only in early development, the future is already here. Some elements of a smart home may require significant investment with long-term rewards. Others are simple, affordable, and can impact your home now. Making small changes to your home’s functionality can help you embrace the larger ones to come, and enjoy the potential savings that add up. Visit or contact us for more information: Augusta Locksmith 24 Hour Emergency Locksmith Service Monday through Sunday, all day Dispatch Address: 360 Bay Street, Suite 345, Augusta, GA 30901 Email: Tom@augustalocksmith.net Phone: (706) 760-7660 www.augustalocksmith.net/ Further details at:http://www.augustalocksmith.net/news/locksmith-articles.html