Would you like to use your iPhone or smart phone to control everything in your home from closing your window coverings, turning off your lights to heating your home when it’s cold out? Now you can. We are turning into the age of Home automation via an iPhone or smart phone. Home automation gadgets now typically use existing home Wi-Fi networks. Many of  such gadgets are incorporated into home security systems.

“One example is Belkin’s WeMo Baby monitor. Baby monitors in the past came with a camera and a viewer and communicated with each other through a proprietary wireless network unique to each device. The Belkin version takes the new approach: The camera part comes from Belkin, but the viewer is an app on an existing phone. And they talk to each other through an existing home wireless network” says, Houzz contributor Mike Elgan.

The digital age is becoming more and more prominent into our generation and the ones yet to come. In future generations, iPods, iPads, smart home devices and being able to control everything from lights, window treatments, car engines and air conditioning will all be a click away from operating those systems. It is important that we educate ourselves into this new era of technology in the home.

-Bree Jacoby