When friends or family come to stay, even for a night, your home suddenly has to work a little harder. More people use your network, your TVs, your smart speakers, your lighting controls, and yes, your Wi-Fi password. That increased activity can expose the cracks in older or poorly performing home technology.
Depending on where you live, the fall and winter months often mean more time spent indoors. As you migrate inside, take a moment to really look around. Peer past the usual bright kitchen and cozy family room. Explore the areas that tend to fade into the shadows: the guest bedroom you’ve dreamed of converting into a home office, the garage gym that could use a little motivation, the wine nook beneath the staircase, or even the walk-in closet that never feels quite finished.
Everyone strives for a comfortable, efficient home. Certainly, good insulation, energy-efficient windows, and other building materials contribute immensely. However, there are additional steps that can be taken to further enhance a home’s energy efficiency.
Today’s smart homes are capable of astonishing things—lighting that syncs with your circadian rhythm, music that follows you room to room, and automation that simplifies daily routines.
People have done it for so long that they don’t even think twice about it: walking into a dark room and flipping the light switch. Immediate light floods the space, illuminating everything and even adding ambiance to the room.
If you’re new to the world of smart home automation, you may think of this technology in terms of lights that turn on and off with voice commands and motorized window shades that raise and lower with one touch on an in-wall keypad. While these represent smart home technology, they’re but a small piece of the smart home pie.
