Driveway Sensor Alarms

If you are looking for a way to increase the security around your home you should definitely look into driveway sensor alarms. These alarms can be used both to increase security by giving early warning of unexpected visitors, and to enhance your response and welcome to those that you are expecting.

When you are going into your local grocery store you deal with sensor technology without even knowing it.

When approaching the entrance or exit from a modern grocery store, the doors automatically open to allow shoppers to enter or exit without having to use their hands, which may be pushing carts, pushing buggies or carrying bags of groceries.

The stores are using a radar transmitter that bounces radio waves off of the floor in front of the door and records the amount of time it takes for the signal to return. Driveway sensor alarms employ the same basic approach to determine when someone enters your driveway.

When you are getting your driveway alarms installed, you will probably want to put them where your driveway meets the streets. This has been proven as the most strategic and effective location to alert you when automobiles or pedestrians enter your drive.

Sensor alarms can also be employed to warn you when your child goes near your pool, or an intruder enters your garage, tool shed, garden shed or summerhouse. Alarms can be positioned to alert you if someone tampers with, or approaches your parked motor home or boat.

There are two broad types of driveway sensor systems to choose from: Active and Passive. Passive driveway alarms only require hardware to sit on one side of the driveway. These sensor alarms take continuous measurements of the thermal profile of the driveway and alarm when the profile changes abruptly.

The other type, active sensor alarms, require installing components on both sides of the driveway, with one component being the transmitter and the other serving as the driveway sensor alarm's receiver or reflector.

Some driveway security alarm systems will trigger an alert with all movement whether by vehicles, human intruders, large animals and even quite small pets.

Other systems can be adjusted to ignore your pets, and small wildlife such as foxes, and so cut down on false alarms. There are systems that use metal detection technology and will only alert you about approaching vehicles, needless to say these systems will not detect prowlers. Also, there are updated versions of the old gas station hose alert, again these are not much help in warning of human intruders.

Many driveway alarm systems have a volume control so that you may set the volume to the level that suits you, often the means to vary the duration of the alarm signal is also provided. Models are available that emit a choice of siren, buzzer or chimes.

Some sensor alarm units offer the facility to record your own message and so be warned of intruders in your own voice. You can even record different messages for different areas. You could have one sensor set up with a message alerting you to a vehicle moving up your driveway and another set to warn you of movement in your back garden.

Many common driveway sensor alarms use radio waves in a manner similar to the grocery store example mentioned earlier. With this technology, sensor alarms are set up, and when the radio waves sense movement the system is activated. In addition to radio waves, light and ultrasonic sound may be used in driveway security alarms.

Owners of some sensor units report problems with direct sunlight triggering false alarms. These problems can usually be overcome however, by giving the unit some shade perhaps by placing it in a birdhouse.

Regardless of the technology involved, driveway security alarms serve one common purpose; to alert you of suspicious activity. Depending on how the driveway sensors are wired, alarming might mean turning on outside lights, notifying individuals inside via a beep or prerecorded message, or putting other security measures into action. The type of alarm is up to you, and many can be customized to meet your needs.

Some driveway sensor alarms even go so far as to alert local authorities in the event of a driveway intrusion. Such driveway sensor alarms are going out of style however, since most local police departments have more important duties to attend to than rushing to a residence every time a false alarm occurs.

Home security is an increasingly important issue. Whereas most home security systems will only alert you if somebody is trying to enter your house, driveway sensor alarms provide a valuable time cushion by alerting homeowners as soon as someone enters your property.

If you own a business, you may want to utilize sensor alarms to detect when a customer is entering the premises. This can be useful for security reasons, but is more often used to ensure fast and efficient customer service, such as for fast food restaurants that need to know the moment a customer enters the drive through line.

Driveway alarms can be used in a number of different situations, and have been proven successful time and time again. If you are looking for some added security, or a simple detection device, you will definitely want to consider driveway sensor alarms.

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