Improving Your Home with Smart Automation

Let’s face it, the excitement of setting up your home is part of, as we all call it, ‘adulting’. There is something oddly satisfying about having your own place and working down to every last detail to make it your space. When you think of setting up your home, or making any improvements to the living space some time down the road, we tend to always think towards the interior or new fixtures.

Sure, it’s great to have a new wallpaper after some years, or a new set of sofas, or a midcentury modern themed chandelier in the living room. We don’t usually think of any other things that could systematically improve our household altogether. So how about automating your home for instance? You may think that means a great deal of expenditure and extensive installations, but there is a simpler way to automate your home – all you need are smart home devices.

Here are a few smart home devices we found on First Energy Electric’s website. Affordable and smart tech that can automate your home within minutes of installation and set up.

How to Improve Your Home Using Smart Home Devices

Here are 4 smart home devices that you can use for smart automation around your home.

1.Smart Lights

Nothing too fancy but smart lights are very useful to have around your home and for various reasons. Often times we forget to turn off the lights on our way out in the morning, or worry about intruders lurking if we’re ever away from home while on vacation. These are the times when smart lights come in handy.

Smart lights are easy to install, meaning you simply screw the bulb into its outlet and it is then set up via its respective mobile app. These bulbs connect to the Wi-Fi network and thus give you all-rounded access to the bulbs collectively as well as individually, 24/7 with remote access. So the next time you’re on vacation you can use your mobile phone to switch on the lights daily at 7 p.m. to make it seem like somebody’s home.

What’s more with smart lights is their energy efficiency feature. Given that smart lights can be remote controlled and from practically anywhere, this leaves no room for carelessness – switch off the lights if you forgot to, or set schedules for automatic functioning for them to switch on and off at specific hours of the day.

2. Smart Door Lock

What could be cooler than a smart door lock for your home? Clearly not the new sofa you just got. A smart door lock brings you new and smart technology altogether when it comes to home safety. They are keyless and tamperproof, and make locking, unlocking your doors something you can boast about every now and then.

Smart door locks feature keypads that can be used to enter your personalized passcode to unlock the door, or you could even just do it using your mobile phone as you step out of the car in your driveway. Some models feature location tracking that tracks your smartphone location and locks as well as unlocks your door detecting whether you’re headed out or you’re right at the door – no need to punch in a code, just walk in!

3. Video Doorbell

Get your home a smart video doorbell, you’ll thank us. Video doorbells are a more advanced and smarter version of video intercoms and here’s how they differentiate from one another.

Video intercoms have a video display on the device that resembles a telephone and is usually mounted somewhere in your home, through which you can unlock your door or gate with the press of a button. But its camera view is restricted to you viewing directly what’s in front of you, not what’s up or below, or further left and right. Smart video doorbells, on the other hand, have a wide-angle camera that shows you who’s standing outside from head to toe, along with two-way audio. But instead of an external device mounted in your home somewhere to answer the door, smart video doorbells are accessible through mobile apps that can be downloaded onto your wireless devices. Some are also compatible with smart speakers!

Never miss a chance to see who was at your door. Video doorbells feature motion sensors that detect movement even if the bell hasn’t been rung. Get real-time alerts whenever your video doorbells detect any movement and of course when someone’s at the door.

4. Smart Smoke Detector

Make your home safer with a smart smoke detector. Swap out your ordinary smoke detector with a smart one and tackle potential threats head-on. These devices are easy to install and can be set up, ready to work within minutes!

Smart smoke detectors can pick up on anything from smoldering fires to fast-burning ones, and even carbon monoxide leaks. What’s even better is that these devices can pinpoint exactly where the threat has been detected within your home, so you can get a head start on how to combat the problem. Like all smart devices, smart smoke detectors feature their own mobile applications that alert you to a carbon monoxide leakage or a fire the second it detects it. It also allows you to hush a false alarm that otherwise would’ve been a task of its own with an ordinary smoke detector.

The next time you’re making up home improvement plans, maybe wander into the tech side and see what gadgets would amp up your overall lifestyle at home. Smart devices can be expensive to some, and affordable for the rest but nonetheless, they are an investment into your home, just like new interior or furniture is. Head on over to First Energy’s website www.firstenergyhome.com and browse through a whole catalog of suitable smart home devices.