Learning To Use Your Home Alarm System

Homeowners are installing home alarm systems by the bunches. Each day there are hundreds, if not thousands of people purchasing and installing an alarm system. One main problem, however, is that many people do not take the time to learn to use their home alarm system. They think that once it’s installed and they know how to arm it and disarm they’ll be good to go. But there are many different things you can do with your home alarm system that you may not have been aware of, or you might not even know how to use the basic operations on your wireless alarm system.

Today we’re going to go over a few different aspects of learning to use your home alarm system.

Arming Your Alarm System

Arming your home alarm system is pretty straightforward. There are usually two main “modes” in which you can arm your system. One is the “stay” and the other is “away”. On the Simon XT Control Panel there are two buttons in which you can use to arm your alarm system, and many Control Panel use this same method. On the Simon XT there is the “Doors/Windows” button and the “Motions” button. If you choose the former, you will arm all of your door and window sensors while leaving your motion sensors disarmed. This is mainly used for when you are home. If you hit the “motions” button you will arm your entire system, this is generally used when you are away from the home. With newer technology such as interactive alarm monitoring you can even arm your system on your smartphone, tablet, computer or using a keychain device.

Disarming Your Alarm System

Disarming your alarm system is also very straightforward. On most Control Panel’s there is simply a “disarm” button. You push the disarm button, enter your four digit pin number and all of your alarm system equipment will be disarmed. You can also use your smartphone or a keychain device to disarm the system without using the Control Panel.

Calling For Help When Your System Is Disarmed

If you have a fire, medical or police emergency at your home you can use one the three “Panic” buttons on the Control Panel. There is normally a panic button for the police, one for medical, and one for the fire department. If you are in need of help you can push one of these buttons and the proper authority will be sent out to your home. You can also use a keychain device or a dedicated panic pendant to call for help as well. If you recently purchased a do it yourself alarm system and are thinking of where to place the Control Panel it’s always best to have it in an easily accessible location in your home.

Arming Sensors Individually

Sometimes you want your door and window sensors armed, but may want the back door to be disarmed while you do some yard work. Or maybe you want the downstairs motion sensor on but all the others off. If you have a wireless alarm system this is very simple to do. Using the Control Panel’s navigation menu or the “bypass” button you can go through and arm and disarm sensors individually, allowing you to have whichever sensors on or off at any time.

Setting Up A Silent Alarm

If you would rather have the alarm be silent rather than have the siren go off you can turn off the siren easily without affecting the rest of the alarm system. On most Control Panel’s there is a button that says “silent”. This should nullify the siren on your system but will still allow your system to function as normal.

These are just a few of the fairly basic functions you can use with your home alarm system. While some of you may have already been aware or how to perform these functions you would be surprised how many people don’t know how to use their alarm system properly or to its full potential. Sometimes there is a lot more to an alarm system than meets the eye and it’s good to know how to use one.

If you want to learn more about your alarm system or certain alarm system functions we suggest contacting your alarm system company. Because there are many different types of wireless alarm systems out there you may have a few tweaks to what we described above, although most alarm systems these days have simliar functionality.

You can also learn more about alarm system and alarm system companies by reading our alarm system reviews.