Six Things You Can Do With a Driveway Alert

The primary reason to get a driveway alert is to detect when a vehicle or person enters or leaves your driveway, but there are a lot of other ways you can use your driveway alert. Driveway alerts are detection systems that have two main components – a sensor that gets installed next to the driveway and a receiver that is located indoors. When something or someone passes by the driveway sensor, it sends a signal to the receiver which emits an alarm in the form of a chime, beep and/or flashing light.

Types of Driveway Alert Systems

Driveway alert sensors can be wireless or hard-hardwired. The wireless versions are the easiest to install and some models are now available with solar-powered sensors so you don’t have to worry about changing batteries.

• To detect the movement of people, vehicles and animals, choose a system that uses infrared motion detector sensors or break beam sensors.
• If you want to detect the movement of vehicles only and want to eliminate false alerts for passing animals or people, get the kind of driveway alarm that uses a metal sensing sensor or probe that detects the movement of large metallic (iron or steel) objects.

 

Ways to Use a Driveway Alert

Most homeowners or businesses use driveway alerts for security. Here are six other clever things you can do with a driveway alert:

 

1. Protect children playing on the driveway

Do you worry that your little ones will wander into the street when they are playing on the driveway? Set up driveway alert sensors to warn you if they stray off the driveway and into the street.

 

2. Teen driver alert

Do you have difficulty staying awake at night waiting for your teenage drivers to arrive home safely? You can use your driveway alert to notify you as soon as they pull into the driveway.

 

3. Protect cars, RVs or boats parked on your driveway

Anything parked outside is an easy target for thieves. A driveway alert will signal you if someone approaches your vehicle.

 

4. Signals the arrival of guests or deliveries

Get a heads up as soon as your guests’ car has entered the driveway so you can greet them at the front door, or be notified when the delivery or service person you are expecting has arrived. (Older folks who tend to get anxious waiting for arrivals will really appreciate this feature!)

 

5. Monitor for customers

Businesses can install a driveway alert at the front or back entrance of office buildings or parking lots to be notified when customers arrive.  Perfect for this application is the Dakota Alert 2500 that uses a pair of solar-powered break beam sensors to create an infrared cross beam and detect any intruder that passes through the beam area.

 

6. Surveillance aid for large properties or outbuildings

Strategically-placed driveway alerts can be used to help monitor remote buildings, large warehouses, greenhouses or sprawling properties. Security guards on patrol can use a portable receiver to get alerts of activity in a remote area of an office or worksite.

 

Summary

Driveway alerts are reasonably priced and easy to install yourself. Choose the type of driveway alert you need depending upon what you want to monitor for — infrared motion detector sensors or break beam sensor driveway alerts to notify you of the movement of vehicles and/or people, and metal sensing sensors or probes to receive alarm alerts for moving vehicles only.