Sharing smart home upgrade ideas that not only help save money + energy, but pack a ton of convenience too.
Who knew there were so many quick & easy ways to upgrade a home with smart technology?! We’ve been slowly adding smart home features all around our home and let me tell you, we are officially hooked on smart home technology. Not only can they help save money & energy in the long run, but they pack so much convenience too! From lighting to window coverings and everything in between, I can’t wait to tell you all about our favourite smart home upgrade ideas and how we’ve been putting them to work in our home!
Smart Home Upgrade Ideas
ONE: Smart smoke & carbon monoxide detectors.
One of the very first things we did when we moved into this new/old house of ours is upgrade the smoke alarms. These smart smoke alarms not only detect smoke, but also keep an eye on carbon monoxide throughout our home as well. I love the way they communicate through the app using our wifi, alerting us to any issues, indicating which alarm is detecting something, even when we’re not home. They all communicate with each other through wifi as well, so when one alarm is going off, the rest will eventually follow, ensuring that everyone in the house is quickly made aware of any issues no matter which room they’re in. With a hardwire and battery version available, they make it easy to place extra smoke alarms all around the house. This big house of ours only had three little smoke alarms, one on each level, but we added four more throughout the house to ensure that every space was covered. Another added bonus, they also run through an automatic sound check each month, so you know they’re all working as they should be. We have nothing but great things to say about these smart smoke alarms.
TWO: Smart door locks.
Another quick and relatively inexpensive smart upgrade that we made fairly quickly after moving in was swapping out our traditional exterior locks for smart door locks. It makes coming and going from home so much easier, particularly for Carson as he can lock and unlock the door without having to worry about keeping track of a key. I can also control our door locks from my phone or our Google Home (also works with Alexa), which makes locking up the house before bed so much easier.
THREE: Smart switches.
Upgrading traditional light switches to smart switches was hands down one of the best smart upgrades we did around here. Originally, we’d only planned to swap out some of our most used lights, but it wasn’t long before we’d talked ourselves into upgrading nearly every switch in the house. On top of that, we’ve added all sorts of new switches using these brilliant little remote switches, which make it possible to add wall switches wherever you’d like in just minutes. While you can simply press the buttons to control the lights like you would any other switch, you can also control them with your phone, your Google Home (or Alexa) and even better, set them to automatic schedules or even create “scenes” for things like waking up, bedtime or movie time (these can coordinate with other smart home features like blinds and music too!). The schedule feature has been so handy for setting our exterior lights to come on as the sun sets and turn off automatically when the sun rises the next morning. Honestly, it’s pretty incredible what these little smart switches are capable of!
FOUR: Smart Lamps.
While we were upgrading all of our switches for a smart version, we also added smart controls to most of the lamps around the house too. I’ve got most of them set up with schedules to come on at sunset and stay on until bedtime (at least through the winter months when our days are much shorter). I also love that when I’m all cozy on the sofa, but need a bit more light for reading, I can just tell Google to turn on a lamp for me so that I don’t have to get up – maybe that makes me sound super lazy, but it’s so nice to not have to crawl out of my cozy cocoon just to turn on a light.
We’ve used two different systems to set up smart lamps around the house. In our bedrooms and living room, we’ve put these smart lamp plugs to work. I love how easy they made it to install remote wall switches beside our beds and the door, so that we can easily turn our lamps on and off no matter where we are. These switches match our regular smart light switches and work within the same system, which makes everything look and function seamlessly together.
We’ve also made use of these inexpensive plugs in several spots around the house like our Study. They’re not as slick as the switch option I mentioned above, but I like how simple they make it to set our ambient lighting on an automatic schedule when I don’t necessarily want another wall switch control.
FIVE: Smart window shades.
Upgrading to smart window shades was a bit of an investment, but with so many large, south facing windows, we wanted an easy way to keep the heat of the sun out through the warm summer months. Because we can set these on an automatic schedule to follow the sun around our house, the high price tag was easier for us to justify. There are tons of options for smart window coverings at all different price points, but we chose to go with the Lutron brand shades as they fit in so seamlessly with the Lutron switches and lamp plugs we were already running throughout the house. Even though we’ve got them set on a schedule most of the time, we chose to add wall switches for our window shades in each room so that we could quickly open and close the shades with the press of a button (the top set of switches pictured below). They can also be controlled through the app as well as with Google Home (or Alexa).
SIX: Google Home or Alexa.
As I’ve mentioned about a zillion times already, we use the Google Home system throughout our home. With speakers installed in nearly every room, we can control all sorts of automated features around the house like lighting, window shades, even our tv’s. We also use the speakers as our own little surround sound system around the house to play music, but unlike the hardwired version, we can all play our own music on individual speakers as well if we’d like to change things up. It also syncs to our own personal Spotify accounts through voice recognition, so we’re not messing with the algorithms on any one person’s account. We also make use of the intercom feature, which makes it so easy to talk to each other in different areas of the house. I believe Alexa works similarly to Google, though we haven’t tried that particular system ourselves.
SEVEN: Smart sprinkler system.
Let me tell you, through the summer months, a smart sprinkler system can be life changing! Brady worked SO hard last summer bringing our old in-ground sprinkler system back to life and I honestly don’t know how we ever managed without it. The best part though, was that he hooked it all up to a new smart system that runs on an automatic schedule – now, it not only waters on an optimized smart schedule, but it automatically adjusts that schedule with the weather.
If you don’t have an in-ground sprinkler system already installed, there are definitely other ways you can incorporate the convenience of a smart sprinkler system. This smart hose timer lets you automate your watering, especially handy to help keep plants and gardens watered when you’re away.
EIGHT: Smart thermostat.
Installing a smart thermostat is a relatively quick and inexpensive upgrade that not only offers convenience, but can help you find savings in your heating and cooling costs through the use of automated schedules. We had this Nest version in our old house and loved it. We haven’t gotten around to upgrading ours in this new/old house of ours yet, but when we do, we’ll opt for the same.
NINE: Smart garage door openers.
Installing smart garage door openers is also on our smart home upgrade wish list. They come with so many convenient features these days – automatic opening when it senses your car coming, automatic closing at a certain time (you’ll never accidentally leave your door open all night again!) and even built in cameras.
TEN: Smart appliances.
We’ve only just recently installed our first smart appliances around here, but I’m already in love. Our new washer and dryer set not only notifies my phone as a load finishes, I can also remote start a load in either from anywhere. Obviously you’d need to plan ahead for this and make sure your laundry is in the appliance, but I’ve already made use of this with our dryer, setting a timer to start drying a load one hour before I get home from work so that it’s ready to fold when I walk in the door.
I plan to look into smart versions of all of our major appliances as we roll through replacing them. There’s all sorts of cool new features out there that would be SO convenient to add to our smart home!
I hope today’s post left you with all sorts of new smart home upgrade ideas that you can put to work throughout your home. Have you made any smart upgrades around your house? I’d love to hear about them!
Wishing you SUCH a lovely day my friends!
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I can't wait to hear your thoughts!