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5 Smart Home Essentials for New Homeowners

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You’ve finally found your dream home, so what’s next? Equipping your property with security and smart home additions will make this transition smoother, more efficient, and comfortable. “Buying a home can be one of the most exciting, yet stressful, milestones of your life. Smart home security systems can give you peace of mind — going beyond just protecting your home from break-ins to give you a full picture of what’s happening around your new home,” advises JT Hwang, CTO of Vivint, a smart home service provider. “Smart sensors can alert you of water or carbon monoxide leaks, a smart thermostat can save you money on energy bills, and smoke detectors can not only detect smoke, but increased heat as well, which can be an early sign of a fire.”

Smart lighting features are also a good idea for new homeowners. “Smart lighting control is related to security,” says Jynarra Brinson, lighting programmer at Lumena Design & Programming. “Turning on your lights from your cellphone before you step into your apartment or home is definitely an attractive feature to my clients. No matter how familiar the space is, walking into a well-lit home is something most people prefer.” From doorbell cameras to water sensors, here are five smart home essentials for security and peace of mind.

The ability to answer your door from anywhere and speak to whoever is there is an important feature for homeowners who need to remotely control their front door. If you’re away, you can record and take pictures of people coming and going. Doorbell cameras allow you to monitor package deliveries to help deter any potential porch pirates from your packages while you’re away. They can also send you notifications and recordings to know who stopped by if you miss a visitor. 

If you’re looking to get in front of any potential water issues that could occur in your home, a water sensor is essential. The Vivint Water Sensor notifies you on the Vivint panel and on your phone of any potential flooding issues, so you can avoid water damage to your home — meaning those luxurious baths can be had without fear of unknown overflowing. Also, the sensor will notify you if the temperature in the house gets too low, which could potentially cause freezing pipes.

If you’ve ever had that heart racing moment of realizing you just locked yourself out of the house, then you can find peace of mind with a smart lock, which you can open by keypad and with your phone. When there’s a repairman you would like to let in while you’re away, you can remotely unlock the door. Or, if you have a guest staying at your home, you can give them a unique code for their visit that can lock and unlock the smart lock, and then deactivate it once they’ve left. The Kwikset 888 allows you to program up to 30 codes.

Those dreaded electric bills can lessen a bit when you manage your energy usage. The Smart Plug allows you to remotely control lamps by app or Alexa or Google Home voice control, so your space has light when you need it and can be turned off when you don’t. You can also program the plugs to turn on or off based on the time or activity around the home. 

Heading out of town for a trip? It’s important to be able to utilize a smart thermostat to save money and energy by remotely adjusting the temperature based on the home’s occupancy. A neat feature of some thermostats is being able to auto adjust the temperature based on time of day and usage patterns.



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