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The 9 Best Smart Home Devices for Your Home

Thanks to the constant improvement in technology, smart home devices are starting to become staples in many people’s homes. From doorbells to lights to even vacuums, everything is becoming automated.

smart home devices

With these devices costing an average of $150, you don’t want to make a mistake and buy something that isn’t the highest quality. But how do you differentiate smart products from one another?

In this article, we’ll show you our 9 favorite smart home devices and which brands make our go to product. Let’s get started.

1. Smart Doorbell: The Ring Video Doorbell

There are so many amazing benefits to having a smart doorbell. For starters, you’ll always know who’s ringing your doorbell, even when you aren’t home. It alerts your phone whenever the bell is rang. You have the ability to constantly monitor your entryway and make sure it’s safe.

Also, many smart doorbells have built-in cameras that store video to the cloud. Burglars take many precautionary actions not to be caught and will ring your doorbell to make sure you aren’t home. Seeing a camera might deter them from victimizing your home. If not, you’ve got them on camera.

Our pick for the best smart doorbell is the Ring Video Doorbell. Ring takes your safety more importantly than anything else – it’s their #1 concern. That’s why the Ring Video Doorbell has a camera that stores video to the cloud and a motion detector that sends a video feed to your phone whenever someone is near your entry door. You can also speak with people at your home using their two-way communicator.

2. Smart Lock: August Smart Lock

Have you ever accidentally lost your keys and have no idea where you left them? What if that happens when you’re out and about? Anyone could have your keys and access to your home! This fear is a thing of the past with a smart door lock.

Smart door locks are operated using your phone. When the lock senses your phone moving towards your home, it’ll unlock. Vice versa, it’ll lock itself when you move away. Some smart door locks will have you tap your phone and press a button to unlock the door as well (just in case you didn’t want to unlock your door).

Let’s say your children beat you home and have no way of getting inside. With the simple push of a button, you can unlock the door for them. You can even give other phones access to unlocking your door with an app. Through this app, you’re also able to monitor when your door is unlocked and by whom.

August makes our favorite smart door lock. It has all of the features that you’re looking for in a smart lock from being very durable to being able to control who has access to your entry door lock from your smart phone. With its sleek, round design, it’s the perfect smart door lock for your home.

3. Smart Thermostat: Nest Thermostat

You may be wasting so much money on your energy bills and not even know it. When you’re working for 8-10 hours a day, do you really need the heat or air running? Having a programmable smart thermostat helps keep some of that money in your pocket.

A smart thermostat allows you to schedule when you want your heat or air to be turned on. For instance, when you’re sleeping, you want your home to be a little cooler (it’s better for your health) so you’ll want to lower the temperature. Also, when you’re at work, you want your home to be using as little power as possible. You can program your schedule into the thermostat to heat and cool your home accordingly.

a programmable theromstat

Nest thermostats take setting up a schedule to the next level. When the Nest doesn’t detect any motion, it’ll turn off the heat or cool air. You can also control the temperature of your home from anywhere in the world using the Nest Thermostat App.

4. Smart Lights: Philips Hue

Have you ever left your home and wondered “Did I turn off the lights”? Put those fears to rest with smart lights. You have complete control over your home’s lights using your phone.

Like smart thermostats, you can set timers for all of your lights on your phone. Maybe you want to make it look like someone’s home when you’re off on a vacation. You can schedule the lights to turn on at 6:30 pm and off at 9:30 pm for example. By doing this, you may convince potential burglars that you’re home.

Philips makes the industry standard for smart lights with Hue Lights. No matter where you are in the world, you can control your Hue lights using the app. You can also manually change the color of the lights or have them react to music/television from your smart phone – the possibilities are endless. You can learn more about Philips Hue Lights in the video below:

Philips Hue - Turn on your imagination

5. Smart Speaker: Amazon Echo

Being able to control a speaker from your phone isn’t new technology – Bluetooth speakers have been around for a while. However, the Amazon Echo is in a league all of it’s own.

The Amazon Echo is more of a personal assistant than a Bluetooth speaker. Call out “Hey Alexa” and ask a question/give a command and the Echo will do it for you. This can be as simple as requesting music to ordering something from your Amazon account.

An Echo can be paired with other smart devices such as Hue Lights or a Nest Thermostat so you can control them with your voice. It works with many apps as well. Uber, Dominos, Amazon Music, Pandora, Audible and Weather are all accessible through the Echo. Anything you need is a simple question away.

6. Smart Vacuum: Roomba 980

Back in September of 2002, Roomba was an all new idea – a robot vacuum. There were many problems at first as it tried to navigate your home. The technology wasn’t quite there, but 15 years later things have changed.

Roombas can now easily navigate entire levels of your home with ease. The newest model, the 980, can even be controlled from your phone, making it one of the first smart vacuums.

The Roomba 980 allows you to schedule cleanings from anywhere. You no longer have to be home to vacuum your home. Just click one button and the Roomba does the rest. Isn’t technology great?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iebiPsFcVIY

7. Smart Surveillance Camera: Icontrol Network Piper

Security is an important feature of many smart home devices. You want to be able to monitor your home when you aren’t around. That’s why it’s in your best interest to invest in a smart surveillance camera.

The biggest benefit of a smart camera is that the feed is sent directly to your phone. This may sound like a smart doorbell but the surveillance cameras can be installed anywhere around your home. They’re also motion detectors and you can adjust the sensitivity so you know whats going on at all times.

The Piper from Icontrol is a great smart surveillance camera option. The camera has 180° motion and 2 way audio. There’s also a siren built into it so you can draw attention if anyone is trying to break into your home. The Piper is a great smart surveillance camera.

8. Smart Garage Door Opener: Chamberlain Smart Garage Door Opener

A common fear of homeowners is leaving their garage door open when they leave their home. Getting into your garage gives you access to your entire home so leaving the door open is a huge security risk – let alone all the valuables you keep in the garage. There are smart home devices to help with that problem.

a garage door opening

Thankfully, smart garage door openers exist. They give you the ability to open and close your garage door from anywhere on Earth using your smart phone. You’re also able to give access to other users and monitor when your garage door is opened.

We love the Chamberlain’s smart garage door opener more than any other option available. It’s easy to set up and works extremely well. You can download the MyQ app on Apple and Android devices which gives you complete control over it.

9. Smart Garbage Can: GeniCan

When we said everything can be a smart device, we mean everything – including your garbage can. Yes, you can get an add on to your garbage can called the GeniCan.

This is the point in the article where you think we’ve lost our minds, but it’s true. In fact, it’s really quite cool. What it does is hook onto your garbage can and scan items you throw away. It then forms a shopping list so you don’t forget to purchase anything.

It can also sync with Amazon and order items you may need more urgently. This little smart home device also runs on only 4 AA batteries. It even tells you when your garbage is full!

Since it’s only for preorder right now, no one has tried the GeniCan yet. That hasn’t stopped us from being excited. You can check out the little smart home devices on their website.

GeniCan- The old way of creating grocery lists is dead.

Find the Best Smart Home Devices for Your Home

Smart home devices are designed to make your life easier and safer. You can monitor everything that happens at your home when you aren’t there and can make sure everything is locked.

These products can’t do it all alone though. You want strong windows, doors and garage doors to help prevent any burglars from victimizing your home. Vinyl windows, steel or fiberglass entry doors and steel garage doors are your best options.

You can get a free quote from Feldco now on any of these products. Our team of experts will make sure to measure your home and get you the perfect windows, doors and garage doors. It’s no wonder over 400,000 homeowners have trusted us with their home improvement needs.

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