Rethinking home security

Cimarron Electric offers security systems that can help care for the elderly, moniter your thermostat and even give you a heads up if Junior doesn't get home on time.

By F. Dwain Phillips

Many people in rural and small-town Oklahoma still don’t feel the need to lock their doors at night, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t make good use of a home security system. As one local electric cooperative discovered, today’s security technology is more about monitoring than alarms. 

“When people think of a security system, they often think of house alarms to protect their home from intruders,” Ross Barrick, Supervisor of Energy Services for Cimarron Electric said. “Our systems provide that as well as a wide range of other services that can include notification of water leaks or fires, remote control of home thermostats, medical alerts, alarms for carbon monoxide and more.”

Jack and Mary Ellen Simmons, rural Kingfisher County residents and Cimarron Electric members, recently installed a new security system from Cimarron with the help of their son Jim.

“My parents both have health problems, and both have fallen recently and not been able to get up by themselves,” Jim said.  “We replaced an older security system with one that has the home health monitor feature. This feature not only allows my parents to signal for help with a remote transmitter, but to have a two-way conversation with the monitoring company. Knowing that if they fall or have a problem, help is just a push of a button away provides both them and me with more peace of mind.”

Cimarron offers their security services to individuals and businesses statewide, and customers do not have to be co-op members. Most systems involve an installation fee, a three-year contract and a monthly fee, which members of Cimarron Electric can have added directly to their utility bill.

Cimarron Electric got into the security business in 1993 when they were looking for a system that could read electric meters remotely. They discovered an electric co-op, the Wright-Hennipen Cooperative Electric Association in Minnesota, that had such a system and who also offered security systems to customers. Cimarron decided that they would take the same route, and they now offer GE systems to residential homes and businesses across the state.

It isn’t uncommon, actually, for co-ops to have “side businesses” that compliment their primary focus of providing reliable, inexpensive electricity to their members. For example, Red River Valley Rural Electric in Marietta sells and installs energy efficient geothermal heat pumps, which help their members cut back on their heating and cooling bills.
Anyone who doubts how an alarm system might compliment an electric utility hasn’t seen what modern technology can do.   

Barrick is not only an employee of Cimarron Electric, but also a co-op member who has seen first-hand how a monitoring system can increase a home’s comfort without raising electric bills. 

“In the winter we turn the thermostat down when we go to work, and about an hour before my wife is scheduled to get home, using the phone, I turn the thermostat connected to my wood pellet stove insert back up to 75 degrees,” he said.

The system he installed in his rural home near Kingfisher has many other unique features as well. He can turn his alarm system on and off with a mounted keypad, a remote on a key chain or even more by telephone. He can also use his two-way speaker system to talk to the people at the monitoring location, allowing the monitoring company to “listen in” in the event of an intrusion. His doors and windows are equipped with sensors, and he has and wireless motion sensors throughout the house. Smoke detectors, another part of the system, work even if the alarm is not activated/armed.

Many of Cimarron’s customers are interested in protecting assets outside of their primary residence.

“Business owners like our systems because they are wireless and several buildings can be connected without digging trenches and burying wires,” Barrick said. Many rural customers also use the wireless system to protect their equipment barns or farm shop buildings.

Security systems provide people who own vacation cabins or second homes protection from intruders as well as the ability to monitor the temperature inside their structure. A system can send an alert when the temperature drops below a set mark, which is helpful if the heating system fails to operate during freezing weather, putting the pipes at risk. Systems can also send an alert if the electricity goes off or if there is a water leak.

Concerned parents can even use their system to keep tabs on their kids. If a child is scheduled to arrive home at 4 p.m. and disarm the alarm, the system can be programmed to send an alert to a pager if the alarm is not turned off on time.

With such a wide variety of services and new technology available, it is no surprise that security systems are in high demand when it comes to new homes.

Perry Phillips, a homebuilder in Okarche, contracts with Cimarron to install security systems in his new houses. 

“I use Cimarron because of the quality of the system, but even more for the quality of installation,” Phillips said. “Installing the security system during construction allows all the wiring in the house to be hooked into one electrical box.”

Phillips feels that adding a security system adds $2000-$3,000 in value to a new house, and homebuyers tell him it is a real consideration when buying. He installs a system with basic features, but it is always easy for the home’s new owners to upgrade their service later. 

For information about Cimarron’s security systems, call Ross Barrick or Scott Reames at Cimarron Electric Co-op in Kingfisher at 1-800-375-4121 or visit the co-op’s website at www.cimarronelectric.com or www.cimarronsecurity.com