Connected Home – Buyers Guide

Smart Plugs

As we all become increasingly interested in living more sustainable lifestyles, energy conservation at home is becoming more of a focus for many households. This is where Smart Plugs can make a real difference to your energy consumption.

Many Smart Wi-Fi Plugs have an energy monitoring function which gives you energy usage info via phone app. Voice command supported Plugs allow you to turn household appliances and lights on and off instantly, where-ever you are, in your home city, in your home country, even overseas.

You can also pair your Smart Plugs with Google Assistant to use voice command to switch appliances and lights on and off with minimal effort. For e.g. you might have a slow cooker that you want to turn on five hours before you return home from work – a smartphone or smart assistant enabled plug will allow you to do that from your work desk.

Smart Lighting

Invest in a Hue Bridge lighting control hub and gain the ability to talk to your bulbs via voice assistant like Google Assistant, verbally turn them on and off, adjust the brightness and what colours you want them to be. There are numerous smart bulbs to choose from household name brands like Philips, TP-Link Kasa, Cygnett, Lenovo and Lifix.

Create a whole new ambience in your home, match mood lighting with your gaming RGB or dim the lights to relax the vibe – all by just moving your finger.

Baby Monitors

A digital baby monitor offers you the peace of mind that’ll help you to sleep soundly knowing that your baby is sleeping well and safely too.

A wireless baby video monitor provides two-way communication, allowing communication between you and your infant. It allows for lullabies to be selected and played, room thermometer and colour LCD screen with night vision and zoom function. Selected models allow for you to view your baby remotely via app on your phone.

It's becoming increasingly common for wireless baby monitors to be digitally encrypted to protect against the threat of hacking and some models allow you to ‘dress up’ your camera to resemble cute characters.