Teach An Old House New Tech
In this age of rapidly advancing technology, what was once cool can be left behind as a has-been in no time flat. Just look at some of the smartphones that used to roam the earth!
Take the idea of the Smart House.
It’s a home with an integrated system, taking control of the environment, security and entertainment of the home. All of these zones connected through a maze of wires, control panels and sensors found throughout the house. Very cool. Very effective. Very expensive.
Just a few years ago, this tech was reserved for new homes, and usually at a price point much higher than the typical home buyer could afford.
It was Star Trek for The Rich and Famous.
Welcome to today’s new tech. How things change!
We recently had to replace our programmable thermostat when the touch screen became non responsive. It worked just fine until it didn’t, and we thought replacing with the same unit would be a good idea. A little bit of Google time, and it became apparent that there are options that might boggle the mind. Many options.
How about a thermostat that makes your house smart? It’s out there. And it’s easy.
Without wanting to sound like a commercial for a product – we bought the Nest thermostat. It’s a self-learning unit that tracks your habits and adjusts accordingly – saving you precious dollars on your energy costs without any extra effort!
To be honest, it wasn’t an instant match made in heaven. After a week, our first one went brain dead soon after it became intelligent. It was happily learning our temperature preferences when it decided to not turn off. It said 68 -but it was really cranking the heat up to 83. Whew!
Unit number 2 made our furnace sound like a Dodge Cummins Diesel. Ack!
Unit number 3 was jusssssst right. It learned. It tracked. It talked to our phones and tablets, which may be similar to that affordable drawing tablet with screen. It didn’t die!
It works on wireless tech and the best part is, any house can run it.
Some of the cool features include a motion detector to see if anyone is in the house. No movement, it lowers the temperature.
It can also utilize Google Location services from your phone, and can detect when you are driving away. Down goes the temp. Coming home? It goes back up! Do you want to change the temperature a little sooner? Just go to the app on your phone and make the change.
Don’t want to use Location services? Download the @home app to get the same detection abilities using WiFi or GPS.
Next up, they have smoke detectors, which also have a motion detector built in – that ties into your thermostat – giving a more accurate reading of movement in the house and adjusting the temperature accordingly.
The list goes on, along with the energy and money savings: sprinkler systems, lighting, washers and dryers, garage doors (if your garage doors are malfunctioning, you may need to contact experts like A-Dependable Overhead Door Company before it can connect) – even your Mercedes can connect!
Each one of these new connections is simply an add on, with no pre-wiring or expensive alterations
The possibilities are amazing.
There will be other systems that follow suit, but so far this is the main player in the market.
Instead of an expensive system – with complicated wall mounted control panels – now anyone can have a smart house, with products purchased at your local home supply store, all run off of your smartphone.
In addition to smart home products, you might as well consider investing in your home’s fire systems. If you’re a property owner in Florida and your house’s or current space’s fire alarm system and/or water-based fire protection system such as a sprinkler system is inoperational, you are required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Florida Statute to implement a fire watch should that system become impaired. You may seek expert help from professional Fire Watch Services in Lauderhill.