Hurricane Season and Your Security System: What to Check Before the Storm
Every year we get the same calls the week after a storm. Cameras offline, alarm panel beeping, recorder that will not boot. Most of it is preventable with an hour of work before the season gets serious.
Know what happens when the power goes out
Your alarm panel has a backup battery, and it will hold for a number of hours, not days. Your cameras and recorder usually have nothing unless someone put them on a battery backup. If you want cameras running through an outage, they need a UPS sized for the load, and the internet equipment needs to be on it too. A recorder running on battery with a dead modem is recording locally and showing you nothing on your phone.
Check the alarm battery
Panel batteries last a few years and then quietly stop holding a charge. If your panel has been reporting low battery and everyone has learned to ignore the beep, that is the one to handle now.
Protect the recorder
A surge through the power line or the coax will take out a recorder. So will heat. If your NVR is sitting in a garage or a closet with no airflow, storm season is a good time to move it. We see more recorders killed by heat in South Florida than by anything else.
Verify your remote access actually works
Log into the app now, not during the storm. Make sure you can see live video and play back recorded footage. If you have not opened the app in six months, there is a decent chance a password change or a firmware update broke something.
Secure anything mounted outside
Pole-mounted cameras, wireless bridge antennas, and satellite dishes all take wind load. Check that mounts are tight and that cable is still properly secured and not swinging. A loose bracket in June becomes a missing camera in September.
Photograph everything
Before the storm, walk the property and take pictures of your equipment. If you end up filing a claim, having dated photos of what was mounted where makes the conversation with the adjuster much shorter.
After the storm
If cameras came back online but one is dark, or the recorder is running but not recording, do not assume it fixed itself. Call us. A camera that survived the wind but took a surge often works partially, which is worse than not working at all, because you think you have coverage that you do not.
HD Smart Solutions is a licensed Florida low voltage contractor, License # EG13000794, serving Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. Call (954) 573-9193 for a free onsite walkthrough.
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