How “smart” is your home?

Did you ever see that 1999 Disney Channel Original movie “Smart House”? HA, what a hoot. If not, it was a story about a family that moves into a “smart” house complete with a holographic caretaker/assistant named Pat who does everything for the family. “Pat” does end up going a little crazy and becomes obsessed with keeping the family safe. BUT, there are a few things in that movie that aren’t too far fetched from where we are today with “smartifying” our homes. 

But what does it even mean to have a “smart” house in the present day? Well, it can be as simple or complex as the person smartifying the house wishes. For us, it means that we’ve connected parts of our home such as our lights, TV, stereo, and even the locks on our doors to a system like Google Home and Alexa. So we can say, “Hey Google, turn on the living room lights” or “Hey Google, play Grey’s Anatomy” or “Hey Google, lock the back door”. It may seem frivolous, but once you get used to the luxury of having Google turn your lights on and off, it seems strange to flip a switch when you go anywhere else! It may seem widely complicated, but truthfully, it isn’t. Just a few products and minutes of setup will give you more connectivity and the freedom to control your home right from your phone, with a voice command, or not have to think about it all when set up on a schedule. 

I’m not a tech person, why should I care? 

Even if you’re not into the idea of living in a futuristic home that can do everything for you, imagine saving yourself minutes out of the day when asking Google to check that the back door is locked or turn on another room light. The time does add up and putting things like the lights and temperature on a schedule can save you money. And what do all decisions end up coming down to? Time and money, friends.

What does making your home “smart” even mean?

It’s not what you may think – the subtle beginning to the AI takeover that will lead to your toaster attacking you with laser cannons.. It simply means giving some intelligence to your otherwise not-so-smart devices around your house. Like your front porch lights – they can be flipped on or off by hand when you walk over to the switch, but what if they came on as soon as the sun went down or as you pulled in the driveway? Adding “smart” rules to non-intelligent devices is actually pretty helpful and cool!

How does it work? 

Smart devices work over your home WiFi, so you want to make sure you’ve got a solid network and connection all over your home. 

What are the ways to smartify your home?

• Light control – turning on/off lights from your phone or setting a schedule
• Temperature sensors – setting a schedule from a smart device like Nest or Ecobee or have it sense when you are in a room to heat/cool or be away when you’re not home. Set schedules to prefer the office during the day and bedroom at night so you’re comfortable wherever you see.
• Water sensors and smart shut-off valves – sensors to detect when you have a leak that can shut off the water and alert your phone as well as the pressure and an auto-shut off on temperature if the water goes past a certain set usage. 
• Blinds/shades – setting a schedule to raise shades for daylight and close at sunset.
• Refrigerator – there are smart refrigerators that can sense when you’re out of an item on a sensor, like eggs or milk, for example, and when that designated spot is empty, it can reorder your preferred grocery products. 
• Vacuum – setting a schedule or voice commanding a robovac to clean while you’re at home or away. 
• Security sensors – Motion sensors, window sensors, and glass break sensors alert you or sound an alarm when activity is detected when or where there shouldn’t be any.
• Lawn and gardening devices (sprinkler system, mower) – maintain lawn care while you’re away or on a schedule with sprinklers on a smart plug or even a robot lawn mower. Keep plants watered on a schedule out according to when moisture is low.
• Smoke detectors/safety sensors – smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (like Nest) that will alert your phone whether you are at home or away. 
• TV/Home audio and smart speakers – Connect your TV and home audio systems to a device (like Chromecast) to cast any phone videos or photos to your TV and use Google Home to stream your favorite TV show on Netflix with your voice. 
• Doorbells – have cameras and can alert you when someone comes to your door whether you are at home or away. Two-way communication lets you talk back to them if you need to tell the girl scouts you’re on a diet.
• Door locks – keyless entry with the pin pad that connects to an app which can be integrated in your smart hub to run off voice command. Your locks can be programmed on a schedule (because we all forget to lock the door), temporary keys can be given out to trusted friends, contractors or the nanny/dog sitter.
• Pet feeders and treat dispensers – connect a smart feeder to auto-dispense food at a set time or on command so Fido never goes hungry. 
• Even a doggie door! – seriously, can you believe? A smart door that can let your dog out without letting other critters or dogs in. 

How does it help us in our daily life? 

We personally use smart things to help us manage our light schedule, temperature of the house, make sure our doors are locked, and to start/stop streaming shows on Netflix. The lighting schedule and asking Google to turn on and off lights was a game changer for us. It’s nice because right now, our hands are always full with a newborn so we can say, “Hey Google, turn off the nursery lights” when it’s nap time. And if we forget to turn off lights there is a schedule that John programmed which will automatically shut them off by 11:15 p.m. 

How much does it cost? 

Like any home improvement projects to your home, you could spend around fifty bucks to accomplish the minimum of what you set out to do or go bananas and spend a thousands of dollars replacing every device in your house possible with a smart-equivalent version. 

Let’s say you’d like to smartify your living room lights to automatically come on and off at a certain time each day. You’d pay around $25 on average per smart plug. Then, you’d want to download the corresponding app with that smart plug and set up a schedule. You could rely on the schedule you just created, or turn them on and off right on your phone from any room in the house. To take it a step further, you could get a smart speaker like Alexa or Google Home to integrate with those devices and run voice commands (I.e. “Alexa, turn on the lights.” “Hey Google, turn on the lights.”). 

With the help of a few smart plugs or smart devices and little setup time, you’ll feel like you live in the future and can operate your home like an orchestra conductor. We personally love the time and energy saved, as well as the cool factor that smartifying our home provides. We hope you will be inspired to do the same!

What’s your home’s IQ? Comment below to let us know!