From the Door to the Fridge: The Most Useful Smart Home Devices

• January 14th 2014

by UrbanTurf Staff

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The big tech news of the last 24 hours was Google’s acquisition of Nest, the company that makes digital thermostats that can be programmed from anywhere. While smart home gadgets are still in the early stages of being adopted, Nest has proven itself as one of the more effective and widely used home technologies. But what are the other useful smart home technologies that homeowners will make use of? Our choices below.

The Smart Fridge

Smart refrigerators have been around for awhile. They track the contents of the refrigerator, monitor dietary restrictions, and even communicate with you while you are at the store: scan a bar code, and your fridge tells you whether or not you are out of a particular product. LG and Samsung already make smart refrigerators, but you can be sure that other appliance giants will be getting into the game.

The Smart Lock

An UrbanTurf favorite, the smart lock is being interpreted in a variety of ways. The Kevo from Kwikset doesn’t require knowing a code or even pressing a button: you just touch your phone to the traditional-looking lock, and it opens. The Kevo also allows you to send electronic keys to people who need to get into your home. Schlage offers a touchscreen deadbolt. The touchscreen can hold a few different codes throughout the day, allowing owners to selectively let in folks, like house cleaners, who need to come by at a certain time of day. Both locks are controlled via smartphone or tablet.

The Home Cloud

Shilpi Paul came across this technology when she attended last year’s Consumer Electronic Show. From her dispatch:

Toshiba’s Home Cloud will monitor all your appliances via your TV, tablet, or smartphone, so you can see your energy usage in real time. The cloud finds ways to intelligently bring down usage, like shutting off lights in rooms that aren’t being used. The connectivity also leads to a few cool interactions, like lights that know to automatically dim when a movie is being played on TV.

Needless to say, there are a variety of other smart home technologies out there from smart beds to smart toilets. Those included above are just a few UrbanTurf favorites.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_four_most_useful_smart_home_devices/7993.