How To Maintain Your Own Security System.

Having a security system whether its CCTV or an alarm system is essential to protecting your home or business,

What is as equally important is ensuring your security equipment is operating at its peak performance when you REALLY need it.

Here are 3 simple ways for you to service and maintain your own security system to ensure its peak performance;

Checking the time/date on your CCTV system

Ensuring the time and date on your CCTV system is so important for recovering footage from your CCTV system. If the time and date is out it can make sifting through your recorded footage very difficult in the event of an incident. To do this, Log into your CCTV system and follow the following steps;

1. Log into your CCTV system
2. Go to main menu
3. Go to system tab
4. Go to Time/Date
5. Check existing time/date within CCTV system against time/date on your smartphone
6. If time/date is correct, no further action is needed, if wrong change time/date to correct setting.

Checking your CCTV is Recording

Ensuring your CCTV is recording is essential to its performance. CCTV hard drives can encounter faults from time to time preventing your CCTV cameras from saving any footage they might encounter, so it is important to regularly check the ‘playback’ function of your CCTV system to ensure it is recording properly. To check this, preform the following steps;

1. Log into your CCTV system
2. Go to main menu
3. Go to ‘playback’
4. Look through the playback menu and ensure you can see footage being saved consistently through the past couple of days/weeks (most CCTV systems have a coloured bar to represent saved footage).
5. Pick any random day from your collected footage and play it. Ensure your footage has been saved clearly and smoothly.

Checking your alarm system

Ensuring your alarm system will operate in the event of a break in is one of the most important alarm maintenance tasks you can preform. To do this, all you need to do is the following steps;

1. Find your alarm’s zone listing, this will be a list of inputs that are connected to the alarm system (Motion sensors, reed switches, ect. This could be posted on your systems keypad or has been provided to you by your security installer)
2. Ensure all house occupants are out of the house are out of the house or aware of your alarm test.
3. Ensure all pets are secured outside
4. Arm your alarm system
5. After the exit timer has expired, walk through your home and trigger all zones on your input list. To trigger them preform the following

• Motion detectors: Walk past them until the LED light turns on 
• Reed switches: Open and close the doors where there is a reed switch installed

6. Ensure on your keypad that all zones numbers that you have installed are flashing. For example, if you have 6 zones numbers 1 to 6 should be flashing.
7. Ensure all internal/external sirens are working
8. If your alarm system is back to base ensure your alarm company calls you to advise an alarm. Ask your control room operator what zones have been triggered and match them to your zone list to ensure the control room has received all activations from your alarm system 
9. Disarm your alarm
10. If any zones have not triggered that are on your zone listing, contact your local security installer to fix the fault in the relevant input.