Do You Really Need A Garage Door Monitor?
Believe it or not, your garage is a weak point in your home’s overall security profile; with a garage door monitor, you can make your home just a little safer, and give yourself peace of mind. Besides the risk of an unknown person accessing your home, keeping a garage door open in an attached garage represents a huge loss of home heating. With this simple device, your home can be safer – and also more energy efficient.
Do you find yourself asking your kids, partner, or (most often) yourself, “Did you close the garage door?” It’s one of those nagging thoughts, not unlike wondering if you turned the coffee pot off before you left the house for the morning. The great news is, for very little money you can purchase a garage door monitor that can report the status of your garage door to you instantly, whether you are upstairs in bed, or across town at work.
Technology has advanced to help in every aspect of life, and your handy garage door monitor is no different. With the convenience of a single click, you can get a report of the status of your garage door. Some can even close your garage door remotely with the click of a button.
Installation of your garage door monitor is quite simple, as easy as installing the sensor on your garage door, and either installing the handheld monitoring device at a location in your home, or carrying this small device with you around the house, in a purse, or a briefcase. Although you most likely won’t need to check your monitor frequently, when you do, you’ll be glad you have it!
If carrying a garage door monitor doesn’t seem convenient to you, your ideal monitoring solution may already be in your hand. Using the same smartphone technology used for long-distance car starters, you can use your iPhone or Android phone as a garage door monitor. The garage is monitored and controlled through the use of an Arduino (ar-DWEE-no) controller – a type of programmable board that allows the used to hook up one or more components to carry out certain tasks. In this case, the Arduino controller communicates with the application and your garage door motor to close the door from anywhere in the world. Even more convenient, you can use your controller to open the garage door should you ever lock yourself out, or if you need to let someone into the house when you are not home.
While it may at first seem frivolous to install a piece of hardware simply to serve as a garage door monitor, think about the last time you found yourself upstairs and unable to remember if you closed the garage when you arrived home earlier. Even more helpful, think of the last time you turned around on your way to work, just to check and make sure the house was secured before you left for the day. While the small investment may seem like something you could live without, the next time you find yourself wondering, “did I remember?” you’ll be convinced that a garage door monitor makes a great, and very inexpensive investment.