Want to turn your apartment into the ultimate smart home? While you may not exactly be able to switch out the locks on your rented pad, there are plenty of ways to get the connected experience in your abode without breaking your lease.
Turn Any Appliance Into a Smart Device with a Smart Plug
Your landlord probably doesn’t want you swapping out your existing fridge or oven for a WiFi connected model without their permission. However, you can still get some of the perks of smart kitchen appliances using a smart outlet, like the Belkin WeMo Switch. These devices let you remotely control anything plugged into the outlet—and you can even create automation rules using ITTT, a third party control that allows you to create actions for compatible smart home devices. Worried you left the oven on? With a smart outlet, you never have to wonder.
A WiFi-Connected Speaker (And So Much More)
Amazon has definitely stepped up its game with the Echo. In theory, it’s just a speaker, but Alexa, Amazon’s robotic assistant, can also “talk” to your other smart devices, including products from SmartThings, Belkin WeMo, Insteon and Philips Hue. Additionally, the Echo can access your Amazon content, so Alexa can play you an audiobook, check the weather, or even order delivery from that Thai place down the street. Pretty good for a speaker, right?
Making Cooking Easier—And More High Tech
Cooking in a cramped apartment kitchen can be kind of a drag, but sophisticated smart home products can take some of the frustration out of preparing meals in less-than-perfect conditions. The Instant Pot Smart is an automated pressure cooker that gives you a readout of your food’s temperature, pressure level, and remaining time. It comes with a database of recipes that you can call on as well—everything from chili to chicken and back again—and with a Bluetooth connection, you can check up on your food from your bedroom. However, if you like your cooking more complicated, you can also go with a WiFi-enabled sous vide machine. These trendy little machines cook your food using an immersion bath to achieve highly precise levels of culinary perfection. If you want to try your hand at it, the Joule makes a great choice.
Let Your Robot Assistant Handle the Vacuuming
Keeping your carpet clean is definitely one of the more rigorous challenges of apartment maintenance. Those white carpets so favored by apartment complexes? You basically just have to look at them wrong, and they’re dirty again. A robotic vacuum cleaner can certainly take some of the toil of out of multiple carpet cleanings. And even if you’ve managed to score a pad with hardwood or tile floors, the iRobot Braava Jet can help. It mops and sweeps in addition to vacuuming so that you can handle virtually any floor surface—and it can even adjust cleaning methods if you have more than one type of flooring in your apartment.
Multifunctional Automated Lighting
When you live in an apartment, you don’t always get full control over your abode’s lighting, which can result in some dim corners and closets. Philips Hue Lightstrips can be cut to fit virtually any surface, making them great options for some extra task lighting in a kitchen or under a high shelf, or as a substitute for nightlights in bathrooms and bedrooms. The strips can be controlled using the Philips app on your phone, but they’re also compatible with the Amazon Echo, as well. Add a separate dimmer and you can get even more flexibility. Consider you dim apartment problems permanently solved!
Convert Your Existing Smoke Alarm into a Smart Detector
Your landlord probably wouldn’t exactly be thrilled if they learned that you had replaced your existing smoke detector with a new smarter, version. The Roost WiFi Battery is a great compromise—it lets you turn your smoke alarm into a smart version just by changing out the battery. It not only eliminates those annoying chirps forever, it also lets you silence a false alarm from a single tap on your phone. Plus, it will let you know if an alarm goes off while you’re away from home, which definitely provides some peace of mind. What more could you ask for from a smart home?
[tweetthis]Upgrade your apartment with #SmartDevices to make it feel efficient and homey.[/tweetthis]
Smart home technologies are always being created, and re-designed. 2017 will have many new tech gadgets to continue developing your smart space. This list has six items to help you further advance your home this year.