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���Monitoring and Keeping �Your Home Safe �

By Mary Kaczmarski

With Suggestions from Members & Board

March 9, 2026

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What We Will Be Covering

  • Lock Box Program through Golder Ranch Fire Department
  • Dark House Program through Oro Valley Police
  • Options through the utility companies that could save you money
  • Mail forwarding and mail notification options
  • Home monitoring systems
    • NOTE: Most require internet but some use cell service
    • There are a lot of systems that can monitor almost everything in your home
  • Individual devices that can detect water leaks
  • Individual devices that can monitor temps of the home, fridge or freezers
  • Open up discussion of the “Before You Leave” checklist handed out for additional suggestions

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Golder Ranch Fire Dept. Lock Box

  • In case of an emergency and you are not at home or are unable to answer the door, the lock box provides a way for the Golder Ranch Fire Department to gain access to your home without damaging your home
  • It will contain a key to your home and is mounted outside front door
  • Only the Golder Ranch Fire District on-duty personnel have keys that can open the lock boxes
  • Information on the program and instructions to order can be found at https://grfdaz.gov/residential-lock-box/
  • You can choose from two different models which you must order yourself
    • They are now recommending the Knox HomeBox 1500 – cost about $260
    • Can also order from https://lockbox.shopkidde.com/
      • Two models – Kidde S5 Key Safe for $151.97 & Kidde Max Lock Box for $264.97
        • Golder Ranch not advising this because of delayed shipment time
    • You are responsible for installing either lock box on your home
    • Once it is installed, contact Golder Ranch Fire at 520-825-9001 or click the link on their website, for them to come open and put your key in the box

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Oro Valley Police Dark House Program

  • If you are going to be gone and your home left unoccupied for more than two weeks, the Oro Valley Police Department can provide a home check.
  • The primary purpose of this program is to offer vacationing, seasonal, and year-round residents the reassurance that if a problem exists at the property such as suspicious activity, utility emergencies, or other emergency conditions, the resident or their designated key holder can be contacted expeditiously.
  • The service is free! As frequently as staffing allows, the Oro Valley Police Department and the members of our Citizen Volunteer Assistants Program (CVAP) will check the exterior of your home for security.

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Dark House Program Criteria

  • Occupants must be away for more than two weeks
  • Residence must be unoccupied during this period, but NOT vacant
  • Residence is NOT for sale
  • Residence is NOT an apartment or condominium
  • Residence must be within the boundaries of Oro Valley
  • Link to information and form to fill out online
  • Phone number for more information – 520-229-5080

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Oro Valley WaterSmart Program

  • Go to https://orovalley.watersmart.com/index.php/welcome and create an account
    • You can go to the account to see daily usage (check if irrigation is working correctly or suspect leak)
  • Can set up alerts by Email, Text Message, and/or Voice Message for the following situations:
    • Leak Alerts – You will be notified it they think you have a leak based on a high volume of water use per hour
    • High Use Notification – You will be notified when your daily use is 3X higher than your normal season use
    • Unplanned Use Notification – You will be notified when use from your property exceeds your Daily Threshold setting (# gallons/day set by you)

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  • WaterSmart showing daily usage over two-week period
  • Chart shows that irrigation system is working as programmed
  • Lower part of chart shows history over four-year period

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  • Analyzing the data from WaterSmart over a one-year period suggested a leak in the irrigation system
  • Period from July 1, 2021, showed water usage (irrigation) while away from Sun City Home
  • Period from January 1, 2022, through May 10, 2022, show water usage while occupying Sun City Home
  • Period from May 10, 2022, through September 1, 2022, shows much higher irrigation usage than previous year
  • Found standing water after turning on the irrigation system and repaired the leak

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Oro Valley Water Vacation Rates Part 1

  • If you do not need any water while you are gone, you can have your water turned off at the curb stop.
    • Call Oro Valley Water at 520-229-5000 to arrange
    • Must be gone for a minimum of 3 months
    • You would then only be billed $4.50/month for the months you are gone plus a reconnection fee when you returned of $4.50 for water & $20 for sewer

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Oro Valley Water Vacation Rates Part 2

  • If you still need water for irrigation, you can place you account on vacation rate, which will suspend part of the sewer rate while you are gone
    • Call Oro Valley Water at 520-229-5000 and ask to be put on vacation rate
      • Give them a start and end date (prorated by whole month). If longer than six months you will need to call them back around the six-month date you gave them to extend
      • You will still be charged the 1st Sewer Fee-Pima County of $13.00/month, but it will show “Sewer Vacation Rate”
      • You will save the 2nd Sewer Fee-Pima County, which will vary based on your water usage (ours was over $20/month)

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Southwest Gas

  • You may be able to save money by having your gas disconnected while you are gone, depending on the length of time you are gone.
  • They do charge to reconnect the service (around $35-$40)
    • Calculate the number of months away and multiple by average monthly rate
    • Then subtract the cost to reconnect to estimate amount saved
  • They come to your home and do a full inspection when they reconnect it
  • They will relight your water heater, furnace, etc. and check to make sure that they are connected and working properly
  • Call them – 877-860-6020 – before coming back to set up appointment to reconnect service
    • Someone needs to be at residence to let them into home or key left out
    • They call shortly before they are to arrive

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Xfinity Cable & Internet

  • Xfinity can be put on a vacation rate for up to six months
    • If longer than that, you will need to cancel your service and start new when you return
  • You can probably save money by stopping and restarting service
    • Contact Xfinity – 800-934-6489 and give them date you want to discontinue service and they will give you instructions on how to return equipment
      • Equipment can be returned to UPS store
    • When returning, you can have them send out the equipment or pick it up at the store (Marana address is 8020 N Cortaro Road, Tucson, AZ 85743)
  • If you purchase your own equipment, you just need to contact them to restart service

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USPS Mail Forwarding

  • Go to the official USPS website to submit change of address
  • Mail can be forwarded for up to six months
    • If you are going to be gone longer than six months, choose the latest date possible and be sure to keep the confirmation number (emailed to you)
      • As you get closer to the end date, you can log back in and extend the date
  • IMPORTANT – Make sure that you don’t have overlapping dates to and from another address
  • HINT – when updating mailing addresses, don’t forget things like mail-order medication services and change default addresses and subscriptions for online merchants like Amazon

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Informed Delivery by USPS

  • Get Daily Digest emails that preview your mail and packages scheduled to arrive soon
  • See images of your incoming letter-sized mail (grayscale, address side only)
  • Track and manage your packages in one convenient place
  • Use link below to sign up for service or to login once signed up
  • NOTE – You will need a different email address for each residence
    • You will get an email every day that you have mail arriving, with the picture of that item, or tracking number of package

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Home Monitoring Systems

  • Most security cameras and home monitoring systems require Wi-Fi connections, which means to use them you would need to leave your internet service on while you are away
  • There is one system, SimpliSafe - https://simplisafe.com/ - that offers equipment and plans that use cell service for monitoring your home

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Devices to Monitor Temperatures

  • House temperatures
    • For those of us in cold climates, losing heat and freezing pipes is a major concern
      • Really low tech – put a large thermometer in window for neighbor to monitor
      • Lamp plugged into a special plugin that turns lamp on below a certain temperature
        • HEATIT ET-21 2-Piece Set Freeze Thermostatically Controlled Outlet On at 38F /Off at 50F
    • Wi-Fi thermometers that will give you a current reading, either as a backup or from an area away from the thermostat
    • Smart thermostats that will give you current house temperature as well as allow you to change the settings to increase or decrease the temperature the unit turns on – requires an internet connection
  • Fridge or freezer temperatures
    • There are devices that have sensors that can be places in your fridge or freezer that will alert you if the temperatures rise above a set value

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Monitor For Water Leaks

  • Homes in Sun City have two water turn off valves, one for the house and one at the curb
    • You can turn off just the one for the house while you are away if you need to leave the irrigation on or turn have Oro Valley water turn it off at the curb if you don’t need irrigation – see previous slide
  • However, you may want to be notified if there is a leak somewhere in the house, even while you are at home – most require Wi-Fi
    • Moen has leak detectors that will notify you if it senses a water leak
    • You can find other leak sensors on Amazon

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YoLink – Senses Temps, Leaks + More

  • Utilizes a hub that is connected to the internet
    • The individual sensors use a new technology called LoRa (Long Range) that is can communicate with the hub up to a distance of ¼ mile away
      • This means you can place a sensor in a location that has no or poor WiFi
  • Hub needs to be connected to power but sensors use batteries
    • One hub can support up to 200 different sensors
  • Does not require a subscription
  • Temperature sensors - can be placed in the fridge or freezer or in other locations around the home and will send an alert if the temperature varies beyond set values
  • Water sensors – can be placed anywhere you are worried about water
  • Can be purchased on Amazon – search for YoLink

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Doorbell Cameras

  • Most doorbell cameras require a Wi-Fi connections and you will also need their subscription service to view past events.
  • Other considerations
    • Cost of subscriptions
    • Power – does it work only off battery, or can it connect to existing doorbell wiring to recharge batteries
    • Battery only, how long will battery last
    • Will it work in subfreezing temperatures
    • Subject to Wi-Fi jammers
  • Link to articles about doorbell cameras that work without Wi-Fi

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Security Cameras

  • Most security cameras require an internet connection and subscription
    • Without a subscription service
      • Some services you can get a notification and access the camera “live”
      • Nothing will be stored in the cloud and cannot utilize AI technology that can detect specific things like person, vehicle, etc and only send you alerts for those things
      • Some cameras you can insert an SD card in some and access the recording from the internet
  • Most cameras require a Wi-Fi connection and electrical power
  • Some outdoor cameras can utilize solar collectors to charge batteries
    • NOTE: Outdoor battery cameras will not work well in sub-freezing temps
  • There are some security cameras that utilize cell service and don’t need Wi-Fi; however, you will need to purchase a contract for them

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Security Camera Concerns

  • If security is a serious concern, I would recommend getting a professional system or at least getting a wired system, as you can’t always rely on a Wi-Fi connection to a camera
  • Wi-Fi security cameras can be disabled with a Wi-Fi jammer
  • Be careful when choosing a Wi-Fi home security system or devices as they can come with security flaws that could infect your entire home, including your computers, tablets & phones
    • Avoid low-cost, non-brand name systems, cameras & devices, as they could come with security flaws built in, or not patch future security flaws
    • Always create a unique, long password that you haven’t used before
    • Be sure that the system uses two factor authentication

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Security Camera Uses

  • Watch for deliveries or suspicious activity on property
  • Animals that may be damaging your property
  • Listen for sounds within house, like glass breaking, CO or fire alarms, or freezer alarms
  • Monitor the outside of your home for conditions where you need someone to come in and take corrective action
    • Shrubs and plants that may need work, down fallen trees and in North Dakota snow conditions
    • Snow removal
  • Monitor workers inside of your home when not there
    • Look for objects out of place, broken windows, water on floor

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Computer and/or cell phone

  • Check time date/time, if necessary, for mountain/Phoenix time change
    • Applies to both computers and cell phones
  • Computer
    • Unplug computer/printer & other peripherals
      • Inkjet printers are a problem as the ink tends to dry out when not used for extended periods of time – I’ve tried removing (put in fridge) without success
      • Recommend getting a laser printer as the toner cartridges don't dry out, plus they are much more economical (cost per page is much lower)
    • If you have computers at more than one location, consider using a cloud service like OneDrive or Dropbox to store/sync your files
      • You can access your files from any computer
      • Once you get to your secondary location and turn on computer, files will be synced

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Car & Golf Cart Batteries

  • There are devices that connect to your car battery to maintain it while you are gone. The two below were recommended by attendees - please search description on Amazon to find
    • NOCO GENIUS1, 1A Smart Car Battery Charger, 6V and 12V Automotive Charger, Battery Maintainer, Trickle Charger, Float Charger and Desulfator for Motorcycle, ATV, Lithium and Deep Cycle Batteries
      • Best Seller on Amazon – Cost is $29.95
    • Battery Tender Plus 12V Battery Charger and Maintainer: 1.25 AMP Powersport Battery Charger and Maintainer for Motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs - Smart 12 Volt Automatic Float Charger - 021-0128
      • Recommended by local repair shop – Cost $58.95
  • Talk to your golf cart dealer about the proper way to connect and maintain your golf cart batteries over the summer
  • Is there a way to keep garage cooler in summer?
    • One suggestion was to install a mini-split air conditioner (Google for more info)

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General Hints

  • Leave a key to your home with a trusted neighbor
  • Leave buckets of water around the house to prevent wood drying out
  • Toilet
    • Put Chlorox in toilets to prevent mold
    • Cold climates – put RV antifreeze in toilets and drains to prevent freezing if heat should fail
    • Use Saran Wrap over toilet bowl to prevent evaporation
  • Put water in drains and seal if possible or place heavy object over (place a zip lock bag filled with sand)
    • Prevent evaporation and sewer gas from entering home
    • Prevent unwanted pests from entering home
  • Put double sticky pest strips beneath garage door edges to stop pests

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Cockroach That Came out of Sewer Pipes�& Whiptail Lizard Caught in Sticky Pad

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General Hints Continued

  • Many food items, like cheese, nuts, marshmallows, etc. can be placed in freezer to preserve and use the following year
  • Fill gallon containers with water & put in fridge (more efficient when full)
  • Place items like cooking oils, medications, candles and batteries in fridge
  • Garage
    • Remove liquids, like paint, detergents & softeners from garage, and bring into house
    • Put sticky pads on the outer floor edges to stop critters from coming in garage
    • In AZ home turn off garage door opener switch or unplug door opener
    • Remove battery from vehicle in cold climates to prevent damage and possibly put on trickle charger

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Questions & Further Suggestions