Winter weather can cause a lot of wear and tear on your home. Windstorms can blow part of your roof off, hail can break your windows, and incessant rain can flood your basement. But assuming you have all of this covered, there’s another important aspect to the winter months that you need to take into account when mapping out your home security system: cold. If you live in areas where sudden drops in temperature can cause freezing overnight, your home is at risk of frozen pipes – and subsequent breaks and leaks – unless you have a temperature sensor built into your home security system.
Even if you want to save money on heating, when it’s really cold is not the time to do it. You need to keep the living area around the pipes warm to prevent them from freezing up. If your property includes outlying buildings such as stables, kennels, or guesthouses, you need to make sure that the plumbing is protected there, too. If you have heating installed in those buildings, turn it up. If you don’t, you’ll need to take other precautions to make sure the pipes don’t freeze, such as putting heat lamps on the main water supply and covering all connections to the open air so they’re not immediately affected by the cold.
But what do you do if all of this good advice comes too late and you’ve just woken up to frozen pipes? First of all, check your heating. Oftentimes, if a pilot light has gone out, you can react quickly enough to prevent damage. Next, open the faucets and wait for the water to start running again. Once it does, check thoroughly for any leaks in the pipes. If you find any, make repairs immediately. It’s clear that even one night of severe cold can cost you a lot of money in repairs.
However, investing in a home security system app that allows you to remotely monitor the temperature of your home and outlying buildings can help you avert trouble. This way, all you have to do is check your smart phone or laptop to see how the temperature in any part of your property is. If it’s too low, you can take action immediately. In addition, you might want to install a flood sensor to alert you to any water damage that may occur as a result of broken pipes. Even one cold snap can mean days of heated tempers if your home security system isn’t up to warning you when the temperature drops.
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