Transform Houses Into Smart Homes With These Gadgets This Holiday
For decades, the systems in our houses have been basically manual: open and lock doors with keys, turn lights on and off with switches, water the lawn by turning on the hose or sprinkler. Thanks to the growth of the Internet and smartphones, though, that's no longer true. Now, using home automation systems, we can make our houses smart homes and control many of the systems in them over Wi-Fi using apps. These connected gadgets make life more convenient and offer options you may never have considered (different living room lighting settings for different occasions, for instance)—and they make great gifts for any technophile in your life.
Thermostats are perhaps the most well-known category of smart home gadgets outside of the tech world right now, thanks to the Nest Thermostat. This handy gadget lets you set a schedule for your heat and air conditioning, learns your habits and automatically adjusts to help you save energy and money, and much more. It's simple to set up and fun to use. While it's more than a standard programmable thermostat (US$249), you'll actually use this one. Nest isn't the only smartphone-controllable thermostat, of course, so shop around.
Smart Thermostats:
Nest expanded beyond thermostats with the release of Protect, its combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector. This gadget improves on standard smoke detectors by being able to tell the difference between some smoke caused by cooking dinner and an actual fire in the kitchen. Forgot blaring alarms; Protect speaks to you, tells you how serious the situation is, and what room the fire is in. Dismiss the alarm with a wave of your hand. If you've got both a Nest Thermostat and Protect, they can work together to deal with situations (for instance, if the Protect reads a high carbon monoxide level, it can tell the thermostat to turn off the heat).
Compare Prices on Nest ProtectMore »
Baby monitors used to be like radios: A passive listening device you put in your child's room. In our multimedia age, though, they can do much more. Add video to audio monitoring, connect the whole system to Wi-Fi, and you've got a great way to make sure everything is OK in your baby's room. Smartphone apps give you the ability to check in anywhere you've got an Internet connection. Some models offer two-way voice communication, motion detection, and low-light modes.
For most of us, lighting is as simple as on or off; dimmer switches are about as fancy we get. With Wi-Fi connected lighting systems, that's changing. These systems plug into your normal light sockets, and connect to your home Wi-Fi network, to let you create preset lighting combinations for different occasions and moods (think different levels of brightness, some lights on and others off, or even different color lights), or schedule times for lights to go on and off.
Compare Prices on Philips HueMore »
Love the idea of controlling your lights, appliances, and other home electronics from your phone, but not interested in replacing them all with smart versions? Then you need a device like the Belkin WeMo. Plug this Wi-Fi connected device into an electrical socket, and then plug the devices you want to control into it. With its free iPhone app, you can then turn the devices on and off, schedule the same, and more over the web.
Compare Prices on Belkin WeMoMore »
Forget having to carry your housekey with your everywhere (or having to hide a spare under a mat or rock for emergencies) thanks to these smart locks. Instead, all you need is an iOS device with Bluetooth turned on and the right app on it and you'll be able to open your door. Basic models also include key options, while advanced options like the Doorbot integrate video cameras so your device can show you who's at the door before you open it.
Home automation can also be used to make things outside your house smarter. Take, for instance, your lawn sprinklers. Systems from Cyber Rain let you control your sprinklers, and their schedule, from your smartphone. These systems can prevent lawn watering on rainy days, pause watering to let your lawn soak and prevent runoff, and more. Cyber Rain's not the sprinkler-control tool, so research your options before you buy.
Sprinkler Controllers:
•Themostat
Thermostats are perhaps the most well-known category of smart home gadgets outside of the tech world right now, thanks to the Nest Thermostat. This handy gadget lets you set a schedule for your heat and air conditioning, learns your habits and automatically adjusts to help you save energy and money, and much more. It's simple to set up and fun to use. While it's more than a standard programmable thermostat (US$249), you'll actually use this one. Nest isn't the only smartphone-controllable thermostat, of course, so shop around.
Smart Thermostats:
•Smoke/CO Detector
Nest expanded beyond thermostats with the release of Protect, its combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector. This gadget improves on standard smoke detectors by being able to tell the difference between some smoke caused by cooking dinner and an actual fire in the kitchen. Forgot blaring alarms; Protect speaks to you, tells you how serious the situation is, and what room the fire is in. Dismiss the alarm with a wave of your hand. If you've got both a Nest Thermostat and Protect, they can work together to deal with situations (for instance, if the Protect reads a high carbon monoxide level, it can tell the thermostat to turn off the heat).
Compare Prices on Nest ProtectMore »
•Baby Monitors
Baby monitors used to be like radios: A passive listening device you put in your child's room. In our multimedia age, though, they can do much more. Add video to audio monitoring, connect the whole system to Wi-Fi, and you've got a great way to make sure everything is OK in your baby's room. Smartphone apps give you the ability to check in anywhere you've got an Internet connection. Some models offer two-way voice communication, motion detection, and low-light modes.
•Wireless Lighting
For most of us, lighting is as simple as on or off; dimmer switches are about as fancy we get. With Wi-Fi connected lighting systems, that's changing. These systems plug into your normal light sockets, and connect to your home Wi-Fi network, to let you create preset lighting combinations for different occasions and moods (think different levels of brightness, some lights on and others off, or even different color lights), or schedule times for lights to go on and off.
Compare Prices on Philips HueMore »
•Connect Any Device to Wi-Fi
Love the idea of controlling your lights, appliances, and other home electronics from your phone, but not interested in replacing them all with smart versions? Then you need a device like the Belkin WeMo. Plug this Wi-Fi connected device into an electrical socket, and then plug the devices you want to control into it. With its free iPhone app, you can then turn the devices on and off, schedule the same, and more over the web.
Compare Prices on Belkin WeMoMore »
•Front Door Lock
Forget having to carry your housekey with your everywhere (or having to hide a spare under a mat or rock for emergencies) thanks to these smart locks. Instead, all you need is an iOS device with Bluetooth turned on and the right app on it and you'll be able to open your door. Basic models also include key options, while advanced options like the Doorbot integrate video cameras so your device can show you who's at the door before you open it.
•Sprinkler Control
Home automation can also be used to make things outside your house smarter. Take, for instance, your lawn sprinklers. Systems from Cyber Rain let you control your sprinklers, and their schedule, from your smartphone. These systems can prevent lawn watering on rainy days, pause watering to let your lawn soak and prevent runoff, and more. Cyber Rain's not the sprinkler-control tool, so research your options before you buy.
Sprinkler Controllers:
