Detectors

Home’s Sense Organs

RISK ALERTS

Specialized electronic detectors can become your home’s eyes, nose, ears, and sense of touch. They help alert you and your family to fire, smoke or carbon monoxide conditions in your home, forced entry through doors or windows, and moisture or other unwanted or potentially dangerous threats and conditions. And that’s just the beginning!

Once triggered, they will raise the alarm with an on-site bell, horn, or flashing lights, plus pre-recorded voice messages or other forms of notification—sent to a security monitoring company, your own home automation system, friendly neighbors, or anywhere else you choose. See Alerts & Alarms.

Detectors are most commonly used to signal the presence of dangerous or unsafe conditions that threaten the safety of the household and home. But specialized devices are also available to detect other conditions:

Motion detectors (sometimes called occupancy sensors) can be employed to automatically turn lights on when someone enters the room, and off when they leave—not just to prevent trips and falls, but also to provide security, plus save energy when the room is unoccupied.

Moisture detectors save water in landscaping, by signaling when it’s time to water the garden or lawn. They can also signal abnormal moisture conditions that, left unchecked, can damage your home’s structure—for example, in a crawl space.

Temperature sensors—in the attic, for example—can control when it’s time to open the louvered vents and turn the ventilation fan on, and when to close them and turn the fan off (after the temperature has dropped).

Door and window sensors can signal a home intrusion—but can also be used to alert you when someone has gotten into the liquor cabinet—or gun closet!

The power of detectors is multiplied when combined with security cameras that allow you to interpret the data reported by the detectors. A break-in alert might be caused by a burglar, or it might simply be a lightweight garden chair that was tossed against a window during a storm.

Smoke detectors might be set off by a neighbor burning leaves, when the smoke blows through an open window. But blowing embers might actually have started a fire! Camera images help to clarify the information provided by the sensors, eliminating the unnecessary panic of a false alarm, or confirming an actual dangerous situation. See Security Cameras.

An expert in smart home security knows how to manage the signals from multiple sensors—and combine them with other, broader data—so you can know exactly what’s going on at your home.

The smarter your home is, the more information you’ll have at your disposal to interpret potentially hazardous situations, so you can more easily act on real threats and disregard false alarms.