Securing your home is crucial. But when you have pets, it becomes even more important to ensure their safety and well-being. Pet-friendly security systems have come a long way in recent years. These days, homeowners can enjoy advanced features designed specifically to keep their four-legged friends safe. In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of pet-friendly systems, the top options available, smart home components that aid in pets’ safety, and tips for setting up the perfect system to protect both your home and pets.
Short Summary
- Understand pet-friendly security systems to ensure home safety and minimize false alarms.
- Utilize motion detectors, glass break sensors, and environmental monitoring for added protection.
- Ensure success with proper sensor placement, scheduling/customization & professional installation/monitoring.
Understanding Pet-Friendly Security Systems
As a pet owner, you want a home security system that caters to the needs of your furry family members. Pet-friendly security systems are designed with features to accommodate pets. These include motion detectors and glass break sensors that can be adjusted to ignore pets. Environmental sensors detect potential hazards like smoke, carbon monoxide, and flooding.
These systems ensure that your home remains safe and secure while minimizing the risk of false alarms triggered by your pets’ movements.
Motion Detectors and Pets
Motion detectors play an essential role in any home security system. However, traditional motion sensors may not be suitable for pet owners, as they can easily trigger false alarms due to a pets’ movements. PIR sensors have been designed to ignore animals of certain body weights, usually between 30-45 pounds. This is done in order to address the issue that conventional PIR sensors used in home security systems often detected pet movements and disturbed residents. These pet-friendly motion sensors allow your pets to roam freely in your home without setting off the alarm. And that provides peace of mind as well as a more reliable alarm system.
You can learn more about how pet-immune motion detectors work here.
Pet owners also benefit from being able to track their pet’s location within the home, thanks to motion sensors. With professional monitoring plans, such as Vivint’s, you get cloud storage for cameras as well as professional monitoring. This way, you can keep a close eye on your pets and ensure their safety even when you’re not at home.
Glass Break Sensors and Pets
Glass break sensors are another valuable component of a pet-friendly security system. These sensors are designed to detect the sound of breaking glass while ignoring any sounds made by your pets. This ensures that your home security system remains effective without being triggered by the everyday noises your pets make.
For larger dogs that may exceed the weight range for motion sensors, glass break sensors are an excellent alternative. By incorporating glass break sensors into your security system, you can maintain a high level of protection for your home while keeping your pets safe and avoiding false alarms.
Environmental Monitoring for Pets
Environmental monitoring is a crucial aspect of a pet-friendly security system. It helps detect potential risks that may affect your pets, such as fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, flood, and temperature. Sensors like smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and flood sensors provide an additional layer of protection for your beloved pets, ensuring their safety even when you’re not at home.
Having a connected smoke or carbon monoxide detector can offer a more speedy response time. And that can make all the difference to your pets safety.
Top Pet-Friendly Home Security System Options
When it comes to choosing the best home security system for your pets, there are several top options available, each offering unique features and benefits. In this section, we’ll explore four of the top pet-friendly home security systems.
Vivint, which offers smart home integration; ADT, providing comprehensive protection; SimpliSafe, the budget-friendly choice; and Frontpoint, known for its advanced features.
Vivint: Smart Home Integration
Vivint is renowned for its smart home technology and offers a pet-friendly security system that includes an indoor camera with motion sensor capabilities, two-way talk, professional monitoring, and equipment starting at approximately $30/month. Vivint’s cameras offer features like two-way communication, infrared night vision, wide-angle HD view, and a playback feature for 20-second clips. The indoor camera doubles as a motion sensor, capturing activity and allowing for two-way talk with your pets.
Vivint’s smart home integration offers added convenience for pet owners. Their keypad lock is integrated with the Vivint app. This integration allows you to remotely lock and unlock the door for pet sitters. The Vivint Smart Hub allows for easy control of the security system and connected devices like the Vivint Element thermostat, ensuring a comfortable environment for your pets.
You can learn more about Vivint here.
ADT: Comprehensive Protection
ADT is the most widely used home security system among pet owners, providing 24/7 monitoring for burglary, fire, and medical emergencies with cellular backup to maintain connection with ADT’s monitoring centers even during power outages, landline, or Internet failures. This home security package provides homeowners with all the necessary elements for a secure living environment. It includes a keypad, motion sensor, remote key fob, life safety equipment, and wireless door and window sensors.
ADT’s security equipment, such as motion sensors, door/window sensors, smoke alarms, and carbon monoxide detectors, ensures the safety and security of your pets. ADT’s monitoring service costs between $40 and $60 per month, providing you with peace of mind knowing that professionals are keeping an eye on your home and pets at all times.
With over 140 years of experience and a total of 10 facilities located throughout the United States, ADT is a trusted and reliable choice for pet owners looking for comprehensive protection.
SimpliSafe: Budget-Friendly Choice
SimpliSafe is a comprehensive, professionally monitored do-it-yourself system that offers a budget-friendly option for pet owners. Their pet-friendly home security system includes a motion sensor designed to ignore movements from pets up to 50 pounds, allowing pets under this weight limit to move freely without triggering the sensor. Equipment packages are available at a range of prices, starting from $229 and going up to $489. Professional monitoring can be added for a monthly fee, ranging from $14.99 to $24.99.
SimpliSafe’s features, such as wireless components, convenient monthly contracts, and hassle-free DIY installation, make it an ideal choice for renters and homeowners alike. The DIY setup allows you to tailor the system to your pet’s habits, ensuring false alarms are minimized and your furry friends are comfortable and secure in your home.
You can learn more about Simplisafe here.
Frontpoint: Advanced Features
Frontpoint provides advanced features in their pet-friendly security system, offering pet owners peace of mind and comprehensive protection. With pet-friendly motion sensors, smart door locks, and indoor cameras, Frontpoint ensures your pets’ safety while protecting your home from intruders. Frontpoint’s security packages range in cost from $99 to $479.90, with professional monitoring plans available at a monthly cost of $44.99 to $49.99.
The Frontpoint Ultimate Plan offers additional features such as video monitoring, smart home features, and cloud storage, providing pet owners with a more comprehensive security solution for their homes and pets. With its advanced features and customizable options, Frontpoint is an excellent choice for pet owners seeking a reliable and pet-friendly security system.
You can learn more about Frontpoint here.
Smart Home Components for Pet Safety
Integrating smart home components for pet safety can provide an additional layer of protection for your furry friends. Smart thermostats, smart locks and access control, and remote monitoring and communication can help keep your pets safe and comfortable in your home, even when you’re not there.
For example, an alert indicating that the temperature has exceeded a certain threshold can be incredibly helpful if your HVAC fails and you are out, but your pet has to now cope with plunging or rising temperatures.
The same for flood detection. Let’s say your dog is in the kitchen or basement or kept in the laundry. A flood sensor, like those form Frontpoint, Vivint, ADT or Simplisafe can alert you to the issue so you can deal with it and secure your pet.
These advanced features offer both convenience and peace of mind for pet owners, ensuring that their pets are well taken care of at all times.
Smart Thermostats
A smart thermostat can greatly benefit pet owners by allowing them to maintain an optimal temperature for their pets while conserving energy. There are several options out there like the Vivint Element thermostat. Nest, Ecobee, and Honeywell are popular too. These can be managed remotely using a smartphone application and provide notifications and alerts to keep you informed of any temperature changes.
When setting up a pet-friendly thermostat, it’s essential to consider the size of your pet, their temperature preferences, and the thermostat’s placement. Maintaining a comfortable temperature for your pets can help prevent potential health issues related to extreme temperatures. Typically a temperature between 69 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit is the sweet spot,
Smart Locks and Access Control
Smart locks and access control provide added security and convenience for pet owners. These allow homeowners to manage who has access to their home. This is especially useful for pet owners who rely on pet sitters or dog walkers to care for their pets while they’re away. It’s possible to provide unique access codes for each individual. That way you can ensure that your pets are safe and well taken care of without having to worry about unauthorized access to your home.
In addition to providing access control for pet sitters, smart locks also offer convenience features. For example, one-touch locking options and nighttime keypad illumination make it easier to take your pet for a walk in the evening or early morning. Plus, virtual key combinations and live alerts, can keep track of who is entering your home and when. That can also contribute to greater peace of mind for pet owners.
Remote Monitoring and Communication
Remote monitoring and communication play a vital role in pet safety. Monitoring and camera footage allow pet owners to keep an eye on their pets even when they’re not at home. Theer are cameras with two-way communication such as PetCube. Vivint Smart Hub also has excelelnt cameras allowing you to interact with your pets remotely. In fact PetCube has introduced a WiFi pet camera with treat-dispenser!
Remote viewing features in security systems enable access to live video feeds and two-way audio communication via smartphones. Pet owners can monitor their pets’ activities, receive notifications for suspicious activity, and interact with them remotely. These advanced features offer security and peace of mind, ensuring pets are safe and cared for even when owners are away.
Tips for Setting Up a Pet-Friendly Security System
Setting up a pet-friendly security system requires careful consideration of various factors. There are several ways you can ensure your system is pet friendly. The major consideration is proper sensor placement. But scheduling and system customization as well as professional installation and monitoring can all work together to enhance pet friendliness.
Proper sensor placement is key to a pet-friendly security system. Sensors should be placed in areas that are out of reach of your pets, such as high up on walls or in corners.
Scheduling and customization of the system can also be important. For example, you may want your dog to roam certain areas when the alarm is on or during certain periods of the day. Understanding features of your alarm system is important. For example, “Stay” mode and entry and exit delays will help you configure your system for optimal performance. They’ll also help reduce false alarms.
Proper Sensor Placement
Accurate sensor placement is crucial for a pet-friendly security system. It helps prevent false alarms caused by pets. To achieve this, it’s recommended to install pet-friendly motion sensors at adult height, around five to six feet above the ground. This height keeps them out of reach of pets. Additionally, it’s important to carefully consider the placement of cameras. They should be positioned effectively to capture all necessary footage for optimal security.
For pet owners using DIY installed systems like SimpliSafe, you will need to be careful and strategic in placing your sensors appropriately. That way you’ll avoid false alarms. By placing sensors and cameras strategically, you can minimize false alarms and create a secure environment for your pets.
What about cats? Will they trigger a motion detector?
When we think of pet-friendly security systems, we probably have dogs in mind. So, will a pet friendly alarm system work for those with cats? It is unlikely for a cat to set off a motion detector. Taht’s because these sensors are designed to differentiate between animals and humans. The benefit with cats is their size. Most motion detectors will easily differentiate between a cat, weighing 15lbs and a human weighing over 100lbs. The larger the animal, the more difficult it is for the system to distinguish. Several munfacturers like ADT have adjustable motion detectors to account for the animals size.
What is key hwoever, is sensor placement. Cats are agile. The closer they can get to a motion sensor, the more likely they will trigger it. So, keep it away from an area where there’s a book case or cabinets that a cat can scale. Otherwise, your cat may jump directly in front of the motion detector, triggering it.
Scheduling and Customization
Scheduling and customization play a crucial role in the effectiveness of a pet-friendly security system. By adjusting the sensitivity settings of motion sensors and establishing appropriate scheduling, you can avoid false alarms and ensure that your pets feel comfortable in any room where motion sensors are placed. For example, with the ADT control app, remote arming and disarming can be scheduled based on your pet’s routine.
When configuring your pet-friendly security system, it’s essential to consider your pets’ size, habits, and preferences. By customizing the system to accommodate your pets’ needs, you can ensure their safety and well-being while also maintaining a secure home.
Professional Installation and Monitoring
Professional installation and monitoring can be critical factors in ensuring the safety and security of your pets and home. By opting for a pet-friendly security system with professional installation, you can guarantee that sensors and cameras are placed correctly and the system functions optimally.
Additionally, having professional monitoring provides you with the peace of mind. You can be sure that your home and pets are protected at all times. Agents at the monitoring center are ready to respond promptly in the event of an emergency.
Considering the unique needs of your pets during the installation and monitoring process can help ensure their safety, as well as the security of your home. Professionals have considerable experience in setting up system to accommodate pets. Usign a professional installation service will ensure your system is pet-friendly and protects your home and furry friends.
The Final Score: Pet friendly security systems
In conclusion, pet-friendly security systems have become a vital aspect of home security for pet owners. It’s important to udnerstand the features and benefits offered by pet-friendly security systems. That way you’ll know how to get the best out of them. There are several good pret friendly options. These include Vivint, ADT, SimpliSafe, and Frontpoint. You should also consider incorporating smart home components for pet safety. That way you can create the perfect security system to protect from intrsuion but also maintain a comfortable safe environment. Proper sensor placement is crucial. And scheduling and customization can further enhance your system’s pet-frendly efefctiveness. Professional installation takes the guess work out of settign up a pet freindly system. And professional monitoring is definitely an a reasuring servcie, knowing a team is at the ready to respond with any alerts.
By implementing these tips and recommendations, you can provide a safe and comfortable environment for your furry family members while enjoying peace of mind as a pet owner.