Read about 4 Smart Home Upgrades That Will Increase Your Home’s Value
Smart technology is everywhere, including our homes. We use our phones, TVs, speakers, and appliances within our homes every single day. But now, with more smart technology inventions and upgrades, we can install smart technology into the basic features of our homes to make them more efficient and safer. Smart technology in homes is catching on everywhere. Over 40% of real estate agents believe smart homes sell faster. Not surprising considering 37% of current home buyers are millennials who are by far the most tech-savvy generation to date. If you are going to upgrade your home’s technology consider these items that will make your home safe and increase your home’s value.
Smart Thermostat
Most home thermostats automatically read and adjust the output of heat or air conditioning to match your desired temperature. Smart thermostats, however, go a step beyond simply turning on and off your heating and cooling. Some smart thermostats come with remote sensors that can be placed in different rooms around your house. This will ensure that your home stays at a consistent temperature throughout your entire house. Even more advanced thermostats monitor your heating and cooling preferences and after one week can automatically set up a schedule to meet all your personalized needs. Of course, all smart thermostats can be controlled through your smartphone or voice activation. Not only do smart thermostats make heating and cooling your home easier they also make it more energy-efficient. Higher energy efficiency means energy savings. In general smart thermostats save homeowners anywhere from 8%-12% annually on their heating and cooling bills.
Smart Door Lock
You’re stuck in a work meeting when you get a text from your children: they have lost their keys and can’t get into the house. What do you do? You can’t leave work and you don’t want your children stuck outside alone. If you had a smart door lock this wouldn’t be an issue. In fact, you wouldn’t need to worry about your children dragging around keys at all. There are a variety of smart door locks available to homeowners. They range in price from $400 to around $100. Even the lowest-priced smart door lock can be controlled remotely through an app on your phone. This allows you to lock or unlock your door regardless of your location. Along with complete control through your phone, some smart door locks have four-digit codes, fingerprint scans, and digital keys. Higher-end locks also include a built-in video camera, emergency siren, anti-theft mechanisms, an emergency button to call authorities, and two-way talk so that you can speak to your guest before unlocking or locking the door.
Smart Lighting
Another smart home feature that will save you money, in the long run, is smart lighting. With hundreds of smart lighting systems on the market, the cost to upgrade your indoor lighting will be relatively inexpensive. The most notable smart light technology is a simple smart bulb. These can be purchased for as low as $8. It can easily replace your old dated bulb by simply screwing it into your light fixture and downloading the app. From there you can control the bulb’s brightness, set lighting timers, and pair with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to use voice commands.
Outdoor lighting is equally as important as indoor lighting. Motion-based security lights are the most popular form of outdoor lighting and are also the most beneficial for keeping your home safe. These lights can be mounted around your driveway, garage, pathway, and the back of your home. They can also be connected to a central hub so that if one light is activated, the other lights will turn on. Outdoor smart lights come with voice activation or smartphone activation for easy on and off. On top of their ability to illuminate the far-away corners of your home, smart outdoor security lights come with cameras that can be set to immediately begin recording when a light is activated.
Smart Smoke Detector
You’re perfecting your chicken stir fry when suddenly your smoke detector starts blaring loudly overhead. So you do what every homeowner does, you take down the smoke detector and pull out the battery, thinking you will return the safety feature to its correct position when you are done cooking. But then life gets busy and you forget. Next thing you know it’s been two weeks and your smoke detector is still sitting in the corner of your counter instead of on the ceiling keeping you and your family safe. This is a common occurrence, in fact, about two-thirds of all home fire fatalities occur in homes where the smoke detectors are disabled or missing. Smart smoke detectors do not come with the usual annoyance of a basic smoke detector.
A smart smoke detector will send a message to your phone or device alerting you to an impending siren. So if you are simply burning a batch of cookies you won’t need to pull down a blaring smoke detector and can instead simply dismiss the alarm and leave the smoke detector in place. Smart detectors also notify you even when you are away from home of detection of high smoke or carbon monoxide levels. Smart smoke detectors can be connected so that if one alarm goes off they all will. Finally, smart detectors can be programmed to use a loud siren and voice alerts that can identify what hazard has been detected. You will also be alerted to the hazard’s location and you will be given instructions on how to respond.
With the constant upgrades to smart technology, it’s no wonder that our homes are becoming smarter. Installation of smart technology will only add to your home’s value and will also increase your home’s safety and energy efficiency.
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