10 Ways to Turn Your New Home Into a Smart Home

From 1957 to 1967, Disneyland featured a popular exhibit called the “House of the Future.” The exhibit depicted a home constructed of sturdy plastic, with all the gadgets and innovations its designers imagined would be commonplace in the smart home of the future (at that time, the “future” was 1986). The house featured lots of groundbreaking tech, like a microwave, a dishwasher, and a landline phone with a video feature, and was visited by more than 20 million people during its tenure.

Today, microwaves, dishwashers, and phones with video features (skip the landline) are commonplace features of all new homes. The smart home of the 21st century is one that even Disney probably couldn’t have imagined, and its technologies are widely accessible to pretty much every homeowner. Now, you don’t have to visit a theme park to see what the home of the future is like—you can live it. Here’s how to turn your new home into a smart home and take advantage of today’s most advanced home-based innovations.

Smart doorbells

Nowadays, you don’t even have to walk to the front door to see who’s ringing the doorbell. Smart doorbells—which are relatively inexpensive and easy to install, provided your home is already hardwired for a doorbell—feature tons of cool features that let you monitor, and even talk to, whoever is at your door without even being at home yourself. The best smart doorbells are wifi enabled and connected with other smart systems throughout your home, providing an added boost to home security that you’ll never know how you lived without once you have it installed.

Smart locks

For added front door security you can install a smart lock. These locks are generally touchpad enabled and completely keyless. In addition to basic features like automatic locking, smart locks allow you to lock and unlock your door from your phone—a great feature if you’re someone who often misplaces their keys or if you forgot to give a spare set to your dog walker. You can even create individual passcodes for different people who may need to access your home. Use it along with a smart doorbell at your new home for the ultimate in front door security and ingenuity.

Indoor and outdoor cameras

Sensing a theme yet among these smart home features? A lot of today’s most advanced home technology is focused on making our houses more secure, and cameras are no exception. You don’t have to turn your home into the set of Big Brother—many people use them just to record what’s going on outside the home or to keep an eye on pets when they’re not around—but cameras are useful home security tools (even the fake ones). And because they’ve become so popular, they’re a lot cheaper to purchase than they used to be.

Smart thermostats

Another theme among smart homes is energy efficiency. Smart thermostats can be installed in place of your home’s existing thermostats, where they monitor usage over time to optimize your energy utilization based on when and how you typically heat or cool your home. The most popular smart thermostats adjusts operation times all on their own, limiting energy consumption when you’re not around. They also feature compatible apps that allow you to personally monitor daily and monthly usage and make small adjustments for big energy savings.

Smart outlets

Speaking of energy conservation, did you know that your plugged-in electronics eat up power even when you’re not actively using them? It’s called standby power—or vampire power—and over time it can result in a lot of wasted energy. Smart outlets allow you to take a stand against vampire power, providing you with the ability to remotely control when your outlets and devices are consuming energy and to set automated rules for this sort of energy usage that aligns with your lifestyle and habits. In addition to smart outlets, a truly energy efficient smart home can also feature smart power strips and light switches.

LED lightbulbs

One of the simplest pieces of smart home technology is also one of the most efficient. The Department of Energy predicts that widespread use of LED lighting could save the U.S. 190 terawatts of electricity per year by 2030—savings of approximately $15 billion. Swapping out your new home’s existing light bulbs with LED light bulbs is a cheap and easy project that will save you money both on your energy bills (LED bulbs use about 50 percent less energy than traditional bulbs) and on bulb replacements—many last for decades. Most LED bulbs are also compatible with dimming systems, with a wider range of dimming abilities than fluorescents.

Smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

Gone are the days of the “beep, beep” of a dying smoke alarm battery. Smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are constantly charging themselves so they’re always working properly. And there are a few other major benefits, too, like the ability to tell you exactly where smoke is originating from and alerting you on your smartphone if the devices go off and you’re not home. Many of these detectors can also be integrated with smart thermostats so that if your smoke or carbon monoxide alerts go off your home’s heating system is automatically shut down so as not to exacerbate whatever is going on. They can get a little pricey depending on how many you have to buy, but are more than worth it in terms of efficiency and peace of mind.

Robot vacuums

We spend about an hour and a half to two and a quarter hours on household activities like cleaning and maintenance every single day, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a lot of time spent cleaning when you could be doing something else. Thanks to smart home technology however, at least you can skip the time it takes to vacuum. Robot vacuums do the dirty work for you, making frequent trips around your home to suck up dirt, debris, crumbs, pet hair, and whatever else is lying around before manually returning themselves to their charging stations. Best yet—no installation required. Just set up the charging dock and you’re set.

Personal assistants

Phone-based personal assistants are so 2010. Today’s virtual helpers are housed in small devices that you set on your kitchen counter or nightstand, allowing you to do everything from order your groceries to put your favorite song on the stereo without ever having to even get up from where you’re sitting. If you’re looking to automate your home and your life, a system like Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Home can make your day-to-day easier. Just be careful about letting kids use them—especially if you have your credit card connected!

Smart kitchens

Your kitchen can’t exactly cook dinner for you yet, but your fridge can be connected to the internet so you can view what’s inside of it when you’re at the store or blast your Spotify playlist while you’re baking cookies. Add to that smart slow cookers that allow you to make adjustments to your cooking even while you’re away at the office and smart plates and forks that help you monitor food and calorie intake if you’re watching what you eat. Keep forgetting to update your grocery list with the essentials? A smart garbage can will scan the barcodes on the boxes of the items you’re throwing out and automatically add them to a list you can take with you.

Turning your new home into a smart home can be done gradually—there’s no need to completely overhaul everything all at once if it’s not in your budget. But as you add in more features, you’ll be able to take advantage of one of the biggest benefits of smart home technology: integration. Many of these systems are designed to work together, so that your security systems are all talking to each other as are your energy efficiency systems and even your kitchen gadgets (a new smart refrigerator from LG can talk to your dishwasher and let it know when to expect a big load of dishes).

If you’ve dreamed of living in the House of the Future, now is your time. Smart home technology has increased at a rapid pace, and is poised to become a more commonplace feature of new homes and upgraded older homes alike. Explore the options that make the most sense for your home, your budget, and your lifestyle, and start turning your home into a place that works both with you and for you in the pursuit of a more efficient life.