The DIY Home: 7 Gadgets for Making a Smart Home

According to the latest reports, 90 percent of consumers in the United States have at least one smart home device.

Are you part of this group? Are you interested in making your home a complete smart home?

If you’re interested in making a smart home, there are a few gadgets that you definitely ought to purchase.

Start by picking up these seven unique gadgets that will set your home apart from all the others in your neighborhood.

Why Make Your Home a Smart Home?

There are a lot of benefits that come with turning your home into a smart home, including the following:

• Protect your home and your belongings with a smart security system
• Monitor your children and pets remotely
• Reduce your energy bills and carbon footprint
• Answer the door (and know who’s at the door) no matter where you are
• Lower your homeowner’s and renter’s insurance costs
• Increase accessibility for disabled and elderly family members

Of course, there’s also the fact that having a smart home is just plain cool. This is the kind of stuff we dreamed about when we were kids — why not make it a reality now?

Best Gadgets for Making a Smart Home

Okay, you can see that there are benefits to living in a smart home. How do you start turning your home from a dumb one to a smart one?

Start by picking up one (or more) of these fun and fascinating gadgets:

1. Amazon Echo

The Amazon Echo is probably the most well-known smart home device on the market, and for good reason. This little device does a lot of cool things — it’s no wonder almost everyone you meet has one (or sometimes more than one).

Amazon Echo is a voice-activated speaker that lets you do all kinds of things, from listening to music, making phone calls, or even ordering products on Amazon. You can use it set alarms for yourself, too.

If you have more than one Echo, you can use them as an intercom system to communicate with family members in different parts of the house.

2. Philips Hue

Have you ever wished that you could turn down the lights a little bit without turning them off altogether? Or, have you wanted to do the opposite and make the rooms in your house a little brighter?

Philips Hue lightbulbs let you do all this and more. With these special lights, you can adjust dimness and brightness easily, and you can change the color of your lights as well.

You can also set color-coordinated alarms, which allow you to wake up to a certain type of light first thing in the morning — how’s that for a wake-up call?

3. TP-Link HS200

It’s great to have smart lightbulbs like the Philips Hue lightbulbs. These lightbulbs aren’t super helpful, though, if you don’t also have a smart light switch.

Without a smart light switch, your smart bulbs will be rendered useless if someone accidentally flips a switch.

A smart light switch lets you control the lights from an app on your smartphone, and it doesn’t matter what position the physical light switch is in.

You can use the app for the TP-Link HS200 switch to create scenes and set smart actions so that certain lights will turn on or off depending on what you’re doing.

4. Ecobee4

A smart thermostat makes it easy for you to control the temperature in your house and make sure you’re not using more energy than is necessary.

There are lots of smart thermostats on the market, but Ecobee4 is one of the best. Ecobee4 lets you control the temperature with a simple voice command.

It also works like an Amazon speaker, so it can do everything your Amazon Echo can do. Ecobee4 integrates perfectly with the Amazon Echo and the Apple HomeKit.

5. Dojo

Have you ever wanted to have a device that protects your computer from viruses and cyber attacks? If so, now you can with Dojo.

Dojo makes it easy for you to protect all the devices on your network fro viruses, malware, and other cyber attacks.

With Dojo, you never have to worry about privacy breaches again. It automatically detects and blocks cyber threats and provides you with real-time information on what it’s doing.

Dojo is easy to set up, too. You just connect it to your router, download the app, and let Dojo do the rest.

6. Blink XT Smart Security Cameras

Many people invest in smart home devices because they want to increase the security of their home.

If you want to find out more about making your home more secure, you ought to learn about the Blink XT Smart Security Cameras.

These cameras are a great addition to any DIY home security system, and their batteries last for up to two years. They work indoors and outdoors, too, and can withstand extremely cold temperatures with ease.

7. Schlage Z-Wave Connect Century Smart Locks

Finally, your smart home will not be complete without a good set of smart locks.

The Schlage Z-Wave Connect Century Smart Locks are some of the best on the market.

These locks feature a programmable keypad and a built-in alarm.

They’re compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, too, so you can control them with your voice — no more fumbling for your keys when your hands are full!

Make Your Home a Smart Home Today

As you can see, there are a lot of great tools you can purchase to start making a smart home.

Whether your main goal is to increase the security of your home or if you just want to make life a little easier for yourself, a smart home can help you accomplish all your goals.

Do you want to learn more about turning your home into a smart home? If so, be sure to check out some of the other articles on our site today.

This article on the best and worst smart devices is a great on to read — it’ll help you make sure you’re not wasting money on devices that won’t actually improve your home.