With winter quickly approaching in many parts of the country, it’s important to keep home safety in mind. The colder months of the year present their own unique challenges. Below, you’ll find some tips to keep you safe.

Keep Up Appearances: When you go away on vacation to some sunny spot, don’t forget to arrange to have your driveway plowed. If it’s completely snowed over, criminals will be much more likely to target your home.

Start Your Vacation By Setting Your Alarm: In the rush to pack and make a flight, even the most responsible homeowner can forget to set his or her ADT home alarm system. Take an extra second to stop and double-check.

Beware the Cold: The weather can do severe damage to your home. When a frozen pipe bursts, the results can be disastrous. Likewise, snow piled on top of your roof could cause a collapse, risking not only damage to your property but hazard to your family as well.

Be aware this winter. With a few simple but important considerations, you can help to ensure that your home and family will make it through to the warmer months without a problem.

Spring, summer, fall, and winter each bring unique challenges to homeowners when it comes to home security and maintaining the safety of the family. As the seasons shift, it’s important to take nMaintaining Home Safety as the Weather Changesote of the changing conditions, and take the appropriate actions to combat the ill effects of Mother Nature. Below, you’ll find some information about each season’s potential hazards, as well as some ways that you can bolster your home security.

Spring: Spring brings extreme vegetation growth, and tall grasses can pop up within weeks of that first thaw. This can serve as camouflage for burglars doing recon for an easy entry point. Uncut grass is also a sure sign of an empty home, so you’ll want to be certain to have someone mow, especially if you plan on going on vacation.

Summer: Summer is a great time to take a vacation, and you’re not the only one who knows it. Potential intruders love the August and September, as folks across the nation head out of town for one last gasp of summer. An ADT alarm system is your best against burglars looking to breach your home security.

You’ll also want to be sure to stay hydrated and wear sunscreen; don’t forget that home security is applicable both inside of the home and out.

Fall: The fall can bring nasty weather to many parts of the United States, and in particular, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Don’t wait until the last second to figure out your options in the event of a hurricane or tornado. Instead, have a family action plan in place so that you’ll be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Winter: That beautiful, fluffy stuff that’s coming down in sheets? It can represent a real hazard to your home security. Snow piled two or three feet high on a roof puts immense stress on the structural integrity of the your home, and can result in an expensive (and potentially tragic) collapse. And don’t forget that a driveway left unplowed while you’re on vacation is like a neon sign to burglars.

Each distinct season requires special consideration when it comes to home safety. Take the time to prepare, and help your family remain protected 365 days a year.

As a homeowner, you want to create the most secure environment possible for your loved ones and valuable possessions.  Rising crime rates, medical emergencies and other home hazards can threaten that sense of security.  How, then, can a comprehensive security solution be achieved?  The best option is through a home security system such as those provided by ADT.  ADT home alarm systems provide the security backbone that you need, with additional peripherals available for additional protection.

For instance, even the basic system comes with professional installation, which ensures that the system is setup correctly from the very beginning.  Add to that professional monitoring through the nation’s largest monitoring network and you begin to see just how comprehensive this solution is. The control panel offers two-way communications through a speaker phone for direct contact with the monitoring company and has a battery backup capable of powering the system for hours in the event of a power outage.

The wireless sensors with this ADT alarm can be installed where most convenient and important.  Additionally, the system can be expanded as your needs change, allowing this single security solution to grow with your family. This system is not only a burglar alarm; it provides much more security than that.  For instance, you can include carbon monoxide detectors to enhance your family’s safety.  You can also install freeze detectors near vulnerable piping and flood detectors near areas vulnerable to water accumulation.  These are only a couple of the options that are available to help you find the safety and security that you need.

ADT alarm systems also offer other options that make them perfect for any family in the US.  Many families are choosing not to have a landline telephone; opting, instead, to use cell phones.  ADT systems can be configured so that they communicate with the monitoring company through cellular networks.  This can be either a backup communications method, or the primary means of communications.  That means that any homeowner can have the security system that they need to have peace of mind.

There are also options that enable the elderly to have peace of mind, such as panic buttons and long range speaker phone capabilities.  If someone is injured in the home, simply pressing the button will alert the monitoring company, which will then contact the home as well as emergency services.

While all of the options offered make this a great solution, the 24 hour monitoring service is perhaps the best perk of all.  Only with a fully monitored security system can you actually attain the security that you need.  Unmonitored systems may be lower priced; however, they do nothing to alert authorities to threats in your home.  A professionally monitored system, on the other hand, can alert the police, fire department or emergency services depending on what situation is occurring.

Finding the peace of mind that you need in this modern world is much easier than many people think. All it takes is a professional partner with a dedication to quality service and customer care.

ADT Security Services announced recently that Greenville, S.C.-based Furman University has become one of the first institutional customers to begin using Select Link – ADT’s new emergency communications system capable of simultaneously sending thousands of voice or text messages to cell phones, computers, PDAs and digital pagers.

ADT Select Link was created for organizations that need to alert large numbers of people to emergency situations. It requires no software or system installation and accepts message input from an Internet-connected computer or any telephone. The messages are instantly delivered in up to 10 languages. Following the August 2008 approval of a federal bill requiring college campuses to immediately notify students and staff of “significant emergencies” on campus, Furman took steps to implement the new system.

According to Furman’s director of the Department of Public Safety, Robert Miller, Select Link was chosen for its short activation time, easy operation under duress, easy maintenance and management, and its compatibility with cell phones, emails, pagers and text messaging. Miller said he also wanted something that could not be hacked or jammed.

Furman plans to use Select Link to notify students, faculty and staff of emergency situations, such as dangerous conditions on campus, severe weather and school and road closings, Miller said.

To ensure every message is delivered, Select Link automatically verifies and records the receipt of each message. If it encounters a busy signal or no answer, the system repeatedly calls the number until the message is delivered.

Innovative systems like Select Link are just another reason why ADT has become America’s No. 1 security company.

While everyone seems to assume that they could never become the victim of a burglary, those who work at home seem to be more susceptible to this assumption than others. Telecommuters increasingly seem to fall victim to the idea that because they are home during the day, their homes cannot be burglarized and that they will never become the victims of a home invasion. As numbers are proving; however, this is not the case.

Statistics indicate that burglars enter a home approximately every 14 seconds. Furthermore, 60% of all burglaries actually occur while a home is occupied. Nearly 40% of all robberies are committed by someone with a firearm.

The good news is that at least 85% of all home invasions could be prevented – and a quality home alarm system could be your best defense. Without one, you are potentially putting yourself in harm’s way.

Increasingly, there are numerous businesses who are allowing their employees to work from home. There are also a large number of entrepreneurs who are choosing to operate their businesses from the comfort of their own homes. It is important to recognize that just because you happen to be working from home; that does not mean that you and your home are immune to a burglary.

The sad truth is that home invasions are becoming the method of choice among burglars who clearly do not care whether a home is occupied when they decide to strike. Even if you think that you live in a fairly safe neighborhood, you could very well become the next person on your block to become the victim of a home invasion.

The risks of a burglary when you are at home as opposed to away from home are much more serious. While a burglar might just take your belongings if you are away, when you are at home, the risk of injury greatly increases.

When a home invasion occurs, the possibility of a confrontation occurring escalates rapidly. In addition, the odds of the occupants of the home being injured or even killed increases as well since the burglar is typically armed. That is what is so frightening about these types of crimes. If you happen to be at home when a burglar strikes, the possibility of assault, injury, rape and death is always present.

According to statistics, burglars have a window of opportunity of just two minutes when they are attempting to break into your home. The ability to delay a burglar for two minutes provides a very good chance that the burglar will simply move on. A home alarm system can provide you with the critical time you need to ensure that a burglar remains on the other side of your door. Home alarms with live monitoring provide even more reassurances regarding the safety of your property and your family.

While telecommuting certainly offers a number of advantages, it is important to recognize that just because you work from home it does not protect you from becoming a victim of a home invasion. Protect your possessions and your family with a home alarm system.

When it comes to choosing a home security system, a number of factors must be considered. These systems are designed to protect a family, the home, and the home’s personal property. As you can imagine, home security alarms come in a variety of types, making the choice process daunting. The best option is to determine the reason you want the home alarm system in the first place so making the right choice becomes much easier.

Typically, price will have a lot to do with choosing the proper alarm for your home. For some people, budget is an issue. In this case, it would be beneficial to do homework first, getting information from a number of reputable companies prior to choosing. Now, if budget is not an issue, then you could look at just about any system you want. Remember, in addition to the basic alarm system, they come with features too, which would have an impact on price.

It is also important to choose a system that will scare off an intruder if that were your concern. In this scenario, you could look at home alarm systems that feature strobe lights and sirens. Obviously, the benefit is that once a window or door has been entered, the system would engage, alerting the local police and/or fire department, as well as notifying the intruder that he or she is going to be caught. In most cases, the siren and strobe light is enough to scare the individual away.

Then, you will need to consider the various features that come with alarm systems. For instance, you might want an alarm with an inside motion sensor. In this case, should an intruder get inside, the motion detector would set the alarm off and call for help. Then, there are glass-breaking detectors that would know anytime glass were broken, again calling the local authorities. Another great option is the weight pad, which is placed in front of a door. When stepped on, the alarm is sounded.

Of course, you want to work with a reputable monitoring company. Unfortunately, people have spent good money on a top system only to have it fail because of the alarm company itself. The company should provide 24-hour monitoring so if the alarm is activated, you would have confidence of help being sent. Luckily ADT is the nations oldest and most trusted security monitoring company. Additionally, a good home alarm company would make a follow up call immediately after the alarming going off to make sure everybody is safe.

Choosing a the proper system can be challenging but again, start by thinking of the reason the system is needed first. From there, you should do some comparison-shopping so you can view a number of different systems, features, and prices. Once you have narrowed your choices down, you can then select a company but only after checking credentials and references. With the right home alarm system in place, you will sleep better, feel more confident while on vacation, and overall have more peace for you and your family.