Smart Home Benefits

Smart homes obviously have the ability to make life easier and more convenient. Who wouldn't love being able to control lighting, entertainment and temperature from their couch? Home networking can also provide peace of mind. Whether you're at work or on vacation, the smart home will alert you to what's going on, and security systems can be built to provide an immense amount of help in an emergency. For example, not only would a resident be woken with notification of a fire alarm, the smart home would also unlock doors, dial the fire department and light the path to safety.

baby in crib with surveillance camera on it
Thomas Jackson/Stone/Getty Images
With smart home security, you can check on your little one from anywhere.

­Here are a few more examples of cool smart home tricks:

  • Light a path for nighttime bathroom trips
  • Instantly create mood lighting for time with that special someone
  • Program your television so that your children can watch only at certain times
  • Access all your favorite DVDs from any television in the home
  • Have your thermostat start warming the bedroom before you get out of bed so that it's nice and toasty when you get up
  • Turn on the coffee maker from bed 

Smart homes also provide some energy efficiency savings. Because systems like Z-Wave and ZigBee put some devices at a reduced level of functionality, they can go to "sleep" and wake up when commands are given. Electric bills go down when lights are automatically turned off when a person leaves the room, and rooms can be heated or cooled based on who's there at any given moment. One smart homeowner boasted her heating bill was about one-third less than a same-sized normal home [source: Kassim]. Some devices can track how much energy each appliance is using and command it to use less.

Religious Benefits of Smart Homes
For some members of the Jewish faith, installation of a smart home doesn’t just make life simpler, it can aid religious practice. Some Orthodox Jews are prohibited to turn lights on or off, or operate any sort of electricity, on the Sabbath. A programmed light system can maintain a home at an adequate state of lighting without requiring any human interaction [source: Forbes].

Smart home technology promises tremendous benefits for an elderly person living alone. Smart homes could notify the resident when it was time to take medicine, alert the hospital if the resident fell and track how much the resident was eating. If the elderly person was a little forgetful, the smart home would perform tasks such as shutting off the water before a tub overflowed or turning off the oven if the cook had wandered away. One builder estimates that this system could cost $20,000, which is less expensive than a full-time nursing home [source: Venkatesh]. It also allows adult children who might live elsewhere to participate in the care of their aging parent. Easy-to-control automated systems would provide similar benefits to those with disabilities or a limited range of movement.

Smart Dog Houses?
Pets can benefit from smart technology as well. Here's a sample of automated products for man's best friend:

  • Devices that stop a dog's barking by emitting ultrasonic tones.
  • Feeders that give your pet a preset amount of food at three selected times per day.
  • Pet carriers that automatically heat or cool your pet as the temperature changes.
To see more pet technology, visit SmartHome.com's Pet Care page.

Smart homes look great on paper, but are they for everyone? On the next page, we'll look at some of the disadvantages of this technology.