Why it Might be Time for a Smart Home

Got a cell phone or a tablet? Care to give it up? Most people wouldn’t. Our world has embraced technology and the ability to do and know things faster and more safely.  The same is true of smart devices--once you try Smart Home technology, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to move into the 21st century.

Here are some reasons why:

Control

A smart thermostat is smart. 

Having everything you need to run your home at your fingertips is the ultimate indulgence. or turn up the heat in your house, or turn on the outside lighting so you don’t have to come home to a dark house. Your front door opens when you approach and locks behind you. You can set your blinds to automatically open and close, as well.

Safety

From sensors that indicate when your hot water heater is leaking to doorbells that allow you to see, record, and interact with who is at your front door, a Smart Home pretty much takes the mystery out of what is happening in and around your home when you aren’t there, or when you’re on another floor or even in the next room.  You can lock doors, monitor the perimeter of your home, and check the sleeping (or wide awake!) children and elderly parents with the nanny cam.

Energy Efficiency

If it has a plug or a switch, you can turn it on or off (or up and down) at whim. No more running around shutting lights off, going downstairs to turn down the furnace, or any of the other little things you do to keep power consumption down. Your stairs and hallways light up when someone approaches them.  Lights turn on and off on a schedule, or on demand. Lights have a light sensor, too, so they know when it’s daytime if you happen to change the schedule.

Ambiance

Temperature control isn’t limited to floors anymore; now you can have different temperatures for each room of the house, and have them pre-programmed to change temperatures, for example, if you want your bedroom warm when you wake up in the morning, but not all day, because you’ll be working in your home office, so you can set that to a comfortable temperature. Want to stay in bed today instead? You can switch it around without ever getting up.

Color changing lights, and even a smart smoke detector that senses both fast and slow burning fires, as well as carbon monoxide.

Peace of mind

When a sudden thunderstorm comes your way, a sensor will turn off the sprinkler system. A load controller can be set to monitor your appliance consumption, so you’ll know your load consumption before you get that shocker electric bill and you’ll never have so many items running at once that you’ll blow a fuse.

Value

To top it all off, these simple improvements don’t have to be implemented all at once. A homeowner can add these items piecemeal, so the cost isn’t exorbitant.  It will increase your home's value, too.

You might want to check out this great article, which explains the differences between Google Home vs. Amazon’s Alexa.