Smart Home, Safer Homes: Benefits of Integrating Detectors with your Security System
AAA Smart Home Security
Having smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors makes a vast difference in the protection of your home, as well as the safety of you and your loved ones. They give you a chance to escape potentially disastrous situations. Integrating smoke and CO detectors with your security system allows you to respond even quicker when seconds and minutes become precious during emergencies. You give yourself a better chance to combat unexpected dangers that don’t like to announce themselves upon arrival.
The Risks of Fire, Smoke, and Carbon Monoxide
As fast as fires can move, so too can the destruction they cause. According to 2022 data estimates from the U.S. Fire Administration, there were 374,000 residential fires that resulted in 2,720 deaths, 10,250 injuries, and more than $10 billion in damage that year. Certainly if you’ve seen the news in recent years, it’s apparent how a fire outbreak can quickly become catastrophic and heartbreaking. From 2021 through mid-2024, we witnessed five of the 20 biggest wildfires (by acreage) in U.S. history and all burned west of the Mississippi River.
The threat may not be as apparent with CO, but the poisonous gas you can’t see, smell, or hear is just as serious. CO is found in the fumes created by fuels in household appliances like dryers, stoves, ovens, and heaters. If they aren't well vented or a leak occurs, CO can build up to dangerous levels and start to replace oxygen in your red blood cells. As a result, CO poisoning unintentionally kills 400 people, hospitalizes 14,000, and sends more than 100,000 to emergency rooms annually in the U.S. per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Importance of Detectors
These harrowing statistics prove why it’s crucial to have smoke and CO detectors installed inside your home. Both detectors are recommended by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and should be installed on each level of your home, outside sleeping areas, tested monthly, and have batteries replaced annually. It’s also advised that smoke detectors be inside each bedroom on your property. Additionally, most U.S. states have laws on the books that require smoke and CO detectors be present in households.
Both detectors operate in similar fashion, with an embedded sensor sounding an alarm when elevated levels of either smoke or CO become present inside your home. With CO being invisible and odorless, this is really the only way to know if something has gone awry. Should your detectors go off, the National Fire Protection Association advises exiting your home for fresh air as quickly as possible and contacting emergency services.
Integrating Detection with Your Home Security System
Now what are you supposed to do in the event you cannot hear an alarm from the detectors because you’re asleep or maybe not even home? Connecting smoke and CO detectors with your security system becomes potentially life-changing in these events. Rather than those situations going unnoticed with dire consequences, you can jump into action by being alerted on your phone at all times, keeping tabs in robust apps, and even having emergency services called on your behalf.
Integrating your smoke and CO detectors delivers the comfort of peace of mind and around-the-clock monitoring, two key benefits listed by Staysafe.org, a resource hub dedicated to safety information. You can rest and/or travel easier knowing the things you care about the most — your family, pets, and home — are being looked after should an emergency arise.
Feeling that sense of protection is invaluable. So whether you are a current homeowner or looking to buy, make sure the home is equipped with all the necessary smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Then take that next step to integrate them with your security system to create an ultimate sense of security.
For more information on protecting your home and the people you love—and to review our FAQ—please visit AAA Smart Home Security on the web, or call (855) 900-9740, and be sure to ask for your free home security quote. AAA Members can also stop into their local AAA branch office to learn more.