How to Use IoT Tech to Get Your Home Winter-Ready

When cold weather is on the way, it's essential to get your home ready to help you and your family beat the impending chill and to avoid cold-weather damage.

Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets could help you make progress in those goals. Here are six tips to winterize your home with help from IoT tech, thereby transforming your home into a smart home.

1. Use an App to Set Your Outdoor Lights on a Timer

Winter weather makes familiar surfaces treacherous. Cold weather brings specific dangers with it, and people often fall on icy surfaces. Those accidents may be more likely to happen in poorly-lit areas if individuals don't notice the ice.

Consider investing in smart outdoor lights that turn on and off as needed. For example, you might set them to turn on five minutes before you typically arrive home from work.

Having your lights activate at a specified time is also helpful if you want to give the impression that you're home when the house is vacant. Many people take advantage of the winter weather to go on ski vacations, or they may go to a warmer place for weeks at a time to escape the cold.

2. Install a Leak Detection System

Leaks can happen at any time of the year. They're most common during the winter months in cold regions because of the possibility of frozen pipes. Sometimes, you may not know a pipe has burst, causing a leak. That's especially likely if the problem happened in a part of the smart home you don't always use, such as the basement.

By installing a leak detection system, or even a smart security system, you can monitor your smart home for any possible leaks during the winter, even while you might be visiting friends or family elsewhere.

Jason Metzger of PURE Insurance recently told an industry publication about a client who was away from home on vacation during some especially cold weather. The client's smart alarm detected movement in their home, but instead of finding a burglar, they found a rather significant leak. "The smart alarm picked up the water intrusion that had come from four burst pipes in the attic," Metzger said.

3. Get a Smart Thermostat to Maintain a Consistent Indoor Temperature

There's no need for people to shiver uncomfortably when the temperature plummets. A smart thermostat allows people to set their desired indoor temperature with an app, plus monitor how their energy use changes with the seasons.

An advantage of a smart thermostat is you can monitor temperature conditions even when away from home. Keeping the environment warm enough in an empty residence could prevent complications in cold weather.

4. Use a Smart Space Heater to Customize Warmth Levels

The winter months often make people want to temporarily increase the warmth in certain parts of the smart home. For example, if a toddler is sick, that youngster might request that their room stays at a higher temperature than usual. Or, if an elderly relative visits, that person may be especially sensitive to the cold. A smart space heater can accommodate for those preferences in a way that's more energy-efficient than cranking up the heat in the whole house.

If you get a WiFi-enabled model with an accompanying app, it's simple to make temperature adjustments from anywhere in the smart home.

5. Conquer Overly Dry Air With a Smart Humidifier

The winter can make the air in a home excessively dry. People may notice problems with dry skin or irritated nasal passages. Dryness could adversely affect overall air quality, too. A smart humidifier is an excellent way to add moisture to your home in ways that could make you feel more comfortable.

Health experts also say humidifiers can ease the symptoms of upper respiratory infections and colds, both of which could become more prevalent in the winter.

Some models, such as the Ottim Smart Humidifier, work with Alexa and Google Home. With the Ottim model, a light lets you know when to refill the water tank, and you can schedule a time for the humidifier to activate.

6. Buy IoT Tiles for Peace of Mind During Cold Weather Storage

A crucial part of winterizing your home involves protecting valuable stored items from temperature and humidity fluctuations in places like garages and closets. A brand called SensorPush offers remote temperature and humidity sensors approximately the size of a Scrabble tile. You can set them up to warn you when the temperature or humidity reaches a certain level.

People often don't realize the potential effects of environmental fluctuations that result from cold weather. For example, changes in temperature and humidity can make wooden musical instruments expand or contract, possibly causing cracks. Or, the battery in a classic car stored in the garage could freeze and become useless.

SensorPush tiles have handy holes in them so you can hang them as desired almost anywhere in your home. The corresponding app shows you the characteristics for three sensors initially, and you can scroll down to see more.

Trust Tech to Help You Equip Your Home for the Cold

Your home represents a significant investment, and the harshness of winter weather could cause costly issues and damage if you're ill-prepared. These six high-tech solutions should help you safeguard against possible problems by transforming your home in to a winter-ready smart home.