Making Your Home SMART!!

What does it mean these days to own a “smart home”? Smart homes are the trend, sweeping the country like a wildfire, and it’s time to get on board! Homes that have their heating/cooling, electronics, and lighting controlled by their phones are defined as smart homes. Devices can be installed in your home that allow you to control systems, lighting and appliances at home with a touch of your fingertips! Forget to turn your flat iron off? No problem! Open the app and turn the outlet off! It's becoming easier and easier to maintain a busy lifestyle without having to worry about electrical hazards at home. Below are some examples of devices you can install to make your home “smart” and make your life easier!

1. Home Security: SimpliSafe

Simplisafe Home Security is one of the best Do It Yourself home security packages. It contains devices such as motion detectors, contact sensors, keypad, freeze detectors, entry sensor, SimpliCam, glass break sensor, panic button, and many more. The beauty about SimpliSafe is that your home security system is perfectly customizable to your wants and needs. It has 24/7 monitoring and can be accessed through the web app or the SimpliSafe app on your phone.

2. Thermostat: Ecobee

Rated by multiple news sources and thousands of homeowner reviews, Ecobee is one of the highest rated smart thermostat that works seamlessly with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT. It has a beautiful touch screen design and also works as an Amazon Alexa Speaker! It also comes with a portable smart temperature sensor that is able to tell you the exact temperature of the room that you placed the sensor in, in case that room need special attention to temperature. You can control all the functionalities of the thermostat through the web app, through your phone, or the actual thermostat itself.

3. Smart Plug: Belkin WeMo Smart Plug

The Belkin WeMo devices are able to automate all your lights from your phone. It’s very well connected, compatible with IFTTT, Google Home, and Amazon's Alexa devices. It’s very easy to set up. All you have to do is take the smart plug and plug it into an existing outlet and whatever device is plugged into the outlet, whether it be a toaster or lamp, can be controlled through the Belkin WeMo app.

4. Vacuum: Neato Botvac Vacuum

This vacuum is well connected and is better at cleaning than a lot of the robot vacuums out there. You can start, steer, and schedule this vacuum all from the comfort of your phone. It’s very thorough and high powered so it will pick up even the smallest hair on any of your surfaces.