Almost everything in your home – including thermostats, air conditioners, lights, and garage doors – can be linked to the internet and be remotely controlled with a smartphone or smart speaker. Yet, setting up a so-called smart home can be mind-bending: There are a number of different accessories that work only with specific products, and some work better than others. You may also be tempted to think that just by adding a smart home hub or a smart speaker that can control basic devices like your plugs, lights, and security is the perfect idea of a smart home. But that’s not it. A smart home is more than that.
Entryway
Forgetting your keys is everyone’s biggest nightmare, and that harassing worry about whether or not you locked the door when you left on holiday can ruin an otherwise perfect vacation. In today’s hectic world, strengthening the security of your home is imperative.
To ensure that the people you love and the things you cherish are safe and secured, the use of smart locks is among the most popular options there is. And, yes, they are worth it.
Despite smart locks boasting of improved safety and features, the top reason homeowners get one is for convenience. Smart locks are well-crafted to make life convenient. They have advanced characteristics such as remote access, voice control, and scenes, among others.
Even better, the latest smart locks integrate the functionality of various AI such as Google Assistants, Amazon Alexa, and many others. These programs do a great job at executing commands you give as long as they fit the range of what they can do.
For instance, by saying, “Ok, Google, goodnight,” to your smart device, the lights in your home will switch to dim. Therefore, if you utilize smart locks, you rely on one of these AI to lock your doors only by a single command.
Living Room
Turning the lights on and off isn’t much of a problem, but smart bulbs can work wonders for your living room atmosphere and your wallet. Setting up your home with smart bulbs can solve a lot of problems.
All smart lighting systems allow you to control them easily from any mobile device, and you can set them up to function like classic lighting timers, but there’s more about them. Enough to convince you to start your home-automation with them. For instance, you can control entire groups of lights at once, set them to turn on and off based on your circadian rhythm, and configure them to connect to other smart devices, such as home CCTV cameras or motion sensors. This scheduling option puts your smart bulbs to work as a safety feature because having lights turn on and off throughout the evening can trick potential thieves into thinking someone’s always inside.
Other Living Room Home Automation Ideas May Include:
- Robotics: You can teach your home how to clean itself by implementing robotic technology into your home automation system like window washers, pool cleaners, and robot vacuums.
- Entry Sensors: Having entry sensors installed will tell you if a door or window is open and will work with your home security system to alert your security agency in the event of a home break.
Kitchen
If your home is like most, your kitchen is probably the heart of your home. Which means it’s a perfect location for a smart speaker like Google Nest Mini or Amazon Echo Dot.
These reasonably-priced devices can help you control other smart devices in your house using simple voice commands but also offer attractive features all on their own.
If you’re preparing lunch and you use the last cube of butter, there’s no need to stop what you’re doing to search for the nearest sticky note. Simply say, “Alexa, add butter to my shopping list.” The next time when you enter the store, pull up your smartphone, and you’ll see everything you added to your shopping list.
The same action can be performed when you want to play music, listen to the news, make a phone call, check the weather, find out something new, play games, or set timers.
Bedroom
Smart plugs have transformed our bedrooms for the better. Now we can use our smartphones to control power to a smart plug, making smart outlets an affordable, energy-saving device for any room.
If you have had enough of your regular bulbs and want to replace them with smart bulbs in your bedroom lamps, smart outlets are another convenient way to give your mobile device control over your lights.
Other Bedroom Automation Ideas Include:
Music: Implementing smart speakers in different rooms in your home will allow you to listen to your favorite podcast while in bed without having to stare for good minutes into a display before sleep.
Smoke Alarms: Your home automation system can detect increased amounts of carbon monoxide in the air and turn on the alarm if you’re in danger.
Bathroom
And because there’s no room without smart outlets, you might be interested in learning more about them. For instance, using smart outlets in your bathroom allows you to integrate any of the appliances or lights into a new automation system. Manage smaller air con units. Turn lights on and off remotely. Monitor the energy use of your appliances, so you’ll know whether or not you should invest in more energy-efficient models.
Garage
When you’re off with errands, your garage door is another part of your house you don’t want to stress about.
A smart garage door controller with Wi-Fi allows you to see if your door is open or closed, and you can control it remotely from anywhere with an internet connection.
You can also connect it to your home security system to alert you when the door opens and closes so you’ll know when your dear ones come and go.
No matter what your idea of a smart home is, experimenting with smart technology to increase the comfort and security of your house is the way to go.
