People who use home gadgets and automation systems can control some household functions with a simple touch of a smartphone button. Even if they are not at home. Nowadays, it has become a trend to have a smart home. The following are some of the smart home systems, apps, and gadgets that can make your apartment a little bit smarter:
Smart Home Systems
Several smart home systems on the market are surprisingly good for the renter. Renters who do not want to install all new appliances or sound and light systems? Home automation systems like Insteon and SmartThings allow users to control a fantastic array of apartment functions, like turning off devices from afar or setting lights to dim or brighten at specific times automatically. Imagine coming home to a crockpot already warming your dinner up and some sweet melodies playing on the sound system.
These home automation systems can be costly, sometimes in the range of tens of thousands of rupees, but these days you can even find lower-end smart home “starter kits” online. If you are not rich or don’t want to invest in a complete system, though, there are more particular gadgets that can automate certain aspects of your apartment.
Smart Door Locks
There are quite a few different options for smart locks, like Kevo and August Smart Lock, but the basic premise is simply the same: You can access intelligent lock systems from your smartphone to unlock or lock your doors. For instance, you forgot to lock up in the morning, or your family friends are visiting for the weekend, but they reach early while you are still at work, or your dog walker forgets her key, and Fido needs to go out. No worries if you have a smart lock system set up!
The locks themselves are usually 31k to 50k, and the installation method is as simple as unscrewing your deadbolt and screwing the smart lock on.
Smart Lighting
Smart lighting systems have been the original, intelligent home function since The Clapper introduced home automation to the people of the ’80s. But they have gotten a bit more refined since then. Smart home lighting systems like BelkinWeMo and Philips Hue are simple and quite easy to use. Both methods have their light bulbs along with a “gateway” or “bridge” unit that you connect to an outlet and a Wi-Fi source.
You could use these lighting systems to control all your lights no matter where you are; plus, you can command them to turn on and off on their own. Many starter kits for smart lighting are less than 15k, and with no actual hardware installation, they are perfect for apartment renters who want their security deposit back in full.
Smart TV Appliances
Remember those days when you had a different remote for the DVD, TV, cable, VCR, etc.? Well, you can be saved from the first pile of remotes on your coffee table with smart TV setups. Smart televisions themselves are quite pricey, but they come with a lot of really cool features, like streaming or gaming capabilities and voice activation and interaction. But apps like Netflix and HBO Go let you select a variety of different content for your TV without paying a lot of money. And as far as the remotes go, there are gadget apps like Dijit that can turn your tablet or smartphone into a universal remote.
Smart Baby Monitors
A fantastic invention in smart home technology for new parents is intelligent monitoring systems that allow you to check in on your kids from wherever you are, such as Withings. Smart baby monitors use a Wi-Fi-connected smart camera that you can quite easily install to watch over your baby’s crib or nursery. Then you can log on to the application from any internet-connected device to check in. Many of the cameras come with night vision, perfect for making sure your baby is sleeping OK at night.
Smart Thermostat
For the tenants who are allowed to make several adjustments to their apartment, learning thermostats are some of the most cooling new home automation technologies you can get.
Smart thermostat systems like Ecobee3 and Google’s Nest make your cooling and heating need a learned behavior by paying much attention to the settings you like. You can quite easily adjust most of the learning thermostats using a smartphone application, and few even come with various motion detectors, so they can change the temperature and energy usage based on when you are home or away.
Technologically savvy renters have a lot of choices to change their apartments into smart homes, even without expensive installations, and smart home apps can benefit personalize a person’s home to fit their needs.