Driveway Alarm.A vehicle is approaching your house. Why ? Is it unexpected? A driveway alarm can give you vital seconds warning, and forewarned is forearmed. Expecting a party of guests? If you are alerted as soon as they pull onto your drive you can be there at your door ready to greet them. Expecting a package delivery? Know when the courier arrives on your property so you don't get left with a call back card. A night time prowler in the grounds of your home? Be alerted of his presence before he even attempts to break into your house. You no doubt have many security measures in place to deter the burglar from breaking into your house. But if in addition, you have a degree of perimeter security installed you are protecting your family before intruders, or home invaders, even reach your house. A driveway alarm will provide you with perimeter security. Types of Driveway Alert Systems.The advantage of choosing a metal detecting driveway alarm is that it will only alert you of a moving vehicle on your drive. You will not be bothered by false alarms triggered by animals, either your pets or wildlife. The obvious disadvantage is a metal detecting alarm will not warn you of intruders approaching on foot. A motion sensing alarm on the other hand will alert you to all movement, both vehicular and pedestrian. The slight disadvantage with these systems is that some false alarms can be expected, but these can be kept to a minimum by mounting the device high enough to ignore smaller animals but still detect passing humans. Another option is an old fashion 'air hose' alert, like the ones that used to be found at every gas station. When a vehicle rolled over the air hose a bell sounded and the attendant was alerted that there was a customer waiting. Modern versions of these alert systems are available, but instead of employing compressed air, these systems use wireless technology. You lay the rubber hose out across your driveway and when a vehicle drives over it a signal is transmitted to the receiver. The attraction of 'air hose' driveway alerts is that they are comparatively inexpensive to purchase and very easy to install. A few downsides are that some of these systems are affected by snow and also a hose type driveway warning alarm needs a drive with a hard surface, it cannot operate on a gravel drive. Some people are put off by the fact that a hose across your driveway is not very discrete. Hardwired or Wireless Driveway Alarm?Most models of hardwired driveway alerts employ a probe buried close to the drive. These probes detect any interruption of a magnetic field, such as when a metallic object such as a vehicle passes by. Hardwired driveway warning alarms require some installation but this is mostly burying the cable, which may have to be buried in a conduit, so it is not too difficult a task. A wireless driveway alert is simple to install. Most wireless alerts use passive infrared transmitters (PIR,) that detect movement and send an alarm signal to the receiver unit. The wireless transmitter, which should be completely weatherproof, is affixed in a suitable position, such as on a fence post or a tree, and can be camouflaged if desired. The receiver plugs into a standard wall outlet and alerts you with a chime or siren when movement is detected by the transmitter. Get More From Your Driveway Alarm.If you need more than one alert activation point, (you may have more than one drive leading to your home, or have another area of your property that you wish to protect,) you can install additional transmitters that send their signal to the same receiver. With many systems you are able to set a different chime for each transmitter so you know where the intruder, or unexpected visitor, is located.
As an alternative to a chime, or siren, sounding when your driveway alarm is triggered, some systems allow you to record your own warning messages. You can record a different warning for each transmitter. “Movement on driveway!” “Activity in patio area” etc. A driveway alarm will prove a worthwhile addition to the defense of your home. © copyright surveillanceforsecurity.com
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