Home Security Gadgets & Reviews

When you think of fire escapes, you may think of those big metal ladders going up the side of apartment buildings. They’re a good idea if you live on the second or higher floor of a big building, right? But what if you live in a two-story house?

It makes sense to consider residential fire escape ladders too. These aren’t traditionally big clunky permanent structures such as you see on apartment buildings. They’re collapsible ladders that can simply be thrust out the window in an emergency. Then you and your family members just climb down to safety.

When you’re not using them, the ladders usually tuck into little boxes at the base of the windows on the inside. Just consider the box a bit of extra shelf space (it’s easy enough to knock objects off when you need to get to the ladder).

If you do get a ladder, make sure everyone in the family knows how to use it and has practiced. You may not be able to reach your kids to help them in an actual fire emergency.

Prices start around $70 (going up for higher than second story houses).

Home video surveillance used to be an expensive proposition, but the prices have really come down on security cameras, and you can even get a wireless internet security camera that is a snap to install (if you can plug in a USB cable and click a few buttons, you can install one).

The Panasonic wireless camera shown here can be used as a nany cam (watch how your babysitter interacts with your kids when you’re not home), as part of a security system (while it’s also good to have a burglar alarm that will call the cops if anyone trespasses, a camera can be a great way to catch an image of the thief), or even to make sure your pets aren’t getting into trouble! (The description of this camera at Amazon actually totes its uses for monitoring pets.)

In the past, security cameras have just recorded video onto a VHS tape that you could watch when you got home. With an internet camera, it’s a whole different story. You can access the feed live from your PC at work or an internet cafe across the world. You can even check in on an internet-enabled cell phone! That’s one of the great benefits of a wireless internet security camera, as compared to a traditional video surveillance system. The ability to check in any time from anywhere and watch a live feed makes it really valuable.

This Panasonic wireless internet security camera is less than $300 at Amazon. As long as you have a broadband network at home (most internet cameras won’t work with dial-up), you shouldn’t need to get any additional hardware to make this puppy work.

Panasonic Wireless 802.11 b/g Network Camera

It’s that time of year when kids head back to school, and if you have a son or daughter going off to college for the first time, you may worry about his or her security on campus. It might not be possible to give the gift of absolute safety, but you can at least educate your children (and yourself!) on personal security.

I just read Street Smarts, Firearms, And Personal Security : Jim Grover’s Guide To Staying Alive And Avoiding Crime In The Real World , and it’s definitely a good resource.

If you are worried about your kids being off on their own, knowing they have read this book (and are putting the tactics into practice) should make you feel more comfortable. Of course, this isn’t the kind of gift that will excite them probably, but hey you can always tape it to a new iPod.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that burglars don’t like to break into homes with well-lit yards. Why would they ply their trade in a lighted area where they might be spotted when there’s a home down the street with a nice dark yard?

Running your outdoor lights all night is a big power drain though, and you will see the cost reflected in your monthly energy bill. That’s why hooking your lights up to motion sensors makes a lot of sense. This way, the lights only go on when someone approaches the house. Using a motion sensor can save a lot of money, since the light is programmed to only stay on for a certain amount of time after the movement stops. There’s no need to leave the lights on all night.

This ActiveEye indoor/outdoor motion sensor from X10 can actually be used in your home as well as outdoors. If you’ve ever dreamed of having the lights come on when you enter a room (especially helpful in those oddly wired rooms where the switch isn’t next to the door), then you can achieve that with this product. At $30, it isn’t a big investment either.

ActiveEye Motion Sensor

I’m not one to advocate putting fake security company stickers on the windows in hopes of fooling burglars into thinking you have a high speed, professional alarm system installed, but I can certainly understand the allure of paying $3 for some stickers instead of $3,000 for a full-fledged home security system.

If you’re concerned about home security but money is tight, you can get stickers like these from Amazon.com for a couple dollars. I’m not sure how well they actually work, but it is a proven fact that burglars want the easy jobs (who wants to get caught and go to jail and who wants to work harder than necessary?), so if they see these stickers, they may leave your home alone and target a less likely house down the street. If you go for the window stickers, do at least invest in good doors and door and window locks to help protect yourself (and present a solid front for the enemy).

4-Pack of Intermatic Window Stickers

When you’re considering security lighting options for your home, you don’t just want to think about keeping burglars away from your yard; you want to think about home safety. The outside of your house should be well lit so friends and family will not hurt themselves when coming home after dark. Important areas to light are pathways and driveways (driveway lights are great for protecting the lawn on either side of the borders). Driveway lights can be a pain to install, though, since most require underground wiring be run from a power soure at the house to each individual light. But today you can get solar driveway lights that can be installed without much effort.

With solar driveway lights, you basically just stick them into the ground and set up the solar module, which collects energy throughout the day and uses it to power LEDs inside the lamps at night.

The lights shown here are a snap to install. They can be purchased at Shades of Light for $65 a piece. Available colors are red, amber, and white.

Shades of Light

It’s not often that you say, “Check out that bad boy” when you’re talking about smoke detectors, but this sleek unit might prompt you to utter those words.

The Jacon Jensen smoke alarm looks a lot more interesting than your usual round, white unit. It’s functional as well as stylish: “It is an ionising smoke detector which reacts rapidly to fast growing and especially hot fires.”

Runs on a single 9-volt battery.

From Questo Design.

If you’ve always thought it was neat when guests came to apartment complexes or condos and pressed the intercom to talk to the homeowner and be let in, now that’s something you can achieve in your own home.

The Doorbell Fon Door Answering System from SmartHome hooks into your doorbell. When the button is pressed, the system rings the phones in your house with a distinctive ring. Just pick up the phone, and you can find out who’s at the door without even leaving the room. If friends are at the door, tell them to let themselves in, and if it’s a salesman, tell him to take a hike.

SmartHome also sells a kit that you can hook up in addition to the Doorbell Fon, which allows you to press star to unlock your door. Just the answering system shown here is $150.

Doorbell Fon Door Answering System