A smart home is beneficial for more reasons than just convenience. Being able to control a home remotely means saving money on electricity and reducing the environmental footprint. Those with mobility issues, the elderly, and others with disabilities or impairments can also maintain a comfortable lifestyle with minimal movement and without someone there to help 24/7.
But there's also no denying that a smart home is also just plain cool. Being able to use a phone, smartwatch, or even voice to control a multitude of things in the home is exciting. While smart home control is often equated with things like lighting and music, however, there's so much more it can do.
Lighting
Arguably the most popular use for smart home control is lights. Smart bulbs can be used throughout the home to replace old standard bulbs, in everything from floor and table lamps to ceiling fixtures. Then, use an app to control them all at once, by room, or one by one. Set scenes like “good morning” that turns on the bedroom, bathroom, hallway, and kitchen lights, for example, then another called “good night” that shuts down all but one night light.
There are tons of options in the smart lighting space with Philips Hue being among the top brands that offer bulbs that can even illuminate in millions of different colors and shades. Some smart lights even double as Bluetooth speakers or come in unique forms, like light strips that can pulse to the music.
Music
The other most common application for smart home control is music. A smart speaker is necessary, but with one like a Google Home or Amazon Echo (third-party brands make them, too, like Sonos) and deciding on the smart platform to support (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or others like Apple Siri), more speakers can be added to build up the system.
A speaker or set of speakers can be controlled in one room or set them up throughout…