The Ultimate Smart Home Features Guide for Your Markham Renovation

It’s time to get real about getting smart. Smart technology is an inevitable progression of cohesive and convenient options built into everyday home appliances and features. You can spend a few hundred dollars making select smart home upgrades, or spend $20,000 or more to upgrade to mostly smart features in your custom home. Whether you’re ready for a big or small commitment, incorporating smart technology can improve your daily experience and augment your efficiency.

What is a Smart Home?

Smart home technology is anything that equips you to interact with devices in new ways. Most smart devices have an internet connection or are hardwired so you can connect remotely. Some smart items introduce new features or learn your habits for ultimate comfort and efficiency.

Categories of Smart Home Technology 

This list of smart home devices is meant to kickstart your imagination. It’s not an exhaustive list. Some of these devices fall into multiple categories, but we’ve done our best to group our list for easy reading.

Lighting

LED smart lights can be voice-activated, controlled via an app, or programmed to work on a timer. Many smart lights can also be operated on a different colour or light settings and at varying intensities to maximize energy efficiency and set just the right mood.

Energy-Efficiency

Smart thermostats are excellent tools to heat and cool your home for ultimate comfort. Many available models like Google Nest or Ecobee learn your habits and adapt to hit your target temperature when you’re home and use fewer resources when you’re not.

Kitchen

Absolutely everything can be made techy in a newly renovated kitchen. Smart refrigerators offer menu suggestions, create shopping lists, and provide interior cameras for remote viewing or temporarily transparent doors so you can keep the cold in while you peruse for a snack. Microwaves turn into screens for entertainment during prep and culinary advice. Ranges reach and hold precise temperatures and sense overheating or burning to stop a cooking nightmare before it occurs. Smart faucets are voice or motion activated so you can clean up without creating a bigger mess and use water efficiently. A daily pass of the robot vacuum keeps kitchen floors effortlessly clean.

Bathroom

Your bathroom provides far more opportunities for smart technology than you may expect. Heated floors ensure that your toes stay toasty, and remote-activated showers ensure that you don’t have to wait awkwardly while your water heats up. Smart toilets do more than warm your seat and provide irritation options, they can take your vitals, analyze waste and offer life-saving health feedback. Towel warmers, mini-fridges and other small appliances offer ultimate bathroom luxury. Bath fans feature Bluetooth speakers for ultimate ambiance control and smart mirrors provide important reminders and daily updates when morning minutes matter. 

Security

Device suites like Ring or ADT home kits mean that you have video of all the comings and goings. The simple presence of a video doorbell camera often deters would-be thieves. Smart locks and holistic home security items like alarms and window sensors come in easy-to-install kits and offer in-app control. Some even provide 24/7 security monitoring options.

Entertainment

Sleek and smart entertainment options are blending in and standing out at the same time. Discreet screens that disappear through the magic of technology or engineering appear in kitchens, bathrooms, and other spaces that don’t usually offer entertainment options by default. Speakers installed in innovative places like the shower or walk-in closet offer immersive sonic experiences. Create voice-activated routines that dim the lights and play your favourite tunes for date night, or set the mood for a spooky movie night with fantastic surround sound.

Automation

Smart home automation takes the drudgery and mental workload off your plate. Creating routines that take advantage of the smart capabilities of all of your techy additions means that everything runs smoothly, even when you forget. Apple users will likely gravitate towards Apple HomeKit to manage and organize their smart home features. Other excellent options include SmartThings, Home Assistant, and Alexa.

How Smart Home Technology Can Change Your Life

Monitor and Protect Your Residence While You Are Away

You never know what kind of crazy weather or emergency might happen while you’re away. The ability to control your lights, thermostat, garage door, and locks while you're away allows you to give the appearance of an occupied home, save on energy bills, accept deliveries, and monitor the premises. This makes quick weekend trips and heading south to avoid the cold easier than ever.

Peace of Mind for Adults Living Alone

Take advantage of voice-activated smart technology to ensure that seniors living alone can call for help from every room. Automate tasks so that seniors don’t have to remember to turn lights off or on. These simple home tech solutions can foster independence and support daily living.

Soothe Your Anxiety and Mitigate Inattention

Don’t ruin your day trip wondering whether you left the oven on or locked the front door. Pull up your app, verify that all is well or make the necessary adjustments and sail on with your day. Smart tech can help you stay organized by managing your shopping lists and routines so that you never run out of ketchup or leave the lights on in the spare room overnight. You can run a tight ship without dedicating all of your time and attention to the details.

Master Edge is on the Cutting Edge

Master Edge Homes builds stunning Ontario custom homes in Markham and surrounding areas, including but not limited to Stouffville, Aurora, Newmarket, North York, The Beaches, Pickering, and Uxbridge. Our keen eye for style, detail, and trend brings the ultimate convenience to our expertly-built custom homes.  

Interested in learning how an adaptive living renovation can improve your home? Complete our convenient online form or give us a call at (905) 201-1054.