Security Tips
Sizing Up Your Home: Using Scout in Apartments, Condos, and More
• 4 minutes read
Whether you live in a condo in the big city or have a rural vacation home, we want Scout Alarm to fit your needs. Every home is different, and with every variation comes unique challenges and vulnerabilities. We design our products to serve a variety of security requirements in all sorts of locales. Whether you live in an apartment, a condo, or a larger residence, here is how to rightsize Scout to fit your life.
Apartment Living
You may ask yourself why apartment dwellers would need a home security system. Apartment buildings frequently offer their own external building security. Some even employ doormen that watch out for strangers and intruders. If your apartment building offers these amenities, having a security system in your apartment might seem like overkill, or redundant at the least. However, Scout can offer peace of mind in other ways that your building management can’t provide.
Living an apartment building means you’ll sometimes have building management accessing your space. Keep tabs on their presence by using Scout access sensors and door panels to monitor when people enter and exit your apartment. If building management is scheduled to come by your apartment for repairs, you can check your Scout Alarm activity feed to make sure they entered to complete the work. You can also place an access sensor on a sensitive item like your liquor cabinet door to restrict access to your bottles. If you see the liquor cabinet sensor report as open in the Devices page of your Scout Alarm app, you’ll know that someone was snooping where they didn’t belong!
Your building doorman can watch out for intruders, but cannot protect you from the elements. Keep your possessions from being damaged in flooding incidents with the Scout water sensor. Sure, you may not be liable for damage to flooring or cabinets (that’s your landlord’s responsibility), but you should consider the possible damage to personal possessions, especially electronic devices. Many people do not have renter’s insurance and are susceptible to events outside their control, like a ceiling leak or burst pipe. The Scout water sensor can detect these events and notify you before they become widespread enough to cause serious damage to your apartment.
Condos
Condominiums lack many security amenities of an apartment building, but are often larger and subject to their own security concerns. If you own a condo, you need to think about protecting what’s inside. The first consideration should be the points of entry. Condos have fewer exterior doors than single-family homes, decreasing the number of door panels required. If your condo is above the ground floor, it’s safe to assume that exterior windows are not easily accessible entry points for intruders. In this case, a motion sensor would be a better fit for your condo than an access sensor on each window. When you consider these factors, the Scout Small Pack provides a efficient and affordable solution to your security needs.
The Scout Small Pack includes one door panel, two access sensors, one motion sensor, and a Scout yard sign. The door panel is recommended for your primary access door. The door panel includes an RFID reader for easy arming and disarming, as well as a 105dB siren. If the door panel is located on the other side of the condo from your Scout hub and its siren, you’ll always be able to hear when the alarm is tripped. You can use the access sensors for any other entry doors in the condo. If you only have two exterior doors, use the second access sensor to keep track of opening and closing of sensitive items like gun safes or medicine cabinets. There are many possibilities for your condo’s security, such as; setting up your motion sensor in the living room to monitor windows and doors, or using the door panel as a controller and mounting it on your counter or mantle. The Scout Small Pack is a cost-effective and smart choice to keep your condo safe and secure.
Single-Family Homes
Moving into a new house is an exciting milestone, but it’s important to consider the home security requirements that come with any new residence.
Unlike an apartment or condo, your house is solely your responsibility. There is no landlord or condo association to provide repairs when unforeseen damage occurs. As a homeowner, you need to consider all factors that can affect the safety of your home.
One of the ever-present dangers your house faces is the threat of burglary. You’ll want to make sure your home has multiple perimeter access sensors to alert you at the first sign of an intruder’s movements. With our Always On self monitoring plan, you can receive immediate notifications to your mobile device.Scout Alarm also offers 24/7 professional monitoring to keep your home protected at all times. With our Always On+ professional monitoring plan, you can set Scout to dispatch your local police department during an active alarm. This dispatch is critical to summon an emergency response in the early stages, before thieves can escape.
You should also be aware of the potential dangers caused by sliding glass doors and windows. Thieves can break through windows, skylights, glass doors, and other fragile entry points without opening them, allowing access without triggering a perimeter sensor. Once inside, they can burglarize your home, then exit the way they entered. With the Scout glass break sensor, you can monitor multiple panes of glass at once, making sure all sliding glass doors and windows stay intact and secure. The glass break sensor monitors for the sound and frequency of breaking glass, ensuring that the siren will sound as soon as the glass breaks. You’ll also receive notifications through the Scout Alarm app of glass breakage, letting you respond accordingly.
Conclusion
By now, you’ve learned that there are a variety of home security needs that arise from living in apartments, condos, and houses. At the end of the day, each residential space is different, and how you use Scout Alarm will not look the same as your neighbor. You can visit our online store to customize your own system, or reach out to our Customer Experience team with any questions. We want you to stay safe, no matter the size of your home!
