Smart Home Automation You Need For Your New Home

There are tons of great reasons to build your home rather than to buy one that’s ready made, but these days, home automation technology is climbing to the top of that list. It seems like every week, a cool new device is released that allows your home to become more connected to technology. And if smart homes are the way of the future, now is your chance to automate your new home in The Highlands and take advantage of the fun, convenient, and secure products that are on the market.

Here are just some of the products that will help you create your dream smart home in The Highlands at Kettle Valley.

• Lighting
  Gone are the days when you had to crawl out of bed to turn of the forgotten lightswitch or ask the neighbour to turn on lights when you are travelling to keep burglars at bay. With today’s remote controlled lighting options, you can control the lights in your home from your phone. You can program them to come on before you get home from work, set the scene for task work in the kitchen and dim the lighting for children who are afraid of the dark. Some LED lightbulbs will also allow you change the colour of your lighting, so your daughter’s birthday party can be bathed in pink light and the potlights can be red and green at Christmas.
  
  

• Thermostats
  Thanks in large part to Nest, thermostats were one of the first things to catch on in the home automation world. An automated thermostat allows you to control the temperature of your home via your phone or remote control. With hot summers and mild yet cool winters, Kelowna home owners are the perfect candidates for these new systems. User-friendly interfaces make it easy to program temperature schedules for different days of the week, saving energy and money. Some smart thermostats even learn your patterns and schedules, adjusting their own programming so that you don’t have to!
  
  

• Door Locks
  Tired of messing around with the keys when you’re hauling in groceries? No problem. With smart locks, you can unlock the door from your phone or a keyfob remote, before you even leave the car. You can also set up sensors that turn the lights on when you open the door, for added safety and security.
  
  The August door lock system allows you to set up codes for different people, so your family member can get in 24/7 and your cleaning person can only unlock the door for a few hours each week. You can also set up codes for guests who stay with you in the summer. This system even tells you who entered your home and when, so you know the kids got home safely. Goji is a similar system that takes photos of guests and sends them to your phone.
  
  

• Appliances
  Several major manufacturers of appliances, including Whirlpool and LG, are getting in on the smart home revolution. Set a time for your laundry to start washing or drying, monitor what food is in the fridge (and what food is going to go bad), and preheat your oven. It’s like living in The Jetsons!

• Safety and Security
  Safety and security is where home automation really shines, whether or not you’re in a safe Kelowna community like Kettle Valley. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors that allow you to control them via your phone, with alerts that tell you when the battery is low, and an option to turn them off when you’ve burned the toast. You can set up cameras around your home that alert you to intruders and relay video to your phone and to a cloud-based system for storage. You can also use these cameras to monitor children and pets!

Some of the popular smart home technology companies include

• Insteon (outlets, lighting, thermostats, door locks, WiFi cameras, and more)
• Nest (thermostat and smoke / carbon monoxide alarm)
• Phillips (lighting)
• August Smart Lock
• Goji Smart Lock
• Honeywell (ceiling fans, window shades, cameras, lighting, locks, thermostats)
• Belkin WeMo (outlets, lighting, netcams)

There are tons of great companies who are continuing to push the envelope of what is possible in the world of home automation and we’ve only just brushed the surface. When you choose to build a new house, you may want to add in wiring that anticipates what may be available in the years to come. After all, it’s a lot easier to hook into existing electrical systems than to add wiring in after the walls are up! If you are thinking of building a beautiful new home in The Highlands at Kettle Valley in Kelowna, be sure to talk to your contract and home designer about the smart home technologies make sense for your family.