5 Smart Home Essentials for New Apartment Residence

You’ve finally found your apartment, so what’s next? Equipping your home with security and smart home additions will make this transition smoother, more efficient, and comfortable. Smart home security systems can give you peace of mind — going beyond just protecting your home from break-ins to give you a full picture of what’s happening around your new home. Smart sensors can alert you of water or carbon monoxide leaks, a smart thermostat can save you money on energy bills, and smoke detectors can not only detect smoke, but increased heat as well, which can be an early sign of a fire.

Smart lighting features are also a good idea for new homeowners. Smart lighting control is related to security. Turning on your lights from your cellphone before you step into your apartment or home is an attractive feature to have. No matter how familiar the space is, walking into a well-lit home is something most people prefer. From doorbell cameras to water sensors, here are five smart home essentials for security and peace of mind.

1Valet

The ability to answer your door from anywhere and speak to whoever is there is an important feature for apartment renters who need to remotely control their visitors. If you’re away, you can record and take pictures of people coming and going. 1Valet allows you to monitor package deliveries to help deter any potential theft from your packages while you’re away. They can also send you notifications and recordings to know who stopped by if you miss a visitor.

Water Sensor

If you’re looking to get in front of any potential water issues that could occur in your suite, a water sensor is essential. The Vivint Water Sensor notifies you on the Vivint panel and on your phone of any potential flooding issues, so you can avoid water damage to your home — meaning those luxurious baths can be had without fear of unknown overflowing. Also, the sensor will notify you if the temperature in the apartment gets too low, which could potentially cause freezing pipes.

Smart Lock

If you’ve ever had that heart racing moment of realizing you just locked yourself out of your suite, then you can find peace of mind with a smart lock, which you can open by keypad and with your phone. When there’s a repairman you would like to let in while you’re away, you can remotely unlock the door. Or, if you have a guest staying at your suite, you can give them a unique code for their visit that can lock and unlock the smart lock, and then deactivate it once they’ve left.

Smart Plug

Those dreaded electric bills can lessen a bit when you manage your energy usage. The Smart Plug allows you to remotely control lamps by app or Alexa or Google Home voice control, so your space has light when you need it and can be turned off when you don’t. You can also program the plugs to turn on or off based on the time or activity around the home.

Thermostat

Heading out of town for a trip? It’s important to be able to utilize a smart thermostat to save money and energy by remotely adjusting the temperature based on the home’s occupancy. A neat feature of some thermostats is being able to auto adjust the temperature based on time of day and usage patterns.