There’s a massive shift going on in the way we live, communicate, and think.
And it’s all due to technological advancements. By now, you’re probably starting to ask yourself, is a smart home of the future for me? Will you be left behind if you don’t upgrade your home? The answer is probably.
The good old days of living in a simple neighborhood in a simple house seem destined for the dustbin. Is it worth it to update your home or buy a smart home? Let’s see…
1. Assistants
Turn any room into a smart room with “smart assistants.” These include Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple’s Siri.
They’re all competing to win you over. Usually, you can decide based on what you use the most. If you use an Apple iPhone and Mac, you’ll most likely want to go with Siri and their Apple Home Pod.
If you live the WAP life, that is, “Weekly Amazon Packages” arrive at your home, then Alexa is probably your best assistant.
If you have an android phone and use Google, you will want to choose Google Assistant. It’s all about brand loyalty and compatibility.
Each of these assistants offers answers to questions, calls people, orders food and services, controls your smart home appliances and plays music. Personally, I use Google Home throughout my house and have few, if any, problems with it.
2. Security
With a smart home, you can take security to another level. Now there are smart cameras (like Ring) you can place around your house.
These smart cameras will automatically alert you if someone is too close to your home, and you can actually pull up the footage from anywhere in the world that has internet. You can even set up your house on “away mode” when you’re on vacation. This will turn on your lights for a few hours, so anyone on the outside thinks you’re still home.
The best part is you can have all your smart appliances talk to each other. Imagine this: you and your family go on a wonderful vacation. You set your house in “away mode” and forget about it.
But let’s say someone is eyeing your house and is planning on breaking in (which we hope will never happen). They break through the front door. Little do the criminals know that you’ve got a smart camera pointing precisely at the front door. Immediately, once your smart camera registers movement, all your lights will turn bright red, and your speakers will turn to full volume to scare the perpetrator away.
All the while, the police have been notified, and you’ve received a notification on your phone letting you know the authorities are on the way. Now that’s security!
3. Smart Appliances
Smart appliances usually go hand in hand with assistants. These can range from kitchen appliances to controlling your heating in your home.
For example, using the Nest thermostat is different from a normal one. A normal one makes you manually change the temperature constantly. If you need to change it in the middle of the night, you have to get out of bed and make your way all the way to the thermostat, turn on the light to see it and try to adjust accordingly. Brutal.
With Nest, you can change the temperature directly from your phone. If you can’t find your phone, no big deal, say, “Okay, Google, set the temperature to 70 degrees.” Nice and comfy!
As if by magic, you’ll find the temperature changing immediately, all without having to get out of bed. You can even turn it off when you are away from home. The best part is that Nest will start learning your routine and automatically adjust the temperature. This will save you a ton of money on utility bills.
Chromecast will automatically show any show on Netflix on your tv by just asking. And smart TVs that can turn off at the end of a show if you ask it to.
Try smart coffee pots to get your coffee made for you right when you wake up. By now, you should see a trend of how helpful smart home appliances can be. You can even control your garage door with your phone if you needed to. Next thing you know, you’ll need to get a smart car to bring everything full circle. And a teenager to help.
4. Lighting
Lighting is one of the most useful tools in the smart home of the future. Not only will you save money on energy, but you’ll have a good time with the light. Imagine being able to control all your light’s color, brightness, and power from just your phone and your voice. You can also control them from anywhere. These lights also make for a great party trick and mood lighting.
So What Do You Think?
In the future, it’s hard to imagine a life without a smart home. Once you “go smart,” you’ll ask yourself how you ever got anything done before! Technology is changing quickly and along with that, so are homes.
If you’re looking to upgrade to your smart home of the future, connect and Eng Garcia realtor and let us know how we help.