Top 5 Smart Home Gifts

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Are you looking for that perfect gift for the smart home aficionado in your family? Or do you just want to give yourself a smart home gift? We’ve complied the top 5 smart home gifts and which smart home gift will fit best for you.

 1. Amazon Echo Dot - Best Gift For Anyone

It’s fun, it’s smart and it’s in the under $50 price range. If you don’t already have a dot or you want to give a gift that will be loved, this is a great smart home gift.  You can use the Amazon Echo dot to stream music, set timers, answer your questions, and connect to thousands of apps. The dot is a great start or addition to any smart home system as it connects to other devices such as smart thermostats or lights as your system grows to enable smart home control of your house via voice.   

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Dot

Amazon Echo Dot

2. Nest Thermostat - Best Gift for New Homeowners or Your Parents

Give the gift that keeps on giving! The nest smart thermostat is great if you want to save money on your heating and cooling bills.  With it’s smart sense technology it automatically adjusts the temperature to save money when you are away.  It also delivers maximum comfort for those days when it's just a little too cold to get out of bed, adjust the thermostat from your phone and turn up the heat. The nest is also great if you travel a lot or have a vacation home so you can check and make sure the heat is working so your pipes don’t freeze in northern climates.

Nest Thermostat

3.  Nest Cam - Best Gift for New Parents or Dog Owners

If you have a new baby or a new dog the nest cam is a must have. The nest cam allows you to check in on your baby from your phone. You can ditch the bulky baby monitors for the  nest cam and you can check in on your phone from anywhere. The video is routed straight to your phone and both parents can check the live feed at the same time.  

The nest cam also integrates motion sensing technology to highlight when there is active motion in front of the camera. The nest cam app interface is great and allows you to customize exactly what you want to see and when you want to be alerted. The video streams in HD and works even in the dark.  The nest cam is also great for dog owners who want to check in on their furry friend while at work. The camera is also features a two way microphone so you can talk into your phone and through the camera to communicate.

Nest Cam

4. Schlage Z-Wave Connect Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt - Best Gift for Large Families  

Have you ever been locked out of your own home? Or do you have family members in and out all day?  Then the schlage century connect smart lock is for you. The lock allows you to program codes for your family members so you can have push button code access to your home, you won’t need to carry around that bulky set of keys unless you want too.  

The lock also has an auto locking feature that will automatically lock the door after 90 seconds so you don’t need to worry again about if you locked your door or not. When the lock is connected to a smart home system such as Wink or Smartthings it allows you to unlock the lock remotely and you can set it up to alerts to let you know when the door opens.  It’s great for letting in a traveling family member, a cleaning crew or dog walkers.

Schlage Z-Wave Connect Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt

5. Sonos - Best Gift for Music Lovers

The entire sonos line up has amazing sound quality, you will turn it on and wonder what you have been missing all those years with lower quality speakers. The Sono’s speaker systems offer easy set up, require no wiring and stream high quality music throughout your home. With the Sono’s app you can sync all of your Sono’s devices to provide full house home audio throughout your entire home or set different music for each room. If you love quality sound, and streaming music you can't beat any of the Sono’s speakers. Most people are ditching the traditional wired in home audio for sonos speakers and once you listen to the Sono’s you will understand why. If your home doesn’t have built in audio the sonos will save you thousands in repairs trying to install built in system with results that will impress, plug in any you are ready to play millions of songs at your fingertips.

Sonos Play:5 Speaker

OUR NEW PODCAST LAUNCHING MARCH 15TH, 2018

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PODCAST LAUNCH MARCH 15TH, 2018! SIGN UP

I want to thank all of you for being loyal fans and great supporters of OneHourSmartHome.com, and we are happy to announce that we will be launching our the OneHourSmartHome.com Podcast in 2018!  Our goal is to bring you all of the smart home information you need to automate your home and life.  

The podcast will launch March 15th, 2018.  Please subscribe to our launch list below so you can get access to exclusive pre-launch podcast content and bonus smart home materials to help you plan our automate your home.

 SUBSCRIBE HERE

 

PODCAST EPISODES WE WANT YOU

We want to hear from you, because we are here to serve you, on your smart home journey and give you the information you need to make your home smarter.   We have a great start to the episodes and guests for the podcast, but we're doing this podcast for you, so please let us know what topics you would like to hear on the podcast.   You can submit your topics below, we've also included few topic previews below:

PLANNED PODCAST EPISODE TOPICS

  1. What smart home devices should you start your smart home system with?

  2. Which Amazon Echo device is right for you?

  3. Which smart thermostat should you choose?

  4. Top ten smart home devices.

  5. How to design your new construction home for smart home compatibility?

  6. What smart home devices will save you the most time?

  7. Quantifying smart home energy savings.  

  8. Designing a smart home system for your existing home.

  9. Interview with smart home device company founders.

  10. Smart home trends of 2018.

Will A home automation system increase my home value?

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Will A home automation system increase my home value?

Yes, a home automation will increase the value of your home.  According to redfin over 68% percent of homeowners want to use smart home technology to become more energy efficient. What’s even more interesting is that all demographics of home buyers want to incorporate home automation features in their homes, however baby boomers are actually the most likely to already have a home automation system installed.

Why does a home automation system increase the value of your home?

smarthome photos

 

STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

Home Automation is an additional feature that helps your home stand out from the crowd.  The impact is real when a homebuyer sees a home that has been upgraded with the latest smart thermostat technology compared to an old 1980’s style thermostat is signals that the homeowner has taken care of the home and invested the time and money to keep the home up to date.

SAVE TIME

In the digital age we are all more time constrained than ever, incorporating time saving home automation devices is must have for working professionals trying to squeeze the most out of each day.

SAVE MONEY

Home automation systems save you money, according to independent studies a smart thermostat such as the nest thermostat can save you up to 10% on your heating and cooling each year and those savings can add up when you consider that the average homeowner spends approximately 13 years in their home before moving, it could add up to thousands of dollars in savings

CONVENIENCE

Having the control of your home from your phone is a true conferenced. You can turn on the HVAC to be at just the right temperature when you get home from a long trip when you land at the airport, or if you're a little to cold in bed no problem turn up the heat from the comfort of your bed before starting your day. We all love things that make our life easier, and home automation does just that it makes our lives easier and allows us to live smarter.

SECURITY

Home automation systems give buyers peace of mind, because with motion sensors, smart locks and cameras homeowners can check in on their investment at any time from their phone to make sure things are running smoothly.  A small investment in home automation could save you thousands by preventing a break in, or alerting you when someone suspicious is lingering on your property. Most of us invest our  life savings in our homes, shouldn’t we spend a little bit more to protect our investment?