Smart Savings: Why Smart Home Technology Makes Good Financial Sense
Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 6:00 PM | Leave Comment
Smart homes. You’ve probably heard the term, but maybe you weren’t quite sure what it meant.
Well, it’s pretty simple: A smart home is a sort of blanket term used to mean that some—or many—features of the home are connected to and controlled by wireless technology.
Smart home technologies can do anything from allowing you to lock and unlock your doors and windows from anywhere in the world with just a touch of your cell phone to enabling you to remotely control your home’s appliances and thermostats for optimal efficiency.
The convenience and cost savings of a smart home can be immense, and best of all, you don’t have to have an IT degree to use them! Read on to learn the best strategies for making your home a smart home!
Image Source: Pixabay
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Why It Makes Cents
One of the best things about smart home technology is how much more efficient these tools can make your home. Your home’s appliances and heating and cooling systems are a massive suck on energy, and that’s not only a waste of resources, it’s also a waste of money. However, the ability to control your home’s appliances and thermostat allow you to scale back usage when there’s less demand, such as when you’re at work and the kids are at school.
You can even conduct an energy audit on your home to determine which appliances are least efficient or what your home’s particular seasonal heating and cooling needs are. Armed with this information, you can easily program your AI devices to operate your systems with maximum efficiency and performance and minimum cost!
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Selling Power
Making your home a smart home isn’t just about saving money today—it’s also about making money tomorrow. Homebuyers are increasingly demanding that their prospective new homes be outfitted with the latest smart technologies if they’re going to shell out the big bucks. So, in comparison to other major home selling points, like open floor plans and remodeled kitchens and bathrooms, installing smart systems may well be the quickest and least expensive way to boost the value of your home.
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The Power of Security
Despite the advantages of smart home technology, you may still have some concerns about the security and reliability of the systems. That’s not unfounded. The news today is filled with reports of attempted or successful cyberattacks, and artificial intelligence systems (AI), on which smart home technologies are based, are a particularly favored target.
However, while it’s impossible to entirely eliminate cybersecurity threats, the fact is that these systems are quite safe, and are getting safer, as security technologies continue to evolve. For example, today’s smartphones are loaded with an array of AI technologies, many of which can be used to securely control your home’s smart systems.
Embedded in these AI technologies are a myriad of security features designed to continuously monitor activity on the system and to immediately shut down the works at the first sign of a potential threat. Best of all, these protections evolve and are wirelessly updated virtually every day to stay one step ahead of any emerging threat.
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Securing the Fort
Even though advanced security protections are already embedded in AI technologies and smart systems, that doesn’t mean you have no part to play in ensuring the security of your smart home.
It all begins with the installation of your wireless router. Think of your router as the “brain” that actually makes your smart home “smart.” This is the hub that will receive the instructions you have either programmed into your smart systems or that you send directly from your smart home apps and then relay them wirelessly to the appropriate receiver—your thermostat, your front door lock, your home security system.
That means you’re not only going to make sure your router has the signal strength and data speed you need, but also that it has the security you want. Make sure your network connection is private and, above all, that it is always password protected. This will be a part of your initial setup, and your router’s owner’s manual or tech support should be able to walk you through this process fairly easily.
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The Takeaway
In today’s technological world, there’s often a lot of unwarranted hype surrounding the latest gadgets and gizmos. Fortunately, the buzz currently circulating about smart home technologies isn’t among them.
Smart home technologies not only make home ownership more convenient they also make it more cost-effective. These systems help you reduce energy costs while optimizing the performance of your appliances and HVAC. They enable you to securely monitor your home from anywhere in the world, protecting you from theft, fire, and other harms that can befall your home, family, and pets when you’re away. They can even substantially increase the value of your home, paying back your investment multifold when the time comes to sell!
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