With the earlier evenings that winter heralds, it may be no surprise to homeowners that this season brings more break-ins and potential burglars casing your home than spring and summer.
With the earlier evenings that winter heralds, it may be no surprise to homeowners that this season brings more break-ins and potential burglars casing your home than spring and summer. Will Liu, UK Country Manager of TP-Link, has indicated many weak-points of home security, and shared with SMAhome multiple smart tips that technologies can help homeowners to enhance security at home. Details are as follows.
In October’s National Home Security Month (NHSM) reported that the average increase in break-ins over winter is 25% higher than any other season and that 10% of domestic burglaries take place in the month of November.
A previous NHSM report found 60% of burglaries take place between 6pm and 6am. However, darkness during winter falls around 4:30 pm, prolonging the window of opportunity for burglars, who only need to spend six to 12 minutes inside a home. Despite this, 70% of homeowners don’t have any sort of burglar alarm whilst almost 25% admit to have no home security at all. Having proper security measures on and in home is always recommended but, in addition to locks on windows and doors, smart technology can ensure homes are safer this season.
Smart bulbs mean burglars are less likely to strike
70% of burglaries take place during the week so thieves are looking for the path of least resistance – usually while you are out at work or just going about your everyday life, such as picking the kids up from an after-school activity. Making your home less appealing by tricking burglars into thinking that you are home is key to preventing a burglary.
Putting your lights on a timer is an option to ensure that the home looks occupied while you’re out. Smart bulbs are a fantastic choice, especially for the environmentally conscious as they are LED, using up to 80% less energy than a standard 60W incandescent bulb. They can also be automatically turned on and off remotely while you’re out, using a mobile device and geo-location, and the remote control feature enables you to control lights from wherever you may be. Moreover, setting the bulbs to “away mode” will also automatically allow users to randomise the light settings to keep the home more secure from burglars.
If a burglar passes by your home and notices that your lights go on and off regularly at specific times on particular days, he’ll soon notice that pattern and work out when there’s no one home. Varying your lighting pattern is a more effective deterrent against a break-in. That’s why smart light bulbs should be used in Circadian mode, where they turn on as soon as it starts getting dark.
Smart plugs go beyond just turning on lights
Smart plugs allow users to do much more than just controlling lamps while you’re out. They can also be used to control other household devices like radios and TVs. By tuning a radio into a station that has all-day talk shows and other conversational programs, it will sound like there are people at home. The same for your TV. The sound of a TV going on in the living room, combined with the radio emulating voices coming from the kitchen or bedroom, mimics a traditional family being at home.
Keep an eye on what’s going on at home with cloud cameras
To monitor and record what’s going on when you are away, all you need to do now is fit a cloud-enabled camera in your home. Having more than one camera is the best so that you have a view of the entire house – upstairs and downstairs. These smart devices will send you notification if they detect movement within your property. This means you can use the app on your smartphone to instantly see what is inside your home and whether you need to contact the police. Pick a Day/Night camera to make sure that you capture clear pictures even during the night.
Stay connected with mobile apps
Smart plugs, smart bulbs and cloud-enabled cameras are of little use if you can’t actually control them while you are away from home, and that’s where apps come in. While all smart home apps enable controlling devices while you are out, there are others that use the mobile data network to control your smart devices from the other side of the world.
Will Liu, UK Country Manager
of TP-Link
Remember, thieves and burglars look for the path of least resistance and, according to NHSM, a home without a security system is 300% more likely to be burgled. So, having smart plugs, smart bulbs and cloud-enabled cameras, combined with proper window and door locks, not only makes your home look lived-in and occupied, but also actively keeps it secure.
*Contributed by Will Liu, UK Country Manager of TP-Link