Smart Tech Ideas For Your Home

Once you’ve bought all your furniture, coffee tables, chairs and more, it’s time to start thinking about how you can make your house both beautiful and practical… and these days, you’ve got an awful lot of technology at your disposal, just waiting for you to make use of it. Smart technology is a growing trend and one that’s sure to really take off in 2017, so get the jump on Joneses this year and make a key investment or two.

Here are some great ideas for you to mull over this weekend.

Philips Hue lights

It’s not cheap at £150 but this starter kit is a great investment if you want to have easy control over the lights in your home. You can turn them on and off just by using an app, as well as changing the colours and brightness of the bulbs. And what’s even more interesting is that you can sync them up with other apps you use, so you could for example get your lights to flash whenever your phone gets a notification!

The Logi Circle

If you’re an animal lover but find that your house constantly takes a beating thanks to all the cats and dogs, keep a virtual eye on them easily using the Logi Circle gadget. Just put the device in a room you want to keep an eye on and then login live using the app. You can also talk through it using your phone so if your cat is climbing the curtains, you can yell at them to get down.

Nest smoke detector

If you’re looking for something really useful, then this smoke detector from Nest would be a good shout. It can talk to you and alert you to any problems, and serves as both a smoke and carbon monoxide detector as well. You could also pair it up with the Nest thermostat, which will shut your boiler off if a fire does break out.

Amazon Echo

If you’re in the market for a smart speaker, then the Amazon Echo has to be one of the best out there. It’s not just a Bluetooth speaker, it also boasts all sorts of different voice-activated features so that you can control all sorts of other smart gadgets in your home (including ones from other brands like Belkin and Samsung). You’re also sure to enjoy making it read you your audio books, as well as shopping online simply by using your voice!

SmartCode 916 home security system

You’ve got to make sure that your home stays safe and well looked after, and the SmartCode 916 can definitely do this for you. It’s nice and compact so it’s very inconspicuous and you can carry on using your old keys if you want to. Or you could make use of the SecureScreen feature that asks you to punch two random numbers into the keypad before you put your code in, so burglars aren’t able to guess what the password is by looking at fingerprint smudges on the keypad. There’s an alarm that sounds if someone breaks in as well, so your property will feel much more secure when you’re not in.