Cool Smart Home Technologies

Most of us have at some point worried about whether we switched off the coffee maker or TV, locked the front door, and so on when we are at work or on vacation. While earlier, we had to wait to reach home or ask a neighbor to check on these things for us, with improvements in smart home technologies we can use our smart phones and tablets to do so.

Total Comfort

Some of the cool smart home technologies enable you to communicate with all the electronic appliances and gadgets that you own ensuring that your home is heated or cooled to the right temperature when you arrive, that lights are switched on or off even as you continue to sit on the couch or lie in bed, and even get the coffee maker switched on as you get out of bed in the mornings.

Though smart home technologies have been developed since the 1970s they have become more user friendly and affordable with the spread in the use of smart phones and tablets as well as fact that most homes are now WiFi enabled.

Saving Time

We now have smart home technology that will enable you to unlock the front door using your smart phone. This means you do not need to carry a set of keys with you. You can also remotely unlock the front door to let in the dog walker, your child, or cleaner. The smart lock comes with a camera that ensures that you can check the identity of the person you are letting into your home.

Better Sight

Another salient new technology uses the flexibility of LED lights to ensure that you can manipulate the lighting in your home from wherever you are. Using a set of LED lights and a bridge you can ensure that the lights are switched on or off, dimmed or made brighter or even change color. This can be used to change the ambience of the room with ease.

You can have a series of programs that enable you to change the ambience from cozy to party mood using a smart phone. Alternately, you can fool burglars by switching on the lights each evening and switching them off later on even when you are on vacation. This is likely to be more difficult for burglars to spot than just leaving the lights on, as they will be able to notice that the lights are not switched off throughout the night.

Total Efficiency

If you are a busy professional who would like to come home to a hot meal, you can use a smart crock pot that enables you to turn it on, change temperature settings, and cooking times from your office, on the commute, or from the living room. All you need to do is fill up the crock pot with the ingredients before you leave home. You can start the cooking process depending on when you are ready to leave work – if you find that you have to stay back to complete a report, just start the crock pot later and you will still have freshly made, hot food when you reach home.

Know What Your Children are Watching

Appliance manufacturers have integrated smart home technology into a variety of gadgets and devices such as washing machines, TVs, and security alarms. Depending on your needs you can choose which appliances to connect to the smart network. For instance, if you need to monitor your children’s TV usage when you are away at work, you can include the TVs in the network, while others might find it more useful to remotely control their coffee maker.

A Concern

While cool smart home technologies are here to stay, you need to ensure that you purchase appliances and gadgets that can communicate with each other and have built in security features that prevent others from manipulating them remotely.