Top Home Security Smart Devices

Not so long ago, home security and home automation were two entirely separate systems, with distinct household duties.

Smart devices like smart thermostats, high-quality video cameras, high-end video doorbells, smartphone-operated locks can both improve smart home safety and enhance your lifestyle.

Security was considered a wired hybrid of keypads, sensors, motion detectors, fire or smoke alarms, and other tools that kept you safe. Home automation, until recently, represented crockpots with timers or lights that went on and off when you clapped your hands.

Luckily, that’s all over. Now, the smart home security systems include wireless networks of high-tech, low-profile types of equipment with professional monitoring that keeps your home and family safer than ever. Smart-home devices are now in full bloom, making your house an even better place to be.

The best part is that home automation and security now meet in an uncomplicated ecosystem that initiates an integrated world of possibilities.

The future of technology is already here. As a proud homeowner, all you need to do is to determine how home automation and security fit into your life.

Smart home technology has developed to the point where it integrates home security in a seamless IoT ecosystem. Let’s have a look at the most beloved and used smart systems from smart thermostats, video doorbells to locks, to see they can enhance home security and improve your life.

End the Thermostat Wars

One might say that the pioneer in the home automation revolution was Nest, back in 2011, with its very successful “learning thermostat.”

Up to that point, other thermostats had been programmable with some limitations. Nest designed a home automation device that discovered your patterns, such as the time in a day when you like it cool or hot, or when you’re expected to be home or away.

It’s a proven system to save energy and money, besides keeping you more comfortable.

Since then, Nest and some other technology companies have increased their range of both home automation and home security.

Door-to-Home Security

If you need to find a point where home automation and security intersect, you just need to step outside your front door. The most straightforward way to save your home is not to let thieves inside at all.

There are already millions of homeowners who are using easy-to-install video doorbells to see, listen, and speak to unexpected visitors. You don’t even need to be home. Everything is manageable through the smartphone. Nothing terrifies a potential housebreaker faster than a voice telling them to get lost.

Locks, Reinvented

Home automation and security seem a match made in heaven. Door locks now are more than a simple key, and they are capable of a lot more than just keeping intruders out.

Door locks give some of the most visible benefits of home automation:

• Automated smartphone notifications whenever someone enters or leaves.

• Granting or revoking access codes for housekeepers, babysitters, caregivers, or others who are free to enter the house.

• Locking or unlocking automatically via your smartphone. This feature comes in especially helpful when your hands are full, or when you are away and can’t remember whether you locked the door.

Don’t Forget the Garage Door

It’s even more obvious to understand the functional benefits of home automation for full garage-door control. It’s easy to open or close the door with a one-trick push-button gadget. But it’s much more useful to use your smartphone to command it from anywhere, or automatically open or close it as your car approaches the home.

Everyone who has left from home and skipped to check whether they closed the garage door understands the value of smartphone control. No need to turn around to check just to see that it’s already closed.

Powerful, Affordable Video

Once you’re inside your house, it’s even more comfortable to make home automation technology a significant part of your daily life. When you’re gone, you don’t need to worry about things back home. You can check yourself with the live or recorded video option.

Advanced video cameras used to be accessible only for businesses with the purpose to protect, or for retailers who wanted to reduce shoplifting. But, video surveillance has become unexpectedly affordable and accessible for homeowners as a smart home security tool.

Let Your Lights Shine

It’s already proven that housebreakers tend to stand away from bright homes at night since that usually means the homeowners. When no one’s around, it’s less risky.

It’s not feasible to leave the lights day and night. One more time, the solution is already at your disposal. You can manage lighting from anywhere with your smartphone.

Typically, that’s just one perspective of the home security-home automation equation. While it’s about security, it is also about comfort. You skip the trip of going around the house, turning off lights left on needlessly, and use your smartphone to check and shut them down.

The Future Will Be Voice-Controlled

While millions of people now work with voice-controlled “virtual assistants,” it seems like they’ve been around forever. However, Apple first launched Siri only in 2011, while Amazon’s Alexa appeared in 2015 and Google Home made its debut in 2016.

You can make your voice-controlled assistants as straightforward or as complicated as you need them to be. Some people utilize them only to answer simple questions, to daily check the weather, or to play music. Other users make more use of their practicality by engaging in games, listening to audiobooks, managing daily schedules, or even searching for new recipes.

Now that home automation and home security are a very successful combination, every voice-controlled virtual assistant can keep you safe. The best smart home security systems are usually compatible with voice control.

Want to get really advanced? You can create commands such as “I’m going to bed” that activate a series of customized operations across multiple devices. In this case, doors will lock, lights will go off, cameras will come to life, and the thermostat will settle at the correct temperature.

It’s All Up to You

Long before this kind of technology emerged, Marshall McLuhan, a well-known sociologist for his opinion about the correlation between humanity and technology, summarized nicely:

“As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of ‘do-it-yourself.”

Once all your home automation and smart home security devices are set, let your imagination and sense of exploration determine how they can make your life easier.

Your home should be your safe haven. Luckily, home safety is no longer rocket science. Most homeowners leverage technological innovations to guarantee safety and prevent burglaries at home.  

If you have any inquiries about the topics in this post or home security in general, please contact us today. Together we can design a home security plan that will make you feel safe in your home.