Inventing stuff that makes our lives faster and easier is nothing new to us. You can say that we, humans, are naturally ingenious… or just plain lazy. Either way, our love of convenience has brought us closer to making smart homes a possibility for anyone who doesn’t have deep pockets! Why should anyone dream about living in a home that’s filled with smart home products? Well, the reason is real simple: they save you time and money. As a matter of fact, with these smart home products, you could be spending less time doing chores and more time doing things that matter to you most:
Smart Lighting
What if you could dim the lights in certain rooms; determine how long some lights stay on; and create lighting scenes suitable for Friday night movie marathons… without touching any switches at all? With products like Philips Hue LED Starter Kit, you now can.
With smart lights like Hue, you no longer have to bother walking around the house to manually turn off every single light at night. Simply open up the Philips app and tap the off button! And did we mention that the device is energy-efficient?
Wi-Fi-Enabled Switches
Imagine how much savings you get by having a switch that turns off an appliance after its power consumption reaches a certain amount or switches off the heater or air-conditioner after a predetermined span of time. You’d be able to monitor your electricity bill much better!
With the Wemo Switch Smart Plug, you can switch on/off appliances remotely, monitor energy use, and even set timers on your electronic gadgets!
Robot Vacuum Cleaners
Sure, robot vacuum cleaners aren’t all that surprising by now. However, the latest generation comes with a bunch of nifty features that will save you even more time.
The LG Hom-Bot Square Robotic Vacuum not only cleans your place autonomously, it also sends you photos of the home so you can determine what specific corners it should clean. The vacuum also senses movements when you’re away and sends you photos of what’s going on inside. Now, who wouldn’t want a robot vacuum that also acts as one’s eyes and ears at home?
Smart Refrigerators
While some of us think that smart fridges are an elaborate advertising scheme, models like Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator may make you think otherwise.
Aside from being energy-efficient, this futuristic appliance comes with internal cameras that let you see its contents on your smartphone—a great way to make your runs to the grocery more efficient. Plus, it gives you notifications when food that you have in the fridge is about to expire. You can even order the edibles you forgot to buy at the grocery through apps in the Family Hub’s built-in tablet! Cool, huh?
Intuitive Thermostats
Managing your monthly energy bill can be outright difficult. Especially when you leave heaters and air-con units on throughout the day so you get to come home to a toasty warm or a refreshingly cool home every time. With a smart thermostat letting you remotely control whichever unit is necessary to maintain indoor temperature levels, you could ensure that you step back into a comfy crib without paying a pretty penny.
Speaking of smart thermostat, the Nest Learning Thermostat is a wise investment when you want to save as much as 15% off your energy bill. The best part? It doesn’t need to be manually programmed because it tries to “learn” your preferences at different times.
Smart Dishwashers
No one likes spending hours preparing food for a family gathering only to spend even more time scrubbing dirty pans after. It’s for this reason that innovations like the Whirlpool Smart Dishwasher can be a godsend to busy kitchens everywhere.
How does it help? Well, you can control when to turn on the appliance through your smartphone with its ‘smart assistant’ feature. Not only that, it also gives you updates on a cycle’s progress and tracks how much energy it has consumed. It even has a component monitor to let you know when certain parts need replacing or fixing.
Smart Tumble-Dryers
When you’re too busy to hang your clothes dry outdoors or your location isn’t that blessed with too many sunny days, having a tumble-dryer that you can operate even when you’re in the office can be quite handy.
For instance, the Samsung DV457 dryer is an energy-efficient model that lets you monitor and control its settings from your smartphone. This can be a huge time-saver, especially for those of us who barely have the energy to wash and dry our clothes once a week.
Smart Speakers
This one may seem like the odd one out but don’t be fooled. The fact is that the Amazon Echo may be the only smart speaker out there that can tie together the functions of many of the smart home products you see on the market. No wonder it has become the hottest smart device today.
The Echo, with the aid of a voice-enabled assistant Alexa, controls smart home products at your command. Pair the device with smart home hubs and you can further automate functions within the house, like adjusting the thermostat, closing the garage door, turning on a smart TV, or even sending somebody a text. It’s surprisingly making homes everywhere smarter!
With these smart home products, our dream of living in an automated home is slowly turning into reality. As they cease to remain as novelties, it won’t be long before everybody would be able to do the things that they love while saving both time and money.