In our previous National Home Security Month blogs, we’ve touched on how smart tech can help you keep your home safer than ever.
In this blog, we’re going to take that a little bit further and discuss all the smart tech you could install in your home, to create the perfect illusion that somebody’s home, even when they’re not!
Home Cameras
Indoor Cam by Nest
The practise of installing costly, old fashioned CCTV systems is on a downward trend, with the introduction of new affordable smart cameras that you can view from anywhere in the world.
With motion detection, night vision, live recording, easy video exporting and editing, and alerts to your phone; these nifty cameras create an invisible force field around your home, making it difficult for intruders to even get near without being spotted.
If by some act of magic thieves manage to slip past the cameras and get into your home, indoor cameras can be strategically placed too, but this time with the added benefit of a speaker and microphone – meaning you can scare intruders away no matter where you are.
Door Bells
The humble doorbell has been around for a very long time, but if nobodies home then they’re a bit useless. Queue the range of smart doorbells hitting the market, allowing you not only to see who’s at your front door, but to speak to them as well!
Now if a friend pops around you can easily let them know if it’s worth waiting for you, or if you miss a delivery person you can tell them exactly what to do with your parcel.
Hey, you could even install a Phoenix Key Safe so that when someone does press the doorbell, if you like you can give them the code to access a key and get inside – now isn’t that a neat idea?
Smart Locks
Smart Lock by August
Keys will always be around in some manner, but smart locks will eventually become the default way to enter, well, just about anything!
Hotels all over the world are now allowing you to access your hotel room using nothing but your watch or smartphone!
Plus, with features like auto unlock when you stand near your car and apps on your smartphone to control the functions inside, it’s inevitable that eventually your smartphone will be the key to starting your car as well.
Another fantastic benefit of smart locks is that you can manage access to your property in real time. For example, you could grant your dog walker or repairman access to your property using their own device – you can state specific dates and times they can enter, either a one off entry or a recurring visit, but if they tried any other time – the lock wouldn’t open. Clever stuff!
In the future
We wouldn’t be surprised if in the future, with the rising trend of face scanners on phones – you’ll be able to open the door with your face alone, no device or key required!
Home Lighting
With smart home lighting, you can control practically every light in your home. Turn it on or off, adjust the brightness, change the colour, set up a schedule, all from your phone!
This is fantastic for when you’re away from home because you can program the lights to behave as if you’re actually there, turning on and off at specific times. This is a great deterrent to make burglars think you’re actually home when you’re not.
Smart Plugs
Smart Plug by Eve
As well as programming your home lighting, you can control pretty much every plug in your home, too. All you need is a little plug adapter that you place in each existing socket, and voila – smart plugs!
This way if you wanted you could turn the TV or the radio on or off at night, to give the illusion somebody’s home, watching the latest episode of Emmerdale.
You can use smart plugs and similar tech to do a lot of things now. Run you bath or turn on the shower, turn on the fire or automatically brew a cup of coffee in the morning, perfect!
Smart Curtains and Blinds
This one might sound a little out there, but hear us out!
When you’re away from home, unless you have somebody coming every day and opening and closing your curtains or blinds, it could be pretty easy for a burglar to work out that you’re not home based on the fact that your curtains or blinds are either always open or always closed.
Having smart blinds and curtains allows them to automatically open in the morning and close at night, giving the impression that somebody is always home, even if you’re on holiday!
All At Once
All this smart technology is great, but it’d be a bit of a chore to manually control all this stuff, right? That’s why apps like Workflow exist, to allow you to do multiple things at once!
With the push of a single button on your smartphone you could have the TV turns on, curtains closed, living room lights off and the kettle on. Perfect.
This would also be a bizarre Mary Poppins-esque nightmare for any potential unsuspecting thieves, wouldn’t it? Lights flashing on and off, the TV volume up to 1000%, the curtains opening and closing, and you shouting at them through your indoor camera, all at the same time. Brilliant!
National Home Security Month
This blog is part of our National Home Security Month series. Every week in October we’ll be posting useful content to help keep your home safe!
“National Home Security Month (NHSM) is here to raise awareness around the importance of home security, so you can be safe in the knowledge that your home, family and belongings are protected.”
In week 4 we’re focusing on the future and how smart technology can make your life easier and your home more secure! Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to keep updated with the rest of our posts related National Home Security Month.