Despite the forecast for heavy rain, you can sleep easily without worry because you know that you have a flood sensor installed in the basement, which will warn you if water begins to enter your basement. Flood alarms are a helpful tool that allows homeowners to be prepared and informed when flooding occurs either from rising water outside the home, or from burst pipes from within the home.

Let’s take a look at how a flood detector works. The device is mounted to the basement wall, on your yacht, or at your vacation home. The basement flood sensor is located where the water would intrude. The sensor contains electrodes, which, when water reaches them, sets off an alarm. Some flood alarm systems have wireless capabilities, so in addition to an audible alarm in the home, the flood detector will call your cell phone or pager and notify you of the situation. So, if the pipes burst at your vacation home during the off season, or if your yacht begins to take on water, you will be notified right away by your home flood alarm so that you can quickly remedy the situation before costly water damage occurs.

The Rialco flood alarm was invented by an inventor from Canada who had a flood in his own home, and now he has started his own company. These are flood water level alarms that will notify you when the water level of your pool or bathtub gets too high, you can place one near your water heater or washing machine as well. Flood activated water level alarms can save you a lot of headaches and protect your property. In the product documentation, you can often find a flood detector block diagram that shows visually how the product should be installed.

Flood detection valves provide a further level of protection in that they can be set to shut the water off in the event of a leak in homes that have city supplied water.

While flood alarms work inside your home, motion sensor flood lights are installed outside your home. Motion sensor flood lights come on automatically when there is movement within view of the electronic sensor. Black motion detector flood lights can be installed discreetly so that they are almost hidden from view during the daylight. A solar flood light with a motion sensor is helpful in areas that are not close to an electrical outlet. There are some models that will store enough power to continue to give light for as long as two weeks without full sunlight.

Both flood alarms and flood lights are useful tools in your overall home security plan.