TECH BYTE: Smart Locks, DIY Home Security Easy to Set Up

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Your home security system is getting smarter, and easier to install yourself.

Who says you need a security company or a guard dog to keep your home safe?

“Nowadays, there is a ton of do-it-yourself solutions out there,” said Nathan Roach, Best Buy. “You can actually install it yourself. It’s extremely easy. It doesn’t take a ton of tools to do, and then you just pay the monitoring fee each month, and it gives your family that peace of mind to know that you’re covered not only from a fire, from a police standpoint, anything that could go wrong in your house.”

It all starts with smart locks. Roach says they take away the traditional mindset of using a key to get into your house.

“You can assign each family member their own unique code to be able to get into the door,” he said. “It’s a four digit code, four to six digits, and you will know when everybody is coming and going. You’ll know if people came in later than they should, you’ll know at any point in time, and the cool thing about it too is, let’s say family comes in town, you’re not able to meet them at the house, you can actually pull your phone out and unlock the door for them, and they can get in.”

You can even schedule when those codes can work with the smart locks, for people you don’t want to have permanent access to your home.

“You can give them a temporary code that let’s say works from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and after that time window, that code does not work anymore,” Roach said. “They no longer have access to your home, just as if they never had a key.”

You can even add a camera with your smart lock if you’d like to use the extra tech tool.

Roach says they also carry a SimpliSafe alarm system, which you can install yourself.

“The awesome thing is, it comes with sensors that you put on yourself,” Roach said. “It’ll come with your keypad. The alarm system, motion detectors, everything comes right in the box, and then you can add additional pieces if you had more windows, more doors, whatever it is, and this is something that the average person could set up in less than a couple hours, and be done with it.”

Roach says this is the same thing as going through a security company, without having to pay a big fee for them to install your product.

The only fees you pay after buying the kits are monitoring fees, which are very reasonable.