By admin 
To set up a smart home is a pretty easy task. Did you think otherwise? With the availability of domesticated smart devices to the public, coupled with the fact that they come at very reasonable prices, there is no reason and nothing holding anybody back from making that transition from a regular home to a smart home.
Smart homes obviously provide a much better lifestyle to homeowners in several ways. Not that there is anything wrong with the way you already live, but imagine being able to see and call out to your pet dog during your lunch breaks at work, or locking your front door with the tap of a button as you drive, or just not having to worry about the sprinklers and your yard because it’ll take care of it on its own. This is all now possible and it’s thanks to smart devices.
They provide an easy and inexpensive means of automating your homes, provide added home security, and they also improve energy efficiency of a lot of your home systems like the HVAC or Sprinkler system – which also brings us to the bonus factor of this energy efficiency feature: lower utility bills!
Anyway, there is a ton of smart devices out there to install in your homes, but here are 3 general categories of devices that we think would be suitable to every single household. Should you plan to take that step towards transitioning your home, maybe consider these devices?
- Smart Router
Smart Routers are better than any regular router or extender combined. In fact, some of these have such a wide area of coverage that you won’t even need an extender! The Google Nest Wi-Fi router and point for instance – combined, these two can cover a total area of 3800 square feet and connect around 200 devices simultaneously.
These devices, much like all smart devices in fact, feature their own mobile applications that are downloadable onto iOS and Android devices. And these mobile applications enable users to control the device and access its settings too.
You may find that some features could include parental controls. These would entail that the smart router, via its mobile app can restrict certain devices from accessing the home network either based on schedule or whatever personalized settings are set by the user – and certain content can also be restricted onto certain devices. And in general, a smart router’s mobile app can let users monitor the usage of the network.
- Smart Thermostats
One of the best energy efficient, smart devices you would ever invest in is a smart thermostat. Smart Thermostats can cut back on heating and cooling bills overtime, making them worth the money. So what are some common features that are found in smart thermostats?
Different brands would have different features, unique to their name of course. The Google Nest Learning Thermostat and the Honeywell Home T9 are two prime examples of smart thermostats that can overtime learn temperature preferences of a home, or based on schedules set by the homeowners, and automatically switch temperatures as and when needed. Similarly a lot of smart thermostats use motion detection and geo-fencing technology in order to know when to turn itself down or to an eco-friendly temperature setting.
Let’s not forget the mobile applications, that allow homeowners to access their devices from practically wherever they are, and to be able to adjust and set schedules, or even browse through their energy history to check on consumption patterns to see where they saved up on money and energy usage.
- Smart Lighting
Smart Lighting may sound expensive because you pay for individual bulbs, but even so a pack of two would start at $19. But here’s what you are paying for: smart lights are LED, which are good for energy saving purposes as opposed to regular light bulbs that we use. Not just that, these lights, just like all smart devices, feature their own smart phone applications that allow for users to adjust the lighting as they please. That means adjusting brightness levels to their comfort or to set the mood, or even change the color entirely if it’s a multi-color smart bulb like the Sengled Multicolor LED Smart Bulbs.
With that, some lights also feature motion sensing that can switch the lights on or off based on movement and motion detection. But of course the setting can be adjusted from their smartphone apps. If it also helps knowing, smart bulbs of course can be switched on or off from miles away, so that means if you happen to be on vacation but still worry about someone breaking into your empty home, you can always use the app to switch the lights on or off to deter any intruders.
There you have it. The above 3 are somewhat like the crucial devices that you would find in any home so why not replace them with their smarter counterparts? There are of course many more devices that you can find on www.firstenergyhome.com, something that may just fit right into your home! Head on over to the website and browse through the smart home catalogue.