Here’s How to Get the Most from Your Smart Home Devices

Smart Home automation has many benefits. However, tech advances, new feature rollouts, and changing protocols can make leveraging all your devices to their greatest potential a challenge. Here’s some tips to get the most from your Smart Home devices.

Switch Over to Smart Switches

Smart Switches and Smart Outlets are gaining popularity among smart homeowners. In addition to controlling your lights via mobile device or Smart Speaker, you can also connect your Smart Switches to other Smart devices such as your thermostat and security cameras to help create a fully automated home. Smart Plugs, on the other hand, are best for controlling lamps and night lights as they fit into any outlet without needing to access the wiring. Here’s some additional benefits:

Control your lights with your voice from the comfort of your couch or bed
Integrate Smart Switches with your Smart Thermostat to automatically adjust the temperature based on whether the lights are on or off
Integrate Smart Switches and plugs with your Smart Locks to automatically lock the doors when you turn off the lights and leave the house
Schedule various house lights to turn on and off when you’re away to create the appearance that someone is home
Schedule your bedroom lights to turn on in the morning to simulate sunrise
Set schedules for your lights and appliances to turn on and off at specific times to save energy and money on your electricity bill

Add Some Smart Bulbs

While Smart Switches can make your home safer and more user-friendly, Smart Bulbscan bring dynamic, mood enhancing color into any room. That includes using warm whites versus cool whites in different rooms, at different times of day, or to set a mood. Smart Bulbs are also easier to install than Smart Switches and have virtually unlimited colour variations that can be set to change slowly or quickly. You can put different types of Smart Bulbs in multi-socket fixtures to create unique effects, and even sync them to music or movies.

Smarten Up Your Kitchen

Fully automating your kitchen can improve the way you store food, prepare meals, and interact with your cooking space. Smart Ovens, Smart Refrigerators, and Smart Dishwasherscan also help you save time and money. Here’s a few tips to get more out of your Smart Appliances in the kitchen:

Preheat your Smart Range from work or the car so you can pop in dinner as soon as you get home
Get notified when it's time to run a self-cleaning cycle in your oven
See the contents of your fridge and check food for freshness without opening the door
Get notified if your fridge or freezer door isn’t closed properly
Receive recipe recommendations based on what’s inside your fridge
Scan the barcodes on food items to download recipes and cooking instructions
Receive alerts if the water in your dishwasher isn’t hot enough and for other maintenance issues

Smart Home Parental Safeguards

Smart Hubs allow for multiple users, including teens and younger kids, but they also provide parental controls to help keep them safe. This allows you to block access to specific websites and also certain types of content, for example due to its violent or explicit nature. You can also block online purchases or program the settings to ensure every purchase must be reviewed and approved by you.

Home Automation for Accessibility & Inclusivity

You can also leverage your Smart Home to enhance accessibility and inclusivity for different users. For example, people with limited vision, hearing, mobility, or cognitive abilities can operate their devices via voice command or remote control, eliminating the need for physical interaction or assistance. Smart Hubs and apps that support multiple languages can also be used to help your home inclusive for all family members, guests, and visitors.

Smart Home Network Speed

Most communication between your smart devices happens on your Wi-Fi network, so you’ll want a good Wi-Fi router. However, your devices still need to connect to the Internet to upload data and to allow you to control them when you’re not at home. Here’s a few tips to help improve your overall network speed.

Go a step beyond basic broadband as your devices can use a lot of bandwidth, especially if you’re adding cameras
Choose a mesh Wi-Fi router with multiple nodes or access points to distribute data more efficiently across the network.
Make sure your wireless router, devices, and internet connection all support the same wireless internet protocol
Place your router in a central location and ensure all nodes are within range to avoid any dead spots in your network
Free up space on your Wi-Fi network by moving anything that can connect via Ethernet cable to a wired connection, such as games consoles and desktop computers
Reboot your router regularly to help eliminate any bottlenecks and to make your entire Wi-Fi network run faster

From comfort and convenience to security and cost-savings, Smart Home automation offers many advantages. The key to getting the most of your Smart Devices is using them to their full potential and integrating them together as much as possible.

Here’s How to Get the Most from Your Smart Home Devices

Add Some Smart Bulbs

Smart Home Parental Safeguards

Home Automation for Accessibility & Inclusivity

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