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6 Smart Home Devices to Automate Your Life
It’s the start of a new year, which means re-evaluating how you live your life. For a lot of people that means setting resolutions and working hard to improve daily habits. For others it means something else: using automation to transform your day-to-day living. After all, why work harder when you can work smarter?
For savvy people looking to embrace technology for a greater ease of living, we’ve compiled a list of 6 futuristic smart home devices that will handle menial tasks, increase your home comfort, and make you feel like you’re living in 2124, not just 2023.
Smart Switches
Ironically, one quick way to brighten your life is with a smart switch. Smart switches replace manual switches for controlling lights around your house, opening up options for dimming, remote-controlled adjustments, scheduling, and even motion sensing. We’re far past the days of clap-on/clap-off lights being the most futuristic way to control lighting in your rooms.
The Kasa Smart Light Switch comes with a guided install for easy step-by-step installation for newcomers. This makes it simple to enjoy features such as remote control and monitoring, voice control, scheduling, and even an “away mode” security option that turns lights on and off at random – making potential intruders believe your house is occupied.
Smart Lights
Though you don’t need smart lights to make use of smart switches, the two go together like PB and J. While smart switches bring function to your household, smart lights bring style and pizzazz (in addition to function, of course) thanks to features such as voice control and multicolor adjustments.
Because there’s nothing quite as confounding as needing three apps to turn the lights on in your kitchen, we recommend keeping your lights and switches in the same family. Along with the Kasa Smart Switch we featured above, the Kasa Smart Light Bulbs are an excellent option for homeowners. Enjoy features such as energy-monitoring and scheduling, accessible-anywhere remote control, and voice control for turning on lights hands-free.
Smart Cameras
Knock knock! “Who’s there,” you wonder. Instead of having to get up (and maybe get dressed) to peek through your blinds and identify your visitor, make use of smart cameras to see who’s at your front door, window, or backdoor at any time. Smart Cameras work as security measures as well as convenience tools, ensuring you’re always informed about the comings and goings around your front door.
Use the Ring Video Doorbell to get a 1080 HD video stream to see (as well as hear and even speak to) anyone at your door. This powerful tool can connect directly to phones, tablets, and PCs. It even has mobile notifications when someone rings your doorbell or triggers the built-in motion sensors, so you can always see who’s at your door, even if you’re not home.
Smart Locks
Smart cameras will let you see who’s at your door, but smart locks will let you control who can go through it. Smart locks enable you to control entry through your doors using either voice commands, keycodes, or a simple tap of your finger. Like many of the tools we’ve listed, smart locks tend to have functions you can control from anywhere like remote unlock or virtual keys for your kids or house guests. This also makes them a fantastic tool for AirBnbs or other short-term rental property management.
The Sifely Smart Lock gives you five different options for entrance: Fingerprint, Passcode, Fob, smartphone, or key. With ultra-easy installation and loads of user-friendly features, the Sifely Smart Lock is our pick. Just pair yours with the Sifely WiFI Gateway and you can unlock your home from anywhere at any time.
Smart Garage Door Openers
Ever forget to close your garage door, or get that uneasy feeling when you’re not sure if you did or didn’t? A smart garage door is smart enough both to let you know it’s still open and to shut it for you, all by itself, to keep your home secure. Through remote and voice control, these tools allow you to let in guests, delivery men, or family members through your garage door, whenever you want. Like smart cameras, they also provide you with a visual of who’s moving around your garage door.
In our opinion, you can’t go wrong with the Meross Garage Door Opener. This garage opener has voice and remote control and can be accessed anywhere through the Meross app. You can also set up multiple notification modes to determine when you’re alerted. You can receive updates on your garage door’s open/close status, get notifications so you remember to close the door overnight, and use overtime notifications to check how long it’s been open.
Smart Thermostat
Enough talk about who’s going in and out of your house, we want to highlight a tool that’s useful for when you’re hanging out inside with no plans to go anywhere. Smart thermostats are great for a few reasons. They give you greater control over the temperature inside your home and allow you to reduce energy usage, saving you money. Set temperature schedules, enjoy remote access, and even see usage reports to determine who’s really setting the temperature to 78 degrees when you told your kids not to turn it above 75.
For a quick installation and optimum user friendliness, you can’t go wrong with the Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat. The Emerson Sensi is easily integrated into the HVAC systems in most homes and comes with usage reports, alerts on equipment, and remote-control features. Plus, you can add voice control by combining it with your Alexa assistant!
