Are Smart Home Devices For You?

Home trends can be fleeting, here one minute, then gone the next. What about smart technology? Smart technology adds functionality and value to a home, so it should be a trend that sticks.

 

Here's a few smart home products that can make your home not only more safe, but convenient.

Video Doorbell

WiFi-enabled video doorbells are an inexpensive and convenient way to see who's at your door, even when you're not home, using your smartphone.

The doorbell alerts your phone when someone rings the bell, or even when they come near. And you can talk to the visitor, making sure you get important deliveries or to let your friends know you're on the way to the door. And when you're away from home, you can catch potential thieves.

Not only are video doorbells inexpensive, at around $200, they are easy to install and use.

Smart Door Locks

Keys are becoming a thing of the past. Now you can just use your phone as a digital key. And even better, you can text digital keys to whoever you want to gain access to your home. And you can set these so-called digital keys to be temporary or permanent, which is perfect for hiring contractors or others who should only have temporary access.

And how many times do we forget to lock the house? That's no longer an issue with smart locks. Just check your cell phone and set the lock if needed.

Home Generators

More an more people are investing in generators due to more extreme weather and risk of power outages.

However, the noisy portable diesel generators can be a pain. A built in generator can be installed that's about the size of an HVAC unit. They run on propane or natural gas and will kick on automatically when the power goes out.

Smart Mirror

Mirror, mirror on the wall, will this be the fairest day of them all? Yes, now you can talk to the mirror. You can  get the weather, traffic updates, podcasts, or order more bathroom supplies.

There are even prototypes not yet on the market that will give you fashion advice. The magic mirror of Snow White is coming soon. The you can make sure you're the fairest of them all before you leave your smart home.

Smart Blinds

You can save money on cooling costs in the summer with smart blinds, which you can also control from your phone.

You can program them to open or close at certain times of day, or when the room hits a specific temperature. Or if you’re reading and you want to open the blinds to let in more light, you don’t have to get out of your chair. “Alexa, open the blinds.” Done.

You can also pre-schedule your smart blinds to make your home more secure.

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