A “smart house” used to just be a pipe dream turned into a silly Disney channel movie with a virtual butler, smoothie making robots, and customized wake-up calls.
While the smoothie making robots seem to have stalled at normal blenders, smart homes are no longer just a Disney-esque dream. Fully customized and teched-out homes not only exist, but they’re common.
With all the high tech home products available, it can be hard to know where to start. Should you go straight for high tech security cameras? What about appliances? Gadgets for entertainment?
We’re going to go over some of the best smart home technology that you should consider when upgrading your home.
Home Hub
If you’re new to smart home systems, you’re probably thinking, “what the heck is a home hub?”
A smart home hub is one device that connects many of your other smart tech devices. You’ve probably heard of the big ones like Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Home.
This one device can connect almost all of your smart products onto one easy to use device.
Lights, music, thermostats, locks, TVs, appliances, and more can be easily connected through this one tech hub.
Some hubs, like the Amazon Echo, also includes a speaker to play your music. Others can connect directly to a speaker so all you have to do is ask out loud for it to play your favorite song, and your wish will be granted.
Hubs make it easy to connect your entire smart home, especially if you’re going to all out and upgrade most of your home to the best smart home products.
Smart Thermostat
Now that you know you can easily connect all your devices and gadgets through a hub, let’s get into some of the specific technology you should consider.
A smart thermostat will not only take control of and streamline your heating and cooling system, it can also save you money in the long run.
Many smart thermostats will have built-in WiFi technology. This lets you control the temperature of your home through your phone, laptop, computer, or tablet from anywhere.
These thermostats can also sense the temperature in different rooms and adjust the heating/cooling appropriately. They can also connect to your home tech hub, which makes using it easy and user-friendly.
Security Cameras
Both indoor and outdoor security cameras can add a higher level of protection to your home.
The most up-to-date camera technology allows you to control the cameras from anywhere as long as you have access to the Internet.
High tech security cameras for a smart home have a number of helpful features, including:
- A wide range of motion
- High-quality picture
- Great sound quality
- Motion detection
- Video recording system triggered by movement or certain events
ADT cameras offer this event-triggered recording system, WiFi capabilities, and night-viewing infrared technology along with a cost-effective price.
This will keep both the inside and the outside of your home secure. Many cameras can also connect to smart home hubs, apps, or computers in order to make them easy to use and control.
Smart Lights
There are a few different brands of smart lightbulbs. These lights can be completely controlled with an app, your computer, or even your home hub device.
You can not only turn lights on and off, but you can control the light intensity as well as the color of the light.
Do you want some mood lighting? Try dimming the lights and making it cool blue.
What about a party? Go for some reds or purple bright lights.
You can also choose to go for a smart light switch. Like most of the newest devices, smart light switches can connect to your WiFi and can be controlled through an app.
Home Theater System
Not all smart home upgrades have to be entirely functional, so to speak. A home theater system will be an awesome addition to any smart home: a completely customized movie theater screen, smart projectors, a universal remote that can control the movie and the lights and the speakers.
Complete home entertainment systems with speakers, projectors, and a connection to all of the streaming platforms will set you up for plenty of movie nights in and afternoons spent binge watching the newest shows.
You can also get a hub specifically for your home entertainment system. Certain ones like the Singlecue work with hand motions instead of your voice or a remote, so you won’t have to worry about distracting anyone engrossed in the movie.
Remote Controlled Shades
Have you ever been comfortable on the couch about to take an afternoon nap, but you realize that the sun is right in your eyes? You either have to get up from your comfortable nap spot and close the shades, or you have to suffer through the bright lights in your eyes.
Not anymore with smart shades. That’s right: you can upgrade to remote controlled shades that close on command through an app.
You can also set them up to close and open automatically on a schedule and connect them to your hub device to close them with a simple voice command. You’ll never again have to choose between getting up and suffering from light in your eyes during a nap. Thank god for technology, right?
Upgrading to a High Tech Home: Wrapping Up
Almost everything can be turned into a smart home device nowadays, as evidenced by remote controlled window shades and WiFi controlled color-changing light bulbs. Some of these contractors are using DataStreet App to track T&M.ย If you’ve been thinking of upgrading your home to be more aligned with today’s technology, these are some great things to start with.ย Many high end in-home gadgets may require phase converters which you can purchase fromย Phoenix Phase Converters.
While there are of course many more things you could look into upgrading, these things we’ve gone over are applicable for almost all homes. These are some of the most worthwhile smart investments you can make.
If you want to check out more of the most up to date gadgets and technology on the market, you can check out our technology blog.
