This is part of a sponsored content series written in partnership with Piper
With summer here and much needed vacations on the horizon, have you thought about how you will secure your home while you’re away? Often times home security takes a back seat to planning your getaway, packing for your adventures, and travel logistics but summer travel leaves your home vulnerable to break-ins, robberies and more.
Home security used to mean double checking doors and windows to ensure that they’re locked, putting lights on timers to make it look like you’re home, canceling the paper, holding the mail, and asking a neighbor to come by every once and awhile. While these things are still important, technological advances in the field of home monitoring allow us to check in on our homes easily to provide peace of mind that everything is ok. But just because the technology exists doesn’t mean we use it.
The just-released Summer Travel Survey from Piper revealed that despite the plethora of home monitoring systems on the market, only 19% of summer travelers will monitor their homes via security system this summer and a small 1.6% of the 1038 individuals surveyed use a security camera to keep an eye on their home while away. Other surprising findings include that 37% trust their safety to door and window locks while 45% have no plans to check in on their homes at all!
The Piper Summer Travel Survey also revealed what we would like to do if we could access our home on vacation:
- 39% of us would like to see our homes
- 27% would turn on lights to deter burglars
- 11% would check to see if the door is locked
- 11% would check for packages
- 7% would turn off the heat or air conditioning
- 6% would check to see if the lights and the stove were turned off
Read the other findings from The Piper Summer Safety Survey on the Piper blog.
Guess what? Piper technology that allows you to do all of those things!
Since last November our family has been using Piper Classic ($199) as a tool for home automation and security. Not only does the Piper unit allow us to look into our homes to see if we turned off the lights and the stove, but we’ve set rules to make it our home security system. Our Door/Window Sensors ($49.95) not only alert us when a door or window is left open but we set different rules to turn on a light, record video, send a text message, or sound the Piper’s built-in siren. When certain Door/Window Sensors around the house realize that the two parts of the unit have been separated by movement, the preset rule alerts us that something is wrong while deterring intruders. We also use accessories such as the Z-Wave Smart Switch ($49.95) that allow us to plug in lamps that we can turn on and off according to a pre-set schedule or on-demand via the Piper App.
For those that want to check the interior temperature of the home, Piper can help! Piper’s smartphone app also has a dashboard where you can view your home’s vital statistics through a screen showing the last 24 hours of indoor and outdoor temperature, indoor humidity, light, sound, and motion. Additional Piper units can be set up around the home as your family’s needs change and grow. You can even add a unit to peek into your kitchen to make sure your stove is off!
Introducing Piper nv
While at South by Southwest in March, I saw the new Piper nv ($279) and was instantly smitten. Piper nv does all the things that Piper Classic does but features night vision technology, enhanced HD resolution, and a 3.4 MP camera, an improvement over Piper Classic’s 2.0 MP one. Piper nv expands your capabilities to check on your home around the clock but provides better resolution images.
As you consider your home security and monitoring options as you prepare for your summer vacation, you’ll want to come back to read my thoughts on Piper nv. We’ve added it to our Piper system and while the two look very similar side by side (both Piper Classic and Piper nv come in black and white to match any decor), we’re excited about expanding our system to further increase our home monitoring and automation abilities with this second device.
You’ll want to read my review in a couple weeks because you’ll have a chance to enter to win one for your home!
While most people think something as simple as leaving a light on will deter the bad guys, Piper understands that keeping a home secure takes more than just 60 watts and wants to help you keep your home, belongings, and family safe.
For more information about Piper, visit their website, follow them on Twitter or Facebook, or read my past posts:
- Why Piper is More Than a Home Security System: Exciting Platform, Different Functions, Attractive Package & Affordably Priced
- My Family’s Experiences with Piper as a Tool for Home Automation and Security
I was compensated for taking the time to evaluate Piper but all opinions are my own.
