A smart home is not just an option but a rising trend.

The rapid pace that the smart home market is growing shows that this is where every home’s future is. The total number of connected homes in the United States alone will reach 63 million by 2022. By 2024, the expectation is that more than 375.3 million houses will have innovative home features.

When you have AI-centric features in your house, your daily living experience at home becomes more comfortable. Aside from not having to worry about home security, tedious appliance controls become easy. Lights turn off automatically when no one’s in the room, and your window shades will shut themselves when the house is empty.

Beyond all this comfort, you also get immense improvement in energy efficiency. Since your furnace turns itself off when you’re not at home, you save on electric bills.

Prioritize looking for a house with smart home features. You’ll get more value for your home purchase.

Essential Smart Home Features You Should Have

Did you know that about four in every ten American home buyers prefer houses with modern and innovative home features? They’re willing to pay more if a home has solar panels, a connected kitchen, or an intelligent security system.

To be called a smart home, a residential property must have smart appliances and devices that work together in providing these three aspects: practicality, functionality, and security.

1. Smart Lighting Installation

One of the primary standards necessary in every smart home is a home lighting solution due to its practical and functional capabilities. With it, you can control the lighting in your entire house through your smartphone – even if you’re at the office or away on business. Some smart bulbs even allow you to set a schedule so that it turns on automatically before you get home.

Intelligent lighting can offer various functional features, such as the following:

• Some smart bulbs can help you sleep faster with their blue tint technology.
• Others can help keep you awake based on the lumens you set.
• Some bulbs can show a different gradient of colors that light up depending on the music you’re playing.

Regardless of the type of innovative lighting you choose, they all have one thing in common. All these lights provide the convenience of switching them on and off through a smartphone device. For an even better way of operating it, you can also use voice command.

2. AI-controlled Entertainment Systems

Automating a home wouldn’t be complete without including its entertainment system. Most entertainment appliances these days have features that make them ready for intelligent connectivity. An ideal smart home should have all of these devices connected via a central control hub.

The control hub provides a convenient way to control speakers, intelligent displays, streaming devices, and smart TVs using an app installed on your smartphone. With the control hub relaying signals to all connected devices, you don’t have to point your remote to each of them.

Both Google Assistant and Amazon Echo allow you to control your entertainment system with your voice.

3. Smart Home Appliances

Installing home amenities with smart connectivity is even more possible when building a home. It allows builders to set up the infrastructure so that it accommodates the integration of innovative appliances. Most recently-built homes are equally ready for smart home appliances.

For instance, a smart oven can give you the following benefits:

• Switch the oven on or off remotely
• Allows you to preheat the oven on your way home
• Remotely adjust any settings and timers through your smartphone
• Receive cooking notifications from your phone
• Control it using voice command when connected to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa

You no longer need to fret if you forgot to turn off the oven since you can check its status from your smartphone. Some smart ovens even allow you to send recipes to it, allowing for automatic temperature adjustments.

Other home appliances with intelligent capabilities are automated dishwashers, robotic vacuum cleaners, smart washers, and dryers.

4. Automated Home Utilities

When it comes to implementing innovative technology, newly built homes get the most benefits. Retrofitting an old house with a smart thermostat will not help save on energy costs if the old ductwork is inefficient.

On the other hand, most new homes have the required infrastructure to accommodate the smart home revolution. Automating a home utility system can help cut down on energy costs. Examples of this include:

• A smart thermostat that automatically turns your HVAC system on and off whether you’re at home or not
• An intelligent sprinkler control system that waters your lawn efficiently
• Innovative water valve allowing you to control your home’s water supply

Most of these home utilities allow you to control it remotely as well. Did you leave the heater on when you left for work? You can quickly check it on your smartphone and turn it off with just a few taps.

5. Smart Home Security System

About 72.4 % of home burglaries happen when there’s no one at home. An intelligent security system can protect your house from such occurrences. It will alert you of a burglary attempt even when you’re not at home. Most systems of this type disrupt the burglars with lights and sounds and alert the nearby authorities.

Compared to a regular security system, an intelligent design allows you to access cameras remotely. Some innovative home surveillance cameras feature facial recognition capability, alerting you to the presence of someone it doesn’t recognize. There are also security cameras disguised as regular outdoor lanterns, alerting you for movements outside your home.

In conjunction with smart home cameras, smart door locks offer additional security by going keyless. A biometric fingerprint scan makes your new home secure, allowing only registered occupants to open the door. You can also program these devices to provide limited access to a housekeeper in the morning and a babysitter at night.

Make your New Home more Secure and Functional

Homes are also evolving together with technology. Your house doesn’t only have to be beautiful but smart as well. Smart homes make life easier! They add more functionality and better security than those built decades ago.

Find your new smart-ready homes at Oberer Homes and experience convenience at a whole new level.