Juggling your day-to-day family responsibilities is challenging enough, but when you factor in the possible worst-case scenarios, you quickly realize you can’t do it all on your own. Luckily, we have technology on our side. Here are some of the latest high-tech solutions to help you manage and protect your household:
Smoke Detectors Go Chic
Two-thirds of house fire deaths occur in homes without a working smoke detector, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. Historically, smoke detectors have been all function with no form. Nest, the creator of the leading smart thermostat system, has changed that with their sleek Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector ($99). Designed to blend into the background with a minimalist look, this all-in-one product is available is solid white or black options.
The Google-owned company recently relaunched the product after pulling it from shelves due to a malfunctioning feature that allowed users to wave in front of the product to turn off an early warning. The new models no longer have this feature, so users can rest assured there isn’t a chance of unintentionally silencing the alarm in case of an emergency.
Protect Your Family From a Single App
With an app for nearly everything you can think of, your smartphone can quickly become overloaded with so many that you lose track of them. For personal protection and monitoring, Snap Secure and Protect Your Bubble minimize this issue by combining everything from family locators, data security, antivirus protection and even driver safety, all from a single app. The app is free for a year with the purchase of their Identity Theft protection plan.
This subscription-based service offers full family protection for up to six family members, 100 GB of cloud storage for data backups and syncing with as many devices as you want.
Prevent Water Damage
The smallest crack in your home’s water pipes can allow hundreds of gallons of water to leak into your house in a single day and cause thousands of dollars in damage. Avoid costly damage with a leak detection alert system. La Crosse Technology’s La Crosse Alerts ($99.95) remote option stands out from the competition by pairing with an app that provides remote monitoring of the humidity levels, device temperature and the sensor probe readings. Simply install the water detection sensor near your water heater or in another low-lying area of your home where water leaks would likely begin. The sensor has a transmitter on it that pairs with a gateway that attaches to your router. The gateway transmits all of the latest real-time readings to the La Crosse Alerts app, which is accessible from your smartphone, computer or tablet. By providing an early warning of a water leak while you’re away from home, you can get to the source of the issue in time to prevent major damage.
Home Security Systems Go Smart
An Internet-based home security system and its companion mobile apps let you monitor your home and take a wide variety of actions from anywhere at anytime. The LifeShield Home Security system (starting at $29.99 a month) enables you to watch what your kids and pets are up to, view live or recorded video and arm, disarm and monitor your home from your mobile device.
As you can see there are plenty of options at fairly reasonable prices, which makes the concept of a smarter, safer home even more appealing.
Does the idea of having your home security tied into an app appeal to you? Do you already have a smart home? Let us know in the comments.
~ Cynthia