Spring Cleaning: The Perfect Time to Assess Your Home Security Needs
Is the pollen gone yet?
Phew, that was a pretty horrible year for this yellow stuff in South Carolina! Now that it’s time to once again open windows and doors, let in the air (not pollen), right before we shut everyone down again for the summer heat… it’s also a perfect time to assess your home security needs as you’ll be spending time going through your home, inside and out.
When you do your spring cleaning, look for potential security issues. You know, two birds – one stone! 😉
Assessing your Home Security Needs During Spring Cleaning
Springtime cleaning is a great opportunity to evaluate your current security measures and identify areas that may need improvement. Why? You’ll be touching almost all your windows, doors (aka entry points), cameras, and systems as you clean and dust off the pollen that’s settled in all nooks and crannies. NOTE: This is even MORE important if you have a cleaning crew on retainer who regularly cleans your home – they might have inadvertently moved camera positions as they clean, touched sensors, or left doors and windows unlocked!
Finding Potential Home Security Risks During Spring Cleaning
- Doors and Windows
As mentioned above, check the locks on all doors and windows to ensure that they are functioning properly and that they’ve not been left unlocked by the cleaning crew. If you have any damaged locks or hardware, replace them immediately. - Outdoor Lighting
Evaluate your current outdoor lighting system to ensure that it is providing adequate illumination in the right spots. Consider installing additional lights or motion-sensor lights to deter potential intruders and to light up all areas of your front and backyard. - Landscaping
Check your landscaping to ensure that it is not providing cover for intruders. Trim back any overgrown bushes, shrubs or trees that could obscure the view of your home from the street, being sure to keep them trimmed all year. - Security System
Test your security system to make sure that it is functioning properly. If you are our customer, we are happy to help you do this. Besides testing in the spring, also test before a major hurricane. If you don’t have a security system, consider installing one to protect your home and family and to monitor from afar when needed. - Emergency Preparedness
Check the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, and replace them if necessary. Review your emergency preparedness plan with your family to ensure that everyone knows what to do in the event of an emergency. This is especially needed when you have children, have elderly parents who live with you, and when you live in a hurricane-prone zone. - Valuables
Take inventory of your valuables, such as jewelry and electronics, and consider storing them in a safe or other secure location – NOT in your bedroom, where burglars expect valuables to be.
Why Identifying Potential Vulnerabilities in Your Home Security is Important
By assessing these areas during spring cleaning, you can identify potential vulnerabilities in your home security. Why is this important? You can now take the proper steps to address them before they become a problem. Prevention is always better than fixing an issue.
Who Will you Call? Strand Security
If you need help addressing potential issues, as always we are only a phone call away. Call us anytime at 843-318-6392 for help with your home security and commercial security. Your security is our business.
Home Security Trends for 2023 and Beyond
Hey South Carolina!
What’s up? We are getting a head start on home security trends for 2023.
We know you want to know what’s new, exciting and what’s coming down the pipeline, right? Here are some of the 2023 home security trends we see taking off in 2023.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Here to Stay!
AI, Artificial Intelligence is here. It’s being used in almost all industries and certainly has made its way to the home and commercial security industry.
Artificial intelligence is used to operate smart devices via the voice control function of AI-enabled units such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, in addition to its use in home security systems. In addition, Voice commands can be used to manage advanced home security systems and commercial systems.
Cloud-Based Security in 2023
If you have heard of the “cloud” but aren’t sure what it does, here is your answer.
Cloud security, also known as cloud computing security, is a collection of home security measures designed to protect cloud-based infrastructure, applications, and data.
These measures ensure user and device authentication, data and resource access control, and data privacy protection and are connected to your home security system. More and more systems rely on cloud-based systems to backup their data such as video footage.
Smarthome Technology – Expanded
We’ve been installing and servicing smarthomes for years. In 2023 we see smarthome technology expand even more. Homeowners want their smarthome to do even more recurring tasks for them.
In 2022 we saw the first installations of smart window shades.
In 2023, we predict more and more home will add smarthomes technology to
- locks
- lights
- sound systems
- HVAC systems
- and other home appliances such as coffee makers, alarm clocks, refrigerators, ovens and more!
Will My Current Home Security System Suffice in 2023?
That is a great question.
While technology changes quickly, we can often swap out or add components for you to keep the current system in place. Unless you have a brand new home that need it all, small changes i.e new cameras, new keypad, additional sensors, these are things that can be added without breaking the bank.
Imagine the Possibilities of Smarthome Technology in 2023
Smarthome technology is not just for nerds!
It’s great for
- busy parents
- senior citizens
- disabled persons
- families
- travelers
- second home owners
- AirbnB rentals
Smarthome technology allows you to keep an eye on your home when you are not present. It also allows you to DO things in your home while not present:
- unlock doors
- adjust thermostats
- draw shades
- turn lights on and off
- and much much more!
Smart Homeowners Get Smarthome Technology in 2023!
We are the experts in Horry County and Georgetown County in the Myrtle Beach area. We are locally owned and locally operated and live where we work.
Come talk to us!
The Best Home Security Tips of 2022 Per Strand Security
This year has been incredible. The growth we’ve seen in the Grand Strand area and in Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet and surrounding areas is incredible. New residents continued to move in as new homes were completed.
With so many new people in a relatively small geographical area, we need to be cognisant of friction this can cause.
Most often when a population swells quickly like it has on the Grand Strand, crime rate increases as well.
Home Security Tips for Grand Strand Residents
We’ve done our part by installing new home security systems, updates existing homes and systems and adding smart home technology for businesses and homeowners.
While we can monitor your home from afar with COPS monitoring, it’s important each homeowner takes an active role in keeping their home, their property crime-free and their family safe.
We’ve shared several new home security tips this past year, so let’s revisit the best of the best!
Drones, Facial Recognition and Smart Home Technology, Oh My!
We blogged about new trends and updates for 2022 and this included drones as security cameras, facial recognition to operate your smart home and additional smart home technology and did we ever predict it right!
Check out this featured story on window shades!
Fire Safety for Home and Family
Home security tips we gave earlier this year includes tips about home safety and fire hazards. If you have a family, you need to read this article and implement these home safety tips ASAP.
PS that article also has great tips about using lights and sounds to deter criminals. Music never sounded this sweet before!
Digging Up Unusual Home Security Tips for Golden Nuggets!
This fall we searched high and low for the most UNUSUAL home security and safety tips and oh boy, did we strike gold!
Most of these tips were about moving things around your home as not to be too obvious.
Move your keypad (so no one can see it through a window), move your spare key and even move your valuables. Did you know most people keep their jewelry in the master bedroom? Yep. Don’t put YOURs there! 😉
Got Bad Security Habits?
There are no bad security systems. Really. An armed system is great, but only if you … arm it! So many band habits result in bad decisions which lead to disasters.
To get your home and your family safe and secure, you’ve got to drop some of your own bad habits!
Listen to the Criminals for Home Security Advice!
Last but not least, we found some of the best home security tips for 2022 by asking criminals.
Most criminals do not want to encounter humans when they commit a crime. Most crimes are crimes of opportunity, which leave sus with these amazing tips: deter, deter, deter.
If you deter a criminal, they will move on to an easier target! Simple, but true.
Keeping Your Family Safe in 2023
If you are new to the Grand Strand, have just purchased a new home, or have started a family and new home security, we’d love to become your service provider. Give us a call anytime. Your security, our business. We live and work right here on the Grand Strand and we secure our home and our family with the same products and brand we instal in our customer’s homes.
3 Smart and Simple Holiday Home Security Tips
‘Tis the season to be jolly!
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or another holiday in December, it’s a great time to get together with family and friends.
We light candles. We eat meals. We give gifts. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Except when it is not! Disaster can strike even during the holiday season. Prepare now and don’t sweat it in December.
Here are 3 smart and simple holiday home security tips you need in your life!
Holiday Home Security Tips To Sink Your Teeth In!
In the past, we’ve talked about holiday home security tips right here on this blog.
Here are our previous tips:
5 of the best home for the holidays security tips
3 smart home security tips for a worry-free holiday season
How to prevent being a burglary victim during the holiday season
But…
We dug deep and came up with 3 additional holiday home security tips to share with you.
1 Prevent a Home Fire
1 If you have a wood stove or fireplace in your home, get your chimney swept this month. As it gets colder, we will be looking for alternate sources of heat and fireplaces that are not swept cna catch on fire, easily. There might be a build up of soot, or a bird may have nested and obstructed your chimney. Either way, protect your home and your family and get this service scheduled asap.
2 Alternatively, if you do not have a good heating source and you are looking at space heaters to warm up your home, please, please please be aware of the dangers of space heaters. Do not use them without supervision. Do not use them when you sleep. Do not use them near flammable materials. Do not plug them into extension cords. Space heaters cause a lot of fires each winter. If you must use them, please take precautions.
2 Time your Lights
More often than not, burglaries happen during the day and are an impulsive act, meaning – a criminal sees an opportunity and jumps on it. Those burglaries that happen at night, are often premeditated and planned out. To prevent being a targeted victim of a home burglar during the holiday season, put your holiday lights on timers. Better yet, put them on timers and on your smarthome system so that you can adjust the timing of them daily if you are not home! Lights that pop up at the exact time each day, day after day, can signal ‘We are not home’ to a criminal.
3 Use Your Sound System to Your Advantage
Much like the lights deter criminals, turning on tunes to keep them away works as well! Smarthome homeowners who have a surround sound system can time (and chime) music to be played. Who knew jingle bells could prevent break-ins? If a criminal sees lights and hears music played, they will move to an empty house.
FACT: Burglars do NOT want to confront homeowners. They rather go to a home where it is dark and quiet!
Let Strand Security Help You Keep Your Loved Ones Safe!
Does the Start of Daylight Saving Time Bring Us More or Less Crime?
Daylight Saving Time – Love it or Hate it?
Do you like Daylight Saving time, or do you dread it? It’s almost that time, on Sunday, March 13 we will be ‘springing ahead’ to add an extra hour of daylight into our days!
There is a movement to do away with it all together while most western countries are still adhering to Daylight Saving Time.
Here is some history on it as found on Wikipedia
“Daylight saving time in the United States is the practice of setting the clock forward by one hour when there is longer daylight during the day, so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Most areas of the United States observe daylight saving time (DST). The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established the system of uniform daylight saving time throughout the US.
In the U.S., daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, with the time changes taking place at 2:00 a.m. local time. With a mnemonic word play referring to seasons, clocks “spring forward, fall back”—that is, in springtime the clocks are moved forward from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. and in fall they are moved back from 2:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Daylight saving time lasts for a total of 34 weeks (238 days) every year, about 65% of the entire year.”
More daylight and warmer weather in spring time means… more criminal activity!
Does Daylight Saving Time Reduce or Increase Crime?
You might be surprised to find out how Daylight Saving time affects crime! We were!
“In a new paper forthcoming in The Review of Economics and Statistics, we find that shifting daylight from the morning to the early evening has pretty hefty returns for public safety. When DST begins in the spring, robbery rates for the entire day fall an average of 7 percent, with a much larger 27 percent drop during the evening hour that gained some extra sunlight.
Why might this time shift matter? The timing of sunset is pretty close to the time many of us leave work, and walking to our cars or homes in the dark makes us easier targets for street criminals. We feel safer when we’re walking in the daylight, and it’s easy to imagine why light might have a deterrent effect on crime: offenders know they’re more likely to be recognized and get caught if they’re fully visible. The timing of sunset matters because our daily schedules can’t easily adapt to follow the daylight. Most people can’t leave work before 5pm, even if it would be safer to do so.”
source: brooking.edu
Spring Season is Not a Big Crime Season (but Summer is!)
More daylight means less darkness which in turn translates to less crime.
Most criminals do want cover of darkness to commit their crimes. The biggest exception is burglaries, which happen most often between the time of 10 AM – 2 PM, when people are not home but at work!
So what can you do in spring?
- Relax!
- Go outside and play.
- Make sure to activate your home security system, but enjoy that extra daylight and sunshine.
If you are the spring cleaning kind, read this.
If you are the worrying kind, here are some spring home security tips to consider implementing.
Daylight Saving Time Bring Us Less Crime!
You got this!
The 2022 Home Security Trends You Don’t Want to Miss, Myrtle Beach!
Grand Strand and Myrtle Beach Area Population Boom in 2022!
We are almost into the second quarter of 2022. Spring is here and we are looking ahead to what else is to come in 2022. Myrtle Beach, Horry County and Georgetown county are booming!
Houses can not be built quickly enough for the demand. Older homes are getting facelifts and updates while new homes and whole new developments are popping out of the ground like mushrooms.
While we love the Grand Strand – we live and work here just like you – we are well aware that crime rates go up when the number of residents keep increasing.
Home security along, with location, is a huge factor when looking at who might be a victim of crime and criminal activity. While you can’t always just up and move your home to a new, better, more secure neighborhood, you CAN update your home with the latest trends and technology.
Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand Residents: Here are the 2022 home security trends you don’t want to miss!
1 More Smart Home Integrations
Homeowners are waking up to the fact that technology is here to stay and technology is our friend – and can make our lives so much easier.
While smart homes and smart home technology isn’t new, there are a few trends to look for in 2022.
They include
- Smarter sensors (see #4 facial recognition)
- Energy efficiency is one of the top requests from homeowners: devices connected to thermostats, window shades, electronics and solar panels all help to reduce energy waste and cost!
- Health tracking and health management while at home can now be integrated with smart home technology as the system can communicate with healthcare providers and caretakers in real time!
2 Security Drones
Back in 2017 we wrote about drones as part of looking ahead to future security concerns. We quote:
“New technology will enable drones to be part of your home security system – if not now, in the very near future!
In this article in Digital Trends we read about a new home security system that deploys a drone to patrol your property! Sounds like something out of a sci-fi book? Think again! The technology is here and soon most, if not all, security systems will have this capability. This article predicts
“The idea of a security camera that doesn’t fly will seem like the dark ages.”
That will be an amazing day…!“
Well – it’s here. It took only 5 years, but we now do have drones with security cameras that can be employed with smart home technology to scout your property! It’s a new trends for 2022 and an exciting one to boot!
3 Universal Home Automation
We love love love automation – but there are so many options! Google, Apple, Ring…
What coming is more ways to link to any smart speaker and provide you with full control across multiple environments.
We predict you can expect the security of your home to be more streamlined and connected to all other smart home devices in the near future.
4 Facial Recognition
Mentioned above in #1, the newest trends is facial recognition with the assistance of AI, for home security. This will replace keyless entry with number pad or fingerprint and over into to facial recognition for optimal security!
5 Remote Video Monitoring
This is a new service that will come into being: not just home security monitoring, but actual video monitoring services.
With regular home security monitoring, an alert goes out when an armed door or window is unlocked or opened, or when there is movement if sensors are activated.
Remote video monitoring would include constant monitoring in real time offered as a service to those who want peace of mind – think elderly parent living home alone, or a preteen home after school.
Get Your Home Security Up-To-Date for 2022, Myrtle Beach
We stay on top of the latest trends, brands and technology so you don’t have to. Come talk to us.
Another offering that we might see more of from 2022 is remote video monitoring services. This ensures potential emergencies and criminal activity can be spotted and prevented before they become a bigger problem.
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