If you need a rapid getaway from the snow and cold, I want just a minute of your time. Today’s home security devices are well-prepared to protect your home whether you’re leaving for a snowy weekend or staying in warm climes for most of the season. But you have to know about them first.
Below, I’m covering the home security tricks I use when heading away, from handy smart thermostat settings to video doorbell checks (spoiler: make sure your battery is fully charged). These steps will help keep your home safe from trespassers and ready to handle issues even when you’re far away.
Read more: My One Must-Do Smart Home Tip When I’m Going on Vacation — That Everyone Forgets
Set up Away or Vacation modes
A key tool for keeping watch on your house: video doorbells.
Video doorbells excel at keeping an eye on the action, and their algorithms are getting consistently better at detecting humans and other objects. Companies like Eufy are even working on motion detection that can identify suspicious behavior like dodging main pathways and can look for poor security.
However, the motion detection that works best in your daily life isn’t always the kind of detection that works when you’re on vacation. We suggest visiting the doorbell and home camera apps to look at your motion detection settings. Consider steps like:
- Turning up motion detection sensitivity
- Set object detection to only humans to cut down on alerts
- Set detection zones to close-up spots at your house and windows where people may try to get access
- Turn up beeps or light indicators that show a camera is on and watching
- Set notification to push to your phone screen instead of staying only within the app
- Look for web app options, like Nest’s support for online viewing and controls, which is ideal for overseas vacations
Additionally, if you pay for a subscription plan, check if it supports 24/7 emergency assistance contact so you can immediately call the police or fire department from an alert. It may be worth upgrading to that type of plan if you’ll be gone for a month or two.
Finally, Batten security expert Kirk MacDowell also mentioned checking that the lenses on all your home security cameras are clean. If it’s been a long, dirty winter you should gently clean off video doorbells and cams so they have the clearest view when you’re away.
Keep your curtains open or automated
To keep your home looking lived in, it’s a good idea to have your curtains open during vacations (and it lets the sun in to keep things from getting musty). Or if you have smart curtains or smart shades — which are also available as a retrofit for existing curtains — you can program them. Create a schedule for them to open during the day and close at night for best effect. Smart blinds like these don’t have to be expensive: Even Ikea has an affordable version.
Manage remote entry with a smart lock
Ecobee offers a dedicated vacation mode for its smart thermostat.
Smart thermostats from Nest, Ecobee and others also have Eco and Away modes you can use to set up separate vacation schedules. Ecobee also has a dedicated Vacation mode in its thermostat settings you can use just for this.
The best temperature range varies by season but should be less than you schedule while you’re home. For summer, that would mean setting the thermostat 5 to 10 degrees higher in the day, but with a hard cap around 80 to 85 degrees to protect indoor plants and so on. For winter, aim for the reverse with a hard cap around 50 degrees for the daytime.
That temperature calculus changes if you have pets in a hot climate. You’ll want to keep the home more comfortable by limiting the temperature ranges somewhere in the mid to upper 70s for cooling and around 60 for heating.
Set up a “listening” service like Alexa Emergency Assist
Kangaroo includes a climate sensor, aka leak detector, in its expanded eight-piece home monitoring kit.
A leak detector is a clever little device with an open circuit lying against the floor. When water completes that circuit, it sets off all sorts of alarm bells and app notifications letting you know there’s a leak present. That makes them valuable when you’re away from home for extended periods of time. Stick them by the toilet, under the kitchen sink, next to the water heater or under pipes that may be in danger of freezing during a winter vacation.
Leak detectors are available as an add-on for most home security systems, but you can also find standalone versions like Eufy’s $35 model (requires a HomeBase) or the Alexa-compatible Kidde Leak Detector starting at $45. We suggest these models because they work with apps, which is important when you’ll be away from home entirely.
Tell your home monitoring center you’ll be gone
If you do splurge for professional home monitoring, look up their website and find a contact email or phone number to let them know that you’ll be on vacation. Many home monitoring centers will adjust their official responses when they know that everyone is going to be away from home.
Give your mail service a call (optional)
Calling the post office used to be a go-to step when leaving for vacation. And if your vacay is going to be longer than a week or so, we still highly recommend messaging your local mail service and requesting to hold your mail. It’s really easy to do and you can complete the steps online in a couple of minutes.
However, we aren’t getting as much mail these days as we once did, and it’s harder than ever for strangers to notice when someone’s mail is piling up. If you’re only going to be gone for several business days or say, you can probably skip this step safely.
