With an everchanging landscape of technology, new home improvements come onto the scene almost daily. The Sally Awad Group loves seeing the innovative ways that clients keep up with changing trends. There are many ways to integrate smart home products into your home. Companies like Best Buy offer consultations in the home to make the best recommendations, but as always, it is great to do your own research first. Integrating these products is a great way to keep up technologically, sustainably, and even financially.
The first step in turning your home into a smart home is to pick a unified system. Since many of the major tech companies have jumped on board with smart home products, it is easy to integrate with your smartphone or TVs that you may already have. It is most important to find one brand that is compatible with everything you own (or to keep everything in the same brand) so that each item can communicate with the other. The choices are endless from Apple/Amazon/Google to Lenovo/Bose/etc.
It is also important to note that a lot of these products are working towards being more energy-efficient and can help you in your efforts to have a smaller carbon footprint. Keeping appliances, entertainment, and lighting off when you are not in the room or using them is an important step that is made much easier with smart home products.
Here is a list of products that The Sally Awad Group thinks would make a great addition to any ‘Smart Home’:
- A Smart Home Hub. This allows each “smart” device to connect and communicate with one main hub. This could be in the form of a speaker or simply an app on your phone to control each device. This would also allow you to accomplish multiple things at once by setting up groups of actions under one command – such as the command, “Nighttime”, which could entail turning all indoor lights and appliances off while illuminating the outside and ensuring locks are locked.
- Smart Plugs are a must when integrating smart technology into the home. These allow you to plug in ordinary lamps and appliances, but still, connect them to your smart home and control with commands/apps.
- Smart Lighting gets the lighting in and around your home in order. It allows you to control your lights remotely through an app or physical remote, program them to certain times and settings, which can even eliminate the need for traditional switches. Smart lighting easily dims, stays energy efficient, and can even create instant mood lighting. The best benefit is that you can make sure you have every light off that you want to be off and vice versa.
- Smart TVs are a huge way to stay connected. This can serve as the Smart Home Hub or can be linked to every other smart device in the home. This can allow you to check in on cameras outside, inside, in the nursery, etc. through your TV screen. It can also be connected to a smart speaker to control the TV itself by changing the channel, volume levels and so much more.
- Smart Wi-Fi monitors smart network devices to allow the data to constantly be transferred between them. It also can change the router setting to ensure the strongest and best connection at all times. Smart Wi-Fi paired with a Smart Router is a great way to protect your information and keep your network secure. It allows easy access from your smartphone much like the other products as well.
- Smart Thermostats are great because you can monitor the temperature of the entire house through your phone. Especially if you are traveling and cannot remember if you turned your thermostat to the right spot in order to save some extra money and energy. Not only that, if you have children in the house who possibly change the temperature in the house, you can check and set it from one central location.
- Smart Nursery or Pet Detection would be especially important if you have either a baby or pet running around. The nursery can detect if the child is in danger, crying, or no longer breathing (especially with one of those smart socks). In terms of monitoring pets, you can keep up via cameras and even get one that allows you to throw treats!
- Integration with a Smart Lock System through your home security. This could include a multitude of things, but being able to ensure your windows and doors are locked via your phone can be such a relief when out and about. The other products this could include would be cameras and a ‘Ring’ Doorbell system so that you can monitor activity in and around the home.
In short, Your Family is Our Top Priority and The Sally Awad Group knows how important it is to be connected! Smart home products like these can help make life easier and more organized. The best part is, with so many upgrades the products continue to get more affordable and much more user-friendly! Meaning that you don’t need a degree in Computer Science or a huge understanding of IT to be able to incorporate these into your home! Check back on our
website, for more exciting news in the world of real estate.
