Cooking Automation Devices
Cooking automation devices make for great additions to nearly any home security alarm system. You can set these devices to trigger a trouble condition on your system if they are left activated outside of normal hours. This is great for letting your system know if your cooking device is left on when it was supposed to be turned off. Accidentally leaving the stove or the oven is a waste of money. Worse yet, it could lead to a fire or major property damage. Cooking automation devices will prevent this from happening.
Cooking automation devices are often very simple in terms of operation. For example, you might secure a cooking automation sensor to the knob on your stove burner or the knob on your grill burner. Others might be attached to the knob on a propane tank. If the stove or grill is left on, then obviously the knob or dialer will be rotated. The cooking automation device will detect this rotation and realize that the device must be left on. The system will display a trouble condition or a faulted zone whenever the device is left on.
A great way to use cooking automation devices is to pair them with notifications based on schedules. Having a cooking automation device trigger a trouble condition or an auxiliary alarm might be a little bit excessive. After all, you will have to cook sometimes, and it's not like you want to receive a notification every time you turn on your stove! But what you can do is set up a notification trigger on Total Connect 2.0 or Alarm.com to send out an alert whenever your cooking automation device is faulted after a certain hour.
For example, you might have notifications set to occur for your cooking automation device only if it is activated between the hours of 10pm and 6am. These might be the hours when you are normally asleep, and it is highly unlikely that you will cook anything outside of these hours. Then if the zone is faulted, the fault will be displayed on your security system. But unlike just a regular fault when your system is disarmed, you can have your system alert you about these faults that occur during unusual hours. If you accidentally leave your stove or grill on, then you can fix the problem before you go to bed.
Other cooking automation devices are able to have your cooking appliances run for a select duration of time. This is great if you are slow cooking food while you are away, and you want your meal to be ready by the time you return home. You can also use this to your advantage so that you do not burn or overcook any food. There are many types of cooking methods that can take advantage of these techniques. For example, you might use this with a crock pot, a smoker, or even your regular oven. All you have to do is find the right cooking automation tool for your needs.