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In the age of technology that we live in it’s a fantastic time to turn your home into a Smart Home. Technology such as Hive heating, camera doorbells and smartphone operated light bulbs can make your life easier and your home more secure. Here are our top smart home ideas…
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1. Hive Heating
When winter comes around, most of us are looking for ways to keep our houses cosy and warm without overspending on heating. Hive Heating is the solution! It’s managed through an app on your phone, and you can manage the times and temperature your home is heated, even when you’re not there. This can be really useful if you’re on holiday and the weather changes unexpectedly- the last thing anyone wants to come back to is frozen pipes and leaks! Plus, Hive pays for itself within a year: by only heating your home when it’s needed and controlling it carefully, you could save £120 per year, and the box itself only costs £99. Hive is a great way to save money, save the planet and make your home smart. It’s one of our top smart home ideas.
- Heating Boost - For up to six hours
- Heating Schedules - Set up to 6 daily time slots
- Automatic Frost Protection - Helps prevent frozen pipes
- Holiday Mode - Tell Hive your holiday dates and come back to a warm home
- Temperature Graphs - Keep track of how you're using your heating
2. Roombas
Remember those electronic dogs every child wanted in the early 2000s? Well, they grew up and now they bring you the paper! I’m only joking- we’ve all grown up, and now we want a smart pet who does the hoovering for us. Roombas roll around your house, cleaning the floors and generally being the cleaning fairies your parents said weren’t real. Roombas can be reprogrammed to work when you’re out, and adjust when your pets start moulting or it’s especially dusty. They’re a good, easy way to improve your home and keep it shiny and clean.
- 3-Stage cleaning system picks up everything from small particles to large debris, to pet hair
- The auto-adjust cleaning head automatically adapts its height to keep the dual multi-surface brushes in close contact with different floor surfaces, to effectively clean carpets as well as hard floors
- Dirt detect sensors recognize concentrated areas of dirt and prompt the robot to clean them more thoroughly
- No smart home hub required
3. Google Nest Mini
If you live alone and chat out loud to yourself, sometimes you might want a response. From a robot, not a robber! Google Nest Mini is a Google-enabled device that can find answers for you, from weather forecasts to random questions that pop into your mind. It’s hands free, so it can talk you through a recipe whilst you’re cooking- no more dough on your smartphone screen- and play music and podcasts with a decent sound quality. The only issue- and this has happened- is if you use it to order food, parrots may repeat your order and you might end up with random deliveries!
4. KRUPS KM785D50 Grind and Brew Auto-Start Maker
Not a morning person? Don’t speak to you until you’ve had your coffee? How about a smart coffee maker, which makes the perfect cup in time for your sleepy stumble through the kitchen. This can be programmed to have a cup of coffee ready at a specific time each day, and can make it exactly how you want it. You can even choose how strong it is! Plus, this model grinds the beans freshly each morning, giving the coffee a richer, deeper flavour. Delicious!
5. Smart Light Bulbs
They’re not cheap, and it takes a while to get used to them, but Smart Light bulbs are really useful. You can schedule when your lights come on, and when they turn off, so you’re woken up to a lit house every morning. And there’s no worrying about going room to room and switching them all off before bed. You can also get bulbs that change colour, which is fun and great for kids. Finally, these are often a good option for anyone who uses a wheelchair, as they won’t be able to reach light switches and, if they live alone, trying could be pretty dangerous.
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6. Ring Video Doorbell
These are pretty great, especially if you live in an area with a high crime rate. Essentially, you have a doorbell with a camera and microphone, so visitors can ring it, speak to you and then be let in. The video and audio connects to your smartphone, so it looks like you’re at home even when you’re not, and it monitors everyone who comes to the door. This can be a great deterrent and allows you to monitor potential robbers, stalkers or anyone coming onto your property. A Ring Video Doorbell can help your home feel safe and give you peace of mind.
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7. Smart TVs
Now that you’re relaxing at home, decaf in hand, lights on warm and dim, eating something you’ve prepared with help from your nest and knowing that nobody’s getting into your house until you’ve checked them, why not watch a little TV? And as everything else in your home is so intelligent, why not try a smart TV, too? Smart TVs connect to the internet and are, at this stage, not a million miles away from just being a really, really good computer screen. Smart TVs will connect to all your favourite streaming services, and YouTube, they’ll play the radio and music if you like, and you can display photos on them- perfect for rehearsing presentations for work or looking over some memories with old friends. You could even watch a film! Just know that you’re doing it with crisp images and high quality sound.
- Enjoy entertainment in stunning detail and Generating fives times the resolution of standard definition, resolution 1366 x 768 delivers incredible clarity and vibrant colours
- To support the advanced picture processing required for bright, sharp images there are 4 cores of processing power available for a fast and powerful brain to make sure you have the best possible picture
- With active HDR adapting scene by scene to deliver image Mastering with pinpoint picture reproduction, LG TVs can offer the best picture visuals no matter what the format
- Good quality software creates a surround sound effect producing virtual audio channels for broadcast and digital programmes, Surround your senses with sound from all angles
Benefits of using these Smart Home Ideas
These smart home ideas have made life so much easier for us. We have light bulbs and Hive heating synched with Alexa so that we can turn them on by voice command! We have also used smart home ideas such as Ring Doorbell, Digital Smart locks and Smart cameras for our Air BnB property. Have you used any of these smart home ideas? If so please comment on our blog below!
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