Top 10 Best Smart Home Devices

Turning your house into a smart home can save you money and time. Want to learn about even more smart home benefits?

Smart homes have been trending lately as technology has advanced. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a smart home, just think of the Jetsons. While technology isn’t quite that advanced yet, the days of your house throwing in a load of laundry for you aren’t that far away. Turning your home into a smart home can benefit you and your wallet in many other ways, so it’s worthwhile considering your options.

1) Lower Your Utility Bills

One of the biggest things every homeowner wants is lower utility bills. The biggest offenders are electricity-guzzling household appliances, lighting, and of course heating and cooling. Thanks to smart home devices though, like the EcoBee4 and Nest Learning Thermostat, you can start conserving and saving.

The EcoBee4 makes it easy to use electricity more efficiently. It’s a smart thermostat that was featured in Forbes, The New York Times, and countless other publications for being a truly smart device. After setting up the device in your house and putting sensors in each room, it will learn your home’s unique energy profile, such as which rooms get used when, and for how long. With this information, the device knows when to raise temperatures and when to lower them. So if you’re not in a certain room, the thermostat will signal to stop pumping heat into it. It also learns the times you usually go to sleep and wake up so it can raise or lower the temperature accordingly, saving you money. Unlike other smart thermostats, EcoBee4 also comes with Amazon Alexa voice capabilities so you can use it to hear the news, get a weather update, and even order groceries. You can also ask it to play music, or set a time to remind you to take out dinner from the oven.

Another extremely popular smart thermostat device is the Nest Learning Thermostat. It’s WiFi enabled so you can control the temperature of your house no matter where you are. Have you ever left your house and forgot to lower the heat or AC, or weren’t sure if you did or not? The Nest device takes all those worries and concerns away. Just open the Nest app from your phone or tablet to check or change the temperatures in your house. Nest also has a slightly less expensive option with fewer features, allowing pretty much anyone to own the device and start saving on their electricity bills. The ability to check your home’s temperatures are great of course, but even better is that these devices can save you up to 23% in heating and cooling costs every year. Another reason to go this route is that they’re easy to set up, sleek looking, and Energy Star certified, which means they’re eco-friendly.

2) Secure Your House

Smart devices can also help you stay more secure, alert, and aware. There are extremely advanced security cameras like the Arlo Pro by Netgear. The company has a range of smart home security products to give its customers peace-of-mind anytime and anywhere.

Its products are all wire-free, waterproof, come with cloud recording, and let you see live and recorded videos anytime. The Arlo Pro is an outdoor security camera system that’s easy to set up and use, has extremely high video quality, and tons of other useful features to keep you and your family safe. It’s weatherproof, has a camera with a 130° viewing angle, and has night vision that automatically switches on at night. The camera can be completely controlled by your phone letting you watch its recordings, speak through the camera, and signal an alarm.

People looking for smart security products also love the August Smart Lock Pro, the latest product from August that lets you control your door from anywhere. The advanced lock lets you lock and unlock your door, have keyless access, and keep track of who comes and goes, all from your phone. The device’s hardware gets discreetly installed in the inside of your door, so your door’s exterior hardware stays the same. You can use your key, or choose to use the keyless control at any time. Being able to control your door’s lock remotely allows you to let people in when you’re not there, as well as ensure that your door is locked when you may not be able to recall if you locked it or not. The Smart Lock Pro also easily integrates with other smart home devices like Nest, as well as voice services like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.

3) A 24/7 Personal Assistant

Of course, you can’t mention a smart home and not have the idea of a personal assistant pop into mind. It’s the classic futuristic scene – you go about your day and speak to a floating robot that is able and willing to do anything you ask of it. Though we’re not there yet, we are getting there with the Amazon Echo. The Amazon Echo is a cylindrical product that’s a smart voice-controlled assistant. You can speak to the device and Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, will respond. You can ask Alexa to read out a recipe, give you train times or sports game scores, or almost anything else. Since Echo, there’s been the Amazon Echo Dot and the touch-screen enabled Amazon Echo Show.

4) Be In Control At All Times

Having a smart home also lets you be in control. You can control your home’s temperature and your front door lock, but did you know that you can also control your lights? The Philips Hue lighting system is an advanced smart lighting system that no smart home would be complete without. The lights are available in white or color, and because they have geofencing technology, you can control them remotely from your phone or tablet. By doing this, you can turn off lights in your house when they’re not in use to save electricity. You can also turn them on when you're away, to trick potential thieves into thinking you’re home. If you want a smart lighting system that’s more basic than Philips Hue, try Lutron Caseta Wireless Bridge, which lets you control your lights, shades, and temperature from an app. To keep all your smart devices connected, use Samsung SmartThings. The kit connects to any smart device and lets you control and keep track of them easily.

Smart Home, Smart Choice

The benefits of turning your house into a smart home are endless. From saving money on your heating and cooling bills and staying more secure with keyless locks and security cameras, to letting a personal assistant handle your day-to-day tasks, a smart home is certainly a smart choice.