How to Get the Most from Smart Home Living

Constant advancement in smart home automation makes life increasingly easy to manage, cut your home energy costs, and live safer and more securely.

Smart home technology refers to any combination of devices, appliances, or systems that connect into a common network that can be independently and remotely controlled. The result in a “connected home” with one-source control of our thermostats, lights, TVs, security cameras and more.

Smart home automation allows you to tap into high-tech functionality and luxury that wasn’t possible not that many years ago.

Here are a few tips to keep your smart home just as smart and dependable as it can be.

Change default usernames and passwords. If hackers can break into a US government database, they most certainly can get control of your smart living controls. To help keep them at bay, change usernames and passwords periodically and don’t use words and phrases familiar to you. Unique is what you seek for the ultimate in security.

Get the Most from Smart Home Living

Choose products that are compatible. Not all modern electronics are compatible with others you own or your smart control system. So, do some research before you buy.

Complete updates on device and apps. When your system “tells” you to complete an update, take the time to comply. Otherwise you incur an even greater risk of being hacked.

Keep an eye on your Wi-Fi. Since smart home devices operate on your home’s internet, they could slow down internet speed. Be prepared to add more bandwidth to support your smarter home.

Use voice commands. A great device for controlling all your smart home gadgets doesn’t even require using your thumbs and fingers. Instead, you can control everything with your voice by using Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri.

Get a Smart Home Hub. Your phone is a great device for controlling your smart home devices, but it also can be cumbersome using one app at a time. Wouldn’t it be better to have one device that controls everything?  That’s exactly what smart home hubs are designed to do. Not only do they enable smart home devices to integrate with each other, you also can use the hub’s app to control multiple devices in one interface.

Keep it simple. A smart coffee maker sounds convenient, right? Until you realize you have to reach for your phone, enter your code to unlock it, open the app, and tap “brew”. Or, you could just program your coffee maker to turn on automatically at a pre-set time so your coffee is ready when you want it to be. Don’t you agree that the latter approach is even smarter?

Smart Home Thermostats

Here at Optimum Air, we can contribute to your goal of more convenient and flexible living habits with smart Honeywell home thermostats. They offer an incredible range of options, including 5-day forecasts, voice-activation, auto alerts for on-time filter changes, optional password protection, and a help on demand feature that answers your questions on the go.

Contact us today to learn how a Honeywell smart thermostat can help you live more comfortably, conveniently, and with significant reductions in your monthly energy costs.