Last Updated on August 24, 2023 by Kimberly Crawford
A wise man once said that “the room for improvement” is the biggest room in his house. Yes, this statement is true and underscores the importance of improving your home to make it cozier for you, your family, and your guests. Fortunately, home technology offers homeowners limitless opportunities to explore smart home improvements this year.
Integrating smart improvements into your home is a viable investment. It makes your home an appealing hub for your family. Moreover, your guests will always leave your home with nostalgia and look forward to visiting again. Incorporating smart improvements also gives your home a higher sale value in the future. That’s why smart home technology features give your home a touch of luxury and a selling advantage in the housing market.
Additionally, many tech-savvy home buyers are interested in controlling their home technology through their smartphones or tablets. Therefore, it is critical for homeowners to take smart home technology seriously if they want to appeal to this market when planning to sell their homes.
So, do you want to be a part of the smart home technology revolution? If you do, keep reading this post to get the revelation and insights that will power your revolution!
1. Smart Cooking Devices and Installations
This post starts where life at home starts for most people—in the kitchen. Your kitchen is one of the most critical rooms because it manufactures life’s only sustainer you can control—food.
This year, you can make smart home improvements in the kitchen to make your cooking processes a breeze. Smart home technologies enable you to upgrade to intelligent cooking devices. Here are some of the areas you can improve.
Smart coffee makers
Improve how you make your coffee using various intelligent coffee makers. The market offers various products that let you plan and adjust brewing time using your smartphone, Alexa speaker, or Google Assistant. Afterward, you can go ahead and sleep or do your other businesses and have your coffee ready when you need it.
Smart slow cookers
Your cooking should never be a hassle when you can improve it with smart slow cookers. The market offers many products you can utilize and remotely control your cooking processes. You can control these smart cookers using your voice via integration with any Alexa-powered gadget.
2. Install Smart Switches
Switches have been an integral part of millions of homes since the discovery of electricity. However, you can migrate from this ageing technology by installing smart switches in your house. You may use this tech to create outlets with built-in USB ports that allow you to charge your smart devices easily. This tech lets you free your power outlets to handle other devices and lighting.
3. Smart Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important realities in your home. Thus, it shouldn’t lag other areas when making smart home improvements. Fortunately, the market is full of all types of smart lights and lighting systems you can optimize.
You can use your smartphone to switch the lights on or off. In fact, the technology has gone to such levels that you can switch lights on or off depending on the presence of the person in a room!
4. Smart Dusting and Cleaning
Yes, cleanliness is next to godliness, so goes the popular adage. Home cleaning and dusting should be a part of your smart improvements this year. You may get cleaning bots that make floor dusting one of your best chores.
For example, the O-Duster Robotic Floor Cleaner is one bot you can use to ease your domestic cleaning chores. This cleaning robot has rechargeable batteries. It gathers lint, dust, and hair on the floor to make your cleaning more enjoyable.
5. Smart Access Control and Security
This year you can improve your home by automating the entry and security system. You may add motion-detecting sensors to your doors and windows. An automated system also detects the presence of other home hazards like floods. This technology alerts you of all these realities using your mobile phone. Thus, you stay ahead of the game by detecting any illegal access through your windows and doors.
It keeps you in charge of everything happening in your home since you carry your house’s “key” in your smartphone. Never again will you worry about losing your keys. But what about guests who need to access your home in your absence? No problem too! You could use the same technology to create virtual keys for your arriving guests if you scheduled their arrival on time. Alternatively, you may remotely usher them into your home when they arrive at the door.
6. Smart Heating and Cooling
Moderate temperatures determine your home’s coziness or its lack. Thus, your heating and cooling technology play a significant role in warming your home during winter and cooling it during summer. Moreover, a heating system offers you more than just comfort during the cold months. It also protects your home against devastating winter damage.
This year, take your cooling and heating to a higher level by introducing WiFiconnected thermostats. This technology assists you to control the thermostat remotely using any internet-powered device and smartphone.
Further, smart thermostats provide you with real-time system alerts. For instance, they alert you of any possible failure that could endanger your home. You can detect a failure and act on time to avoid frozen pipes and other dangers.
Additionally, integrating such high-tech improvements into your home saves you crippling power bills. Ordinary thermostats usually leave some areas of your home too hot or cold. Thus, you end up paying for the heating or cooling you don’t need.
However, installing this technology changes the story because its sensors save you all unnecessary power costs. Their sensor-controlled vents communicate among themselves and automatically adjust their louvres. Consequently, they stop temperatures from reaching costly extremes and deliver heat or cold where it’s most needed.
7. Smart Mini-Gardening
Who doesn’t love a green home with fresh plants emitting fresh air? Go ahead this year and make smart mini-gardening a part of your smart home improvements. Modern home technology enables you to optimize hydroponics to grow flowers and vegetables in your home.
Moreover, you don’t need soil or a sack of fertilizers to grow these crops. The intelligent hydroponic system provides a conducive gardening environment to grow crops around the year. Its control panel automates the grow lights and alerts you when you need to add liquid nutrients to its water.
Intelligent growers using this technology are programmable. Thus, they care for the plant and inform you when you need to move a given plant to a sunnier spot. Don’t forget that you can water your plants using your smartphone.
8. Water Leakage Detection
Water is life, so they say, and that is true. So, you should include water leakage detection in your smart home improvements in 2021. Don’t forget that you enjoy a big privilege to have water flowing freely in your home. Why? Because hundreds of other humans worldwide don’t access safe drinking water at all. Thus, guarding every drop is not just a responsibility but also a form of gratitude for what you enjoy.
Moreover, undetected water loss or leakages at home can be disastrous. For instance, if it collects under your sink, behind the walls, or in any other locations where it shouldn’t go or be, it could damage your home. If you have ever handled water damage, you should know that early detection is the most critical key to stopping it.
So, optimize modern technology to detect water leakage early. You can place leak alarms near your home’s most vulnerable spots. Initially, these alarms could go off loudly when you are away from home. However, intelligent technology notifies you when the alarm goes via timely email or SMS notifications anywhere and anytime.
Moreover, smart water detection products are readily available and affordable. For instance, you can get WallyHome for $100 to keep your home dry and safe—always.
9. Overall Home Surveillance
You should prioritize your home’s overall safety. This year, you can improve it by digitizing your home surveillance. Go ahead and improve it by accessing and monitoring your doorbell, interior, and perimeter cameras using your smartphone.
This way, you remain in control of what goes on around your home and inside your house. You can up your surveillance game by smartly camouflaging your security cameras to fit into your home’s entryway and most visited areas’ design.
This move benefits you and your friends because they don’t need to feel too uncomfortable doing anything because they see cameras all over the home. Therefore, you balance your home’s security with its comfort levels, especially your visitors’ ease.
10. Fire and Smoke Detection
Fire is a two-edged sword that cuts either side—good and bad. However, you have an opportunity to control your home’s fire safety using smart home technology. This technology enables you to detect smoke, carbon monoxide, and fire remotely. Thus, you enjoy peace of mind anywhere you go because the detector notifies you through your smartphone.
The detector senses any smoke and shows you when its battery is running low. It also notifies you when the fire alarm goes off. Fortunately, these detectors cost as low as $100 only. So, go ahead and improve your home’s fire security by embracing this mobile detection technology.
11. Smart Entertainment
Improve and transform how your family enjoys entertainment this year by integrating smart entertainment technology. It allows you to stream various television or radio channels to different gadgets simultaneously. This way, everybody in your home relaxes and enjoys entertainment at their preferred pace.
You may also use it to create a fresh and unique ambiance using WiFi and Bluetooth speakers every time. Don’t forget that the technology lets you take the home theatre outside during hot summer nights using a digital projector. Eventually, you add fun to your home and make it cozier for everyone. Additionally, it adds to your home’s sale value.
12. Intelligent Prediction and Maintenance
Smart home technology and improvement should enable you to control different devices. It should also offer you critical information about maintaining these devices. For example, some high-tech manufacturers have built-in monitoring technology in their devices. These alert systems let you promptly detect any problem with the devices.
For example, some fridges have this technology that alerts you when they can’t cool correctly or are left open. Therefore, early problem detection lets you fix appliance challenges before they spiral out of control. Consequently, you save yourself money and protect your family because some electrical appliance breakdown could endanger your home. For instance, some sudden appliance breakdowns cause electrical accidents that could blow up your home. This year, consider essential home appliances with such smart detection and notifications.
13. Smart Migration From the Grid
Many savvy homeowners are looking for ways to get off the grid and embrace cheaper, clean power in their homes. Fortunately, you can join them and smartly get off the grid. In fact, getting off-grid is one of the leading smart home trends in North America. Homeowners are resorting to it because it lets them lead responsible and sustainable lives.
The market has many reputable off-grid solutions, such as Tesla Powerwall and Lumin Energy Management Platform. The latter product has a smart panel and data analytics and management system. It lets you monitor your energy consumption, control power storage, and remotely control your electric gadgets.
With these smart off-grid technologies at your disposal, you don’t need to worry about exorbitant power bills or crippling outages. You also help to reduce the carbon footprint while enjoying green living.
Closing Remarks on Smart Home Improvements
The year 2021 promises much for homeowners in the smart home technology department. Therefore, you can take charge and act proactively by introducing value-adding smart home improvements all over the house.
Thankfully, most of these tech-savvy improvements are affordable, with their technologies readily available for your use. You only have to choose the ones that you need the most and go for them. You can use the insights the above post discussed and integrate them into your home this year.