If you are like most homeowners, you are likely starting to at least dabble into the world of smart home gadgets. There are many ways you can upgrade your home and make your life easier, more secure, and more energy efficient one gadget at a time rather than needing to make a major investment all at once. Chances are your first smart home devices might have been gifts this past holiday. Then last month at the world’s largest consumer electronics show (CES 2018) even more smart home tech was announced or released. Here are 10 of the most popular smart home gadgets you should consider if you are planning to upgrade your home in 2018.
- Amazon Echo: Smart speakers Smart speakers / voice assistants are the most popular smart home gadgets. There are several different smart speakers on the market. Amazon Echo (2nd Gen) is a smart speaker which not only plays music, audiobooks, and answers questions for you that you might normally search on your smartphone or computer, but it also connects to other smart home devices or your smart home hub to control them via your audio commands or through the app. Since it is connected to Amazon, you can also shop on Amazon or add things to your lists using voice commands. .
2. Philips Hue White A19 Starter Kit: As with many smart gadgets, there are different brand smart light bulbs available, but our pick is the Philips Hue White A19 Starter Kit because it is compatible with many different smart home systems and hubs including Alexa, Apple HomeKit, IFTTT, Google Home, and Nest. As a bonus, they are very affordable. The interface of this starter kit allows you to adjust the brightness or turn on and off up to 50 light bulbs on a single hub. While the light bulbs in this starter kit only come in white, additional coloured Philips Hue light bulbs are available, expanding the different options that can all be controlled through your smart home hub or speakers.
3. Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat: The most recent version of this smart thermostat includes a remote sensor that allows you to adjust the temperature from anywhere in the house and a touchscreen interface on the thermostat itself. The Ecobee4 has Alexa built in, so you don’t need a separate Amazon voice assistant to control it.
4. TP-Link HS105 Smart Plug: One of the ways to convert your existing technology into smart home tech is with a smart plus. A smart plug allows you to plug any device into it and turn it into a smart device because you can control the plug, schedule it to turn on or off, and access it through a remote, an application, smart home hub, or voice assistant.
5. CURB Home Energy Monitoring System: A monitoring system like this is the way to make sure that your home is running as efficiently as possible. The CURB Home Energy Monitoring System features include:
Real-time home energy monitoring system
Attaches to your breaker panel, showing individual appliance energy consumption
Monitors your solar power, showing how much your home is producing
Controls your smart devices from within the CURB app
Works on iOS and android devices, plus web for detailed desktop analysis
6. Kwikset Smartcode 916 Touchscreen Electronic Deadbolt: This smart home lock doesn’t look fancy or high tech, but has some excellent security features including a feature that requires you to punch in two random numbers before entering your code. This masks the fingerprints on the screen so that a thief or someone watching cannot guess the correct code. It also has an alarm function and can connect to several different types of smart home hubs.
7. Amazon Cloud Cam: This is smart home security camera is popular because of its high end security options and ease of use, affordability, and reliability; but one of the best features for the price is the free storage.
8. BeOn Starter Pack: The features for the lighting security system explain why it is one of the best on the market:
Record & Replay your lighting patterns.
Responds like you would to a doorbell.
Instant lighting when a smoke detector is heard.
Backup lighting during a power failure for 5 hours.
9. Jawbone UP3 Fitness Band: This fitness band bridges wearable tech with smart home technology. It is intuitive and convenient. Not only does it help you with your fitness goals like other fitness bands do, but this also integrates with the other smart home technology in your house that allows you to create efficiency in energy use, or just the convenience of being able to turn lights on and off in different rooms or starting up your smart coffee maker before you get out of bed in the morning.
10. June Intelligent Oven: When you think of smart home appliances, usually the refrigerators come to mind, but this June Intelligent Oven is quite memorable in itself. It simplifies cooking and takes all the guesswork out of it for you. It fits right on the countertop and is enabled with Wi-Fi, a camera, and AI. It cooks your food to your specifications using weight and temperature monitors.
