You’ve heard of smartphones and smart cars. Well, here come smart homes!

“Smart” technology is beginning to enhance our home-sweet-homes and the main reasons are convenience, energy savings, and security. Innovations already on the market can create a home which automatically respond to your needs.

Motion detectors will know you’ve come home and turn on the lights for you. Your smart home can see who’s ringing your doorbell, brew your morning coffee and perform any number of other tasks.

With a Google or Amazon smart hub, you can connect to just about anything in your home. In fact, you can connect to just about anything in the world.

Convenience

You can now set up a home system which provides voice control for lights, fans, and other devices. You can release your smart door lock remotely (when you’re not home) to allow a known person access. You can upgrade light switches to be able to shut off all your lights with a single command.

You can start your day by asking Siri about the weather and traffic reports, for example. Or tell Alexa it’s time for bed and she’ll be sure the downstairs lights are off, the doors are locked and the heat adjusted to the temperature you’ve told her.

Some of these conveniences are more fun than function, but part of a smart house is fun. For example, a nurse named Carol likes the convenience of simply asking aloud for information such as what internal temperature ensures safely cooked pork and adds, “My husband sometimes just says, ‘Alexa, tell me a joke.’”

Energy Saving

Energy monitors can display your home’s energy usage in real time, showing just how much energy (and money) a specific appliance or device is using. You can program your smart thermostat to turn down the heat in winter or be warmer in the summer, then return to your preferred temperature before you return home.

On the other hand, a woman who works irregular shifts alerts her smart home-heating and cooling system when she leaves work so it’s up to speed when she reaches home a half hour later.

Smart blinds can be timed to open to receive the sun in the winter and close to block it in summer. Or you could active them remotely. This can make a substantial difference in energy consumption.

Security

“What’s most important to me is the security,” declares Dan. He and his wife have a long-time mom-and-pop business and protect both their home and their store with cameras linked to his smart phone.

“We use inexpensive motion-activated cameras,” he explains, “but we don’t subscribe to any online services.” If a camera detects activity when there should be none, the system he set up sends an audio alert to his smartphone. “You can select the level of sensitivity you want,” he says, “and even the size of the figure for alerts so our dogs don’t set off the home alarm.”

Charlie is retired and says, “I hate it when we’re just ready to hit the interstate for a trip and we can’t remember if I really did remember to shut the garage door.” Now he can check the door and can close it remotely if it’s open.

Smart doorbells can include an image of who’s at your door and alert your smartphone as well. Some smart devices include facial recognition, so a surveillance system won’t be triggered for people you know.

New wrinkles in smart-ology — some just novelties and others useful — appear seemingly daily. For instance, a clever safety app automatically releases smart locks if a smoke alarm is triggered or a 9-1-1 call is made. This allows responders immediate access to the home.

Critical Caveats

The primary smart-home device providers are Google and Amazon. Unfortunately many people end up with different brands and incompatible devices, so must have a menu of apps to control everything.

In addition, many of these devices place significant demands on existing Wi-Fi setups. The solution is to have a control platform compatible with your needs, your network, and your system.

It’s important to remember, home systems can be vulnerable to hacking. Even without deliberate intent, some folks have noticed suspicious incidents such as neighbors overhearing their conversations. Right now, smart devices are sort of a Wild West of streaming data with a definite potential for abuse. It’s absolutely essential to have firewalls and other shielding technology protecting you.

Unless you are truly digital savvy, find a trusted technician to establish your system. If, like many, you have added onto your system at different times, consider a security check-up by a technician experienced in the field.

Lynn Pribus and her husband live in Charlottesville, Virginia. She reports that Siri tells pretty corny jokes, but some are truly clever.

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