Making a Smart Home for a Safer Home

Things have changed so much over the last few decades or even few years. The childhood that I had was not the one my mother had and sadly the childhood I had will not be the one my daughter has. We are becoming increasingly wary (and more often than not rightly so) when allowing our children the freedom to do things we as children did ourselves. Simple things like playing out of doors with friends, going to the shop by themselves when old or enough or finally being allowed to stay home alone. Honestly, all those things seem like great terrors to me at the moment which is sad really – shouldn’t we feel safe in our own homes?! One suggestion for feeling more secure in our homes, is the introduction of technology to enhance the safety features of your house. It is definitely something I am thinking about not just for Alyssa but also to help with life and making things a little easier and so I thought I’d look into a few options…

Deterring Intruders

There are a number of different ways that smart devices can be used to help deter any unwanted visitors that perhaps a “Beware our dog bites” sticker will no longer do. If, for example, you were to get yourself a Google Home device, you can actually use the app to sync the Google Home to lights or other security settings in your house. If you happen to be arriving home later than expected, you could simply tell Google to turn the lights on so it looks like someone is home (Can she cook the dinner too?!)

Another great device, which hasn’t long been on the market, are those new doorbells that have a video camera inside that syncs the feed to your phone so when someone rings the bell of your house, your phone instantly shows you who’s at the other end and you can talk to them like an intercom (have you seen the advert where the guy pretends to be a window cleaner?!)

You could also just go for an alarm system like the ones from Verisure Alarms – which is currently the No. 1 alarm system in Europe making sure you have security for your family 24 hours a day.

Smart Door Locks

When it comes to home security one of the most important areas to consider is your door locks, this is where intruders will initially try to find vulnerabilities, therefore it’s critical to ensure you have a high security door locking system in place to protect your home, possessions and family. Ultion are the UK’s industry-leading security brand and are recommended by professional Doncaster Locksmith Stephen Fretwell due to their 3 star security rating and feature packed locks.

They also offer a system called the NUKI smart lock, which combines the security of an Ultion lock with the convenience of a smart home. This smart door lock can be controlled by your phone or smart device giving you total control of your home security even when you’re not at home. Stephen says “this smart door locking system meets the highest possible security standards thanks to the state-of-the-art encryption mechanisms and is a brilliant and affordable option for customers looking to combine high tech with first rate security for their home.”

Stephen is an established, qualified and reputable locksmith providing mobile locksmith services to customers throughout South Yorkshire, check out his Rotherham Locksmith website for more information and advice.

Safety From the Inside Out

Continuing on with products like the Google Home, it can be put to a number of uses inside the home to ensure things remain safe on the inside too. Alyssa and I do A LOT of baking but she is not very good at the part where she has to wait for them to cook and so we will often need to do another activity whilst we are waiting. Having the Google Home to set a timer on that rings continually until I stop it is really useful as before we had one there were definitely a couple of near misses and biscuits that SHOULD NOT have been glowing in the middle.

Another feature of devices like Google Home, Alexa or any one of this family is that you can place the various devices and receptors in different parts of the house to stay in contact with people. For example, if you have a 3-story house and sleep on the top floor but have an elderly relative living in an Annex on the ground floor and they should fall, all they’d need to do would be to say “Hey Google, tell Google Bedroom I have fallen over!” They don’t need to try and move or get anywhere or in a reverse situation you could merely pop a message down and inquire if they are okay.

I definitely think there is a lot of room in the home for smart devices that would make a home safer and more secure. Unfortunately we are living in times where there is a lot of anger and a lot of desperation and both of these things can cause people to do some terrible things so we should definitely think about whether or not we are prepared for them. Looking at some of the attacks in the past year, you just never know when things are going to happen so better to be safe than sorry!

More Than are running a campaign “How a Smart Home is a Safer Home” if you’d like some more ideas on making your home safe!

*We were sent a Google Home for the purposes of a review – all opinions are my own