Want a smart home – 2019 is the year to start

These devices can make your home smart

Below, please find some suggestions from our friends at Home Depot to upgrade the home…all under the guise of prepping for DST, which takes place at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 3 this year:

1. Ask your Google Home to remind you to turn the clock back an hour on November 3.
2. Now that it’s getting dark while most of us are still at work, come home to a well-lit house by investing in Smart Wireless Light Bulbs.
3. Use a motion-activated Smart Floodlight (shown above) for outside the home near your porch or garage.
   • I’ve got one of these new Ring camera and spotlight combinations (Model 88FL000CH000)and love the two warm white spotlights, the 270-degree view on the motion sensor and the option to be able to talk to someone through the app on my phone. All you need is 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (which is pretty standard on most modern homes today.)
   • Installation was really easy. It fit over the round junction box that used to house my two floodlights, which illuminated the walk to our front door. No worries about batteries failing or needing frequent replacement.
   • The 140-degree view on the camera lets me see not only the front door, but just about the entire patio area. I can also pan and zoom with the camera.
   • If things ever look like a security problem, there’s a 110 decibel siren built-in which you can trigger from your phone.
   • Another surprise benefit is that if my wife or grandkids are on the patio, I can use the phone app to talk with them without ever having to leave my chair.
4. For an even warmer welcome, use the Google Nest Learning Thermostat to get your home at an ideal temperature while being energy efficient, before you even pull up the driveway.
5. Sleep Medicine Reviews reports only a minority of people actually “gain” an hour of sleep during DST. The time change will actually cause more people to have trouble falling asleep and wake up more frequently during the night. To help your body adjust to the new time, go to sleep a few minutes earlier in the days leading up to DST, and use a Color Mood Light Alarm Clock to fall asleep to the sound of nature and slowly wake up using an increasing intensity light alarm.
6. Get coffee brewing in bed at the tap of a phone with a Smart Coffee Maker (see below).
7. Switch up your bedroom decor, creating a beautiful, relaxing environment. The Nanoleaf Canvas Smart Tiles offer endless decor possibilities for all year round.

And if those aren’t enough, you can go “old school” and CLICK HERE, then PRINT to print this reminder that your clocks need to be set back Sunday.

Disclosure: Home Depot provided a Ring camera spotlight combination so we could evaluate for this article. Opinions expressed are, and have always been, strictly our own.