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How to Make Your Home a Smart Home

How to Make Your Home a Smart Home

We have many devices in our lives that enhance our experience and help make things easier. Technological advances improve how we do things and connect us all, from our cars to our phones.

What about our house? We spend most of our time there, and it is the perfect place to add intelligent innovation. If you are wondering what technologies you can install to make your home a smart home, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s go over several technologies on how to make your home a smart home:

1. Smart Locks

Door locks have come a long way, and everything from pin locks to deadbolts to key fobs has secured us for centuries. Today we have incredible tech options that allow us to do much more, providing better security and convenience.

Smart locks usually have a touchpad to provide keyless entry, so you just need to know the passcode. What’s great is you can even set up different codes for different people. They also have automatic locking, which means you don’t even need to be home to lock and unlock your door. You can do it all from an app on your phone. Now that’s smart.

2. Smart Doorbell

Another feature to have on your door is a smart doorbell to aid in your security. It allows you to monitor what’s happening at the door and let you speak with anyone who rings it. They have built-in microphones and infrared cameras to interact with visitors, all connected through an app on your phone. You don’t have to be home to use it; it works perfectly alongside your smart lock.

3. Smart Speaker

Once you are inside your home, there is more tech to make your life easier. How about a device that can talk to you? Smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google home live in the background and are ready to give almost any information you need. You can ask questions, set appointments, add to lists and request music playback. They can even control other smart devices around the home by asking them to. A constant, passive presence is there when you need it.

4. Smart Lights

Are you tired of turning on and off lights in your home? Fortunately, brands like Lutron Caseta offer smart lighting systems. What’s more, you can control your lighting through easy technological features.

There are LED bulbs that have software to connect to your phone or tablet so you can turn them on and off, dim them, change colours or even set timers to turn them off. This tech saves you time and money and is as easy as screwing in a new bulb. You will never have to worry about leaving a light on again when you go out.

5. Animal Automation

How about controlling your pet doors so they can go in and out without disturbing you? Great remote-controlled devices allow you to set up times for opening your pet door and chicken coop. This is a game-changer for animal control, and you can operate it on a timer, from your smartphone or even through your smart home system. Who let the dogs out? You did it without getting off the couch!

6. Smart Outlets

We all have electrical outlets on our walls with various devices plugged into them. Did you know that they draw power even when they are not being used? It’s called standby power, and like vampires, they slowly feed off their electronic host.

Smart outlets allow you to control power to the plug through a smartphone or voice commands. It is very convenient to have this feature in your home, and you can turn most of your devices smart by plugging them into the outlet. You can install a smart outlet or buy a smart plug as an alternative. These are cheaper and don’t require an electrician to put in. You just plug them into any outlet and then plug your appliance or device into the smart plug.

7. Smart Kitchen

You can add several tech innovations to make your kitchen smarter than the average bear. Here are just a few:

  • Fridge: They monitor what you have inside and can build a shopping list, provide recipes, and order groceries. They even play music.
  • Dishwasher: While it won’t load the dishes, it does sense the load and dispense the appropriate amount of detergent.
  • Oven: A smart oven will monitor your cooking, alert you along the way, and provide cooking instructions and recipes.
  • Faucet: You can control almost any function remotely with voice commands through an app and touchless hand gestures. They can even dispense any temperature and volume you require.
  • Coffee Maker: Not only can you schedule your coffee making through a timer or directly through an app, but you can also customize your brew each time. It can even be controlled through voice commands.

Smart technology is getting better and more devices are connecting all the time. Building your smart home is about convenience and efficiency, so embrace it and join the tech wave.