Smart Home Tech Ideas Before You Hit The Road This Summer!

This post is sponsored by Telus

Now that spring and summer is upon us, it’s time to fill up your gas tank and hit up the road for a few months of road trips, vacation and lots of fun in the sun.  But what happens to your home when you’re not there? Over the past few years, the world of smart home technology has exploded and made life for those who constantly worry about their home and pets while they’re away, easier and safer than ever.

Having a home that’s connected to a fast and reliable network like Telus’ is incredibly important as well. Because what’s the sense of investing and trusting in smart technology if the connection to the internet isn’t as fast and dependable as possible?

So pack your bags with lots of snacks and sunscreen, but before you hit the road, check out some of my favourite smart home technology to make this a summer full of laughs and adventure, not worry and stress!

Nest Protect

I love the piece of mind that comes with the Nest Protect.  It’s both our smoke detector and carbon monoxide monitor. And luckily, we’ve never had any notices while we’re away, but if something was wrong in our house, we get notifications sent right to our phones, so we have that extra piece of mind.  And if you’re home and you’re a terrible cook, every now and then you’ll get videos sent to your phone of you running around the house trying to turn the fire alarm off after you forgot about the chicken in the oven.

Hue Lights

I think we were one of the earliest adopters of the Hue personal and wireless lighting system. And over the past couple of years, we’ve been adding to our collection.  The ads often focus on all the different colours you get from using the lightbulbs, I think it’s something like 30,000+. But honestly, how many people need 30,000 different colours for their house?  Maybe we’re a bit conservative when it comes to lighting our home, but we tend to stick to the soft white. But what I love is that we’re able to create the right ambient lighting, so no room is too bright, or too dark, it’s just right. And for traveling, we’re able to control the lights from our cell phones, so we don’t have to worry about timers or anything like that, we can just turn lights on and off from the comfort of wherever we have an internet signal.

Nest Camera

I love the Nest Camera because it gives us that extra piece of security when we are away from the home. Don’t worry, there’s a bunch of features on it, so it’s not recording us normally when we’re home, that’s just too weird. But more than security, it gives us the ability to check in on Mindy, our cat. So it’s great for helping us keep an eye on our house, but really, it’s just a really cool Cat Cam. If you want, you can even talk through the camera, so if you needed your pet to hear your voice, you can do that with the camera.

Google Home

The Google Home is one of the most powerful tech devices to hit the scene in a long time. It’s a personal assistant, a DJ, and game show host.  But you know what I use it for the most? Simply as a radio. It’s been a while since I had a radio in my house, and now I listen to the radio all the time through the Google Home using the Tune In App. 

We use the Google Home when we’re traveling to keep our cat amused. (Really, this blog post should have just been ways I use technology to amuse my cat, but when you’re off on a day trip and you have to leave your animal at home, you of course have to think about them too.) So before we leave, we always make sure the radio is on for her, and we don’t have to worry about it going to sleep.  And if CBC is ever looking for a cat to be on The Debaters, talk to Mindy, she’s listened to every episode.

Smart Locks

Our house is never empty for long. We always have people stay at our hour or to come check in on Mindy. Did I tell you that we have a cat named Mindy?  So using smart technology for your front door is a great way to know your friends can easily get in your home, but also if you can’t remember if you locked the door or not.

Contest:

Telus is excited that you’re thinking of great summer road trips, so to make it easier and more fun, they’ve given me a Google Home to give away!  To enter, head to the comments and tell me your favourite road trip that you think every Canadian should go on!

Contest is open until June 1st.