Our homes are incredibly important to us. They are where we enjoy our family time, have our dinner parties with friends and come to relax after a busy day. They are our sanctuary and hold many memories. We want to keep our homes safe. Here are some IoT-enabled products that help you do exactly this.

Smoke Alarms

Traditional smoke alarms can’t distinguish between burnt toast and an actual fire. They also can’t tell you there is smoke or carbon monoxide when you are actually not in the home. These are just two of the many things IoT-enabled alarms like Nest Protect, Birdi, or others can solve for.

IoT enables machines to learn over time and distinguish between actions. For example, to understand what type of fire it is (bad cooking or actual danger) and to alert you with more accurate data. They also come with mobile apps. These tell you when you are not at home what is going on and allow you without having to climb on a ladder to turn an alarm off. Finally, they can also test themselves and again alert you of malfunctions.

Lighting

We do what we can to ensure that when we are away our house doesn’t look empty. We may ask neighbors to take in the mail or put out the trash cans. But smart lighting allows us to do much more. It can sense when it turns dusk outside and therefore switches on certain lights. You can easily program your home to look very active although you are enjoying your holidays.

Cameras

Connected cameras can tell you what is happening in your home while you are away or who is outside your home. In the first scenario, you can access the camera feed through an application on any device (desktop, mobile) and check in on your home. This works for nanny-cams or in connection with home alarms. So, when an alarm is triggered, you can check from wherever you are whether there is an actual concern or not.

But what if you are in the home and concerned who is outside? This is a big concern for vulnerable people in our communities as well as for people away from their home who want to know who is checking on their house. Peeple by Building 10 built a smart peephole that solves this problem. This smart camera in your door connects with your phone to show you who is ringing the bell or simply lurking outside your home. Check out how they connected this innovation here.