New Enquiries: 01689 769 469 Existing Customers: 01689 887 626 MENU USEFUL ARTICLES Tips, guides and advice from Spy Alarms Learn about the latest news about security, as well as useful guides to keep your property safe. TIPS, GUIDES AND ARTICLES Find useful tips, guides and helpful articles from your local security specialist Browse through our articles section below. If you have a question, get in touch with our friendly team. Home Fire Safety Lesssons Learnt From The Great Fire of London So this weekend it was 350 years since the Great Fire of London started, an event that’s had a massive impact on modern home fire safety. The fire was recorded as having resulted in only 6 fatalities – which would be a miracle statistic, if it were true. Other estimates venture into the thousands, probably because the poorer people […] READ MORE Top Holiday Home Security Tip Now Summer Is Over As you close up your holiday homes for another year, are there ways that you can keep an eye on your second property from your main residence? Well, yes! Many people use CCTV to watch over their second properties, such as holiday homes. You’ll need a decent internet connection in both properties and a CCTV system that can […] READ MORE Why Combine Burglar Alarms With Wired Smoke Detectors? Combining a burglar alarm system with wired smoke detectors is a service we offer to our residential customers, but why do we recommend it? The intruder alarm systems we install have the capacity to be linked with a remote monitoring service. This enables your system to contact our alarm receiving centre when it’s activated, so […] READ MORE Benefits Of A Monitored Alarm System – Is It Worth It? We’re often asked what benefits a monitored alarm system has for our customers and whether it’s worth the extra money. It’s not easy to say in a blog post which benefits relate to your situation if you opt for monitored alarms, which is why we direct people to our free site survey – so we can assess them on an individual […] READ MORE Should You Buy Home Security Products? On a weekly basis we receive calls asking us to install home security products that people have bought at their local DIY store. And, on a weekly basis, we have to politely decline. Some people may think this seems rather strange. Surely we can’t make that much money out of the system, the profit runs […] READ MORE ONS Crime Statistics – Is Burglary On The Rise? The Office for National Statistics have just released crime statistics for the year ending March 16. We took a look, expecting to see burglary on the rise, here’s what we found instead. The document shows that domestic burglary has fallen by 11% year on year but, despite this, they don’t deem the reduction significant (as […] READ MORE Pokemon Go Evolves Into A Security Risk For Businesses This week, the technology headlines have been dominated by Pokemon Go. The new augmented reality game has now officially been released in the UK, but fans who couldn’t wait were able to get their hands on the game early by doing a bit of digging online. So we have already been seeing the effects of this […] READ MORE Westminster City Council Scrapping 75 CCTV Cameras On the 31st May 2016, Radio 5 Live announced that Westminster City Council are looking at switching off CCTV cameras to save money. Currently, £1m a year is spent maintaining the 75 cameras located across the west end, Parliament and other famous London landmarks. The council wish to rid the city of all 75 cameras after […] READ MORE Door Entry Systems – Which is better, Fobs or Codes? Installing door entry systems in your business is a sensible way to safeguard both your property and your employees. Yet, there is often a debate about which method of controlling your access is the safest. Some people say the fob is most secure. This a small device that unlocks the door when you hold it over the receiver. […] READ MORE How To Keep Your Pets Safe From House Fires It’s been said time and time again that Britain is a nation of pet lovers. Yet this nation has a surprisingly lax attitude to fire safety for their four legged friends. In fact, many people haven’t even thought about how they would ensure their pets would get out in the event of a fire. Sure, I don’t […] READ MORE The Cost Of House Alarm Systems House alarm systems have become a common security feature for many homes in the 21st century, yet some homes still haven’t installed them. Why? For a lot of people it’s the cost that puts them off. Times have changed though, and so have the prices. So what does it cost to get a house alarm […] READ MORE Why Security Lights And Locks Aren’t Enough According to statistics from an FSB article, business security measures are lax in Britain. Incredibly, 60 per cent of small and medium enterprise respondents in the UK rely on locks and security lights to protect their business, while two thirds of these enterprises didn’t even have these security measures operational during working hours. In all honesty, […] READ MORE How To View Your CCTV On Holiday Going on holiday is meant to be relaxing and stress free, so why should you need to learn how to view your CCTV on holiday? Simply because burglars target houses where the owners have gone on holiday. They don’t have to be psychic to find this information out either, all they have to do is use social […] READ MORE What Is An Optical Smoke Detector? An optical smoke detector is one part of a fire alarm system. It’s a device that raises an alarm when it senses smoke – as shown in this infographic. How Does An Optical Smoke Detector Work? The infographic shows how a build up of smoke particles can obstruct the infrared light inside the alarm casing. This means it […] READ MORE What Is A Wifi CCTV Camera? Choosing from the many types of security cameras available on the market is hard, from the Wifi CCTV camera to the wired, there are many differences between individual models too. So let’s concentrate on what a Wifi CCTV camera actually is. In short, a Wifi CCTV camera is different because of the way it sends […] READ MORE Why Get A Buzzer Front Door Entry System For Business Getting a buzzer front door entry system protects your business by denying unauthorised access. But why is this important? Granting people access to your business is a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The building, the people – it’s all part of something you’ve lovingly built up from scratch in order to create a better world for […] READ MORE Automated Electric Gates In Kent Whether you’re looking to secure the perimeter of your luxury mansion or just keep passers-by from having free access to the front garden of your suburban semi, its a great choice to get automated electric gates in Kent. No more do you have to park across the driveway obstructing the footpath and leaving your rear […] READ MORE Which Motion Detector Alarm Should You Have In Your Home? A motion detector alarm is a security system that activates when it senses movement. They are most commonly used in home and business security systems and provide protection against unwanted intruders, such as burglars. Though all motion detector alarms work by sensing movement, there are several different ways they can do this. This results in […] READ MORE Why You Need A Carbon Monoxide Alarm Having a carbon monoxide alarm as an additional feature to your fire alarm system could prevent you from becoming a victim of this lethal gas. Often called the silent killer, carbon monoxide has no smell, taste or colour and according to the NHS leads to around 40 deaths every year. The gas can cause symptoms similar to food […] READ MORE 7 Reasons To Choose Wired Alarm Systems For Businesses Wired alarm systems are a great way to secure your business and prevent a burglar from ransacking your office, so why do so many businesses not have them? Well, here are 7 reasons we think they should: 1 – The Age Of The Internet You might be wondering how the internet can play a role […] READ MORE 6 Reasons To Install Intercom Systems For Home Use Controlling who comes in and out of a building isn’t just for businesses, you can get intercom systems for home use too, but why should you? Well here are our… 6 Reasons To Install Intercom Systems For Home Use 1) Crime Statistics Statistics from UK Crime Stats show that in 2015 there were over 32,488 violent crimes […] READ MORE How Do Smoke Detectors Work? There are two types of alarm that protect you from a house fire, smoke and heat, but we want to know how do smoke detectors work. To learn more about heat detectors read this article. In short, smoke detectors, as suggested by the name, work by detecting smoke. However, not every alarm does this the […] READ MORE What Makes Good Wireless Security Cameras – HD, Night Vision, ANPR Along with burglar alarms, wireless security cameras are one of the best deterrents on the market against burglary. But what makes a good wireless system and why do you need one? In 2015 there were 10,153 burglaries in Kent. Having wireless security cameras installed at your property, for business or home, will help to deter burglars […] READ MORE Why Is Your Smoke Detector Beeping? There are a few things you can do to stop your smoke detector beeping but first you need to find out why it’s going off. Did you know about 500 people die every year from smoke related deaths that could have been prevented if they were warned earlier? With that in mind, let’s identify what kind of noise […] READ MORE Spy Focus On Customer Service Training At Spy Alarms, our main goal is always to provide excellent customer service, which is why we went to Richard Brown Associates for training. It was held at the Marriott Hotel in Bexleyheath. To ensure we still had enough staff to service our customers, we split the company in half and held the training over two days. […] READ MORE Spy Acquires So Secure Of Edenbridge, Kent We’re excited to announce that So Secure of Edenbridge have become the latest security business to be acquired by Spy Alarms. Retirement of Andy Parker and sale of So Secure of Edenbridge to Spy Alarms Andy Parker, the owner of So Secure, has decided to pursue a new career as a fitness instructor. As a […] READ MORE Testimonial CCTV System Installation, Westerham, Kent Just wanted to say that the cameras went in today and James stayed on to get the iPads and iPhone working. James went the extra mile for us and was very pleasant to deal with. Please give him this feedback and let him know we very much appreciated his excellent care Mr & Mrs Newton […] READ MORE Testimonial For Intruder Alarm Installation, London Many thanks for sending David to install our new intruder alarm system. He is a hard worker, very tidy and thought through the install before he started. He also made improvements to a previous installation and estimated he would finish after 3 and that’s exactly what happened. Mr Duffy, London READ MORE Home CCTV Service, Hildenborough, Kent Testimonial I was very happy with your engineer Dwayne’s service today – he really did explain everything about the Home CCTV very well Mr & Mrs Frankcom, Hildenborough, near Sevenoaks READ MORE Change of User for Home Alarm System in Aylesford Testimonial We are delighted with the care and attention/service demonstrated by your engineer today. Mr & Mrs Hughes Aylesford, Kent Our engineer, Dave Stingmore, visited this customer to fully demonstrate the intruder alarm system for their new home and to change the user codes. READ MORE Home Security Tips For Holiday Makers [Infographic] Home security tips are something you probably don’t think about all the time. And especially when you’re going on holiday, there are so many other things to think about; holiday insurance, packing, flights, transfers, passport renewal, who’s going to feed the cats, converting your spending money etc… But you should be thinking about your home security. […] READ MORE Video Entry Phone Systems For Business Let’s start off with the basics – what are video entry phone systems? A video entry phone system is a piece of technology that lets you grant or deny access through a door. There are individual audio and video options that allow you to make an informed decision to open the door yourself. They can also […] READ MORE CCTV Monitor Vs Using A TV The Pros And Cons “Should I buy a CCTV monitor or use my TV?” It’s a question we get asked often. There’s no simple answer – there are so many different televisions and CCTV monitors out there it would be impossible to try to compare them all. So whether you have night vision CCTV, HD CCTV, wired or wireless, we’re […] READ MORE Do You Need A Night Vision Camera? 5 Decisive Questions The night vision camera is a high precision piece of technology that allows you the super human power of being able to see clearly when your eyes just can’t cope with the dark. Unless you’re Superman, in which case, awesome – we’re big fans of your work – no matter how many carrots you eat, […] READ MORE 5 Reasons To Get Your Door Intercom System Supplied And Installed By Professionals A door intercom system can be bought online by anybody, so why bother getting one through a professional installer? Let’s start with a story we’ve heard a hundred times before… 1 – Your friend Jon hasn’t done it before Unfortunately, your mate Jon said they could install your door intercom system for you for only […] READ MORE House Alarm Or No House Alarm, Why Bother? Whether or not you should install a house alarm is something many home-owners contemplate when they first move into their new home. Then, it’s forgotten about. We all know the consequences of not having an alarm, the potential break-in, the loss of possessions, the sense of vulnerability in your home. The list could go on. […] READ MORE London Carol Concert for the Child Bereavement Trust A few weeks ago, Spy Alarms were delighted to attend (and be one of the sponsors of) the 21st Annual Carol Concert held by the Child Bereavement Trust, whose patron is HRH Prince William. The founders of the Spy Alarms Group are well known to the Trust’s Committee and are keen to support their work […] READ MORE Why Pubs Need Cigarette Smoke Detectors Pubs and bars should have a cigarette smoke detectors to protect their businesses from some of their more careless customers. Why? Well, in the summer, when it is warm and sunny, most smokers are quite happy to stand outside in the street and enjoy the sunshine and have a chat with others while they indulge […] READ MORE Home Alarm Service in Orpington Testimonial One of our engineers, Tony, provided a home alarm service to a customer in Orpington. Here’s what they had to say about the service he provided: … please pass on my thanks to Tony. He was kind, helpful and efficient and carried out the service in the limited amount of time before I had to leave. […] READ MORE Bromley Burglar Alarm Service Testimonial … want to praise Danny Clark. He was really kind and helpful and took the time to write down all the instructions about my lights when he finished servicing my alarm. Mrs Mitchell, Bromley READ MORE 1 2 3 … 7 CONTACT US Address: 6 Ravensquay Business Centre, Cray Avenue, Orpington, Kent, BR5 4BQ New Enquiries: 01689 769 469 Existing Customers: 01689 887 626 Email: sales@spyalarms.co.uk Opens in your application London Office PROTECT YOUR HOME Burglar Alarms CCTV Door Entry System Maintenance Monitored Alarms Fire Protection Smart Homes PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS Intruder Alarms CCTV Fire Protection Access Control System Maintenance Monitored Alarms Areas Covered CALL BACK REQUEST Full Name Phone Enter your contact number and we'll come back to you as soon as possible. Protect Your Business Protect your home Website Design & Optimisation by Vector7