Home Tech Revolution: Upgrade Your Space in the New Year

It’s quite an eye-opening experience to watch episodes of The Jetsons now, as many devices depicted as ‘futuristic’ on the show during its run are now commonplace; good examples include flatscreen TVs, home treadmills and tanning beds. So, it’s not hard to predict how consumer tech could shape the average home in 2024. Do you want to upgrade your own domestic space? If so, why not consider investing in hi-tech products and fittings from the following categories?

Smart lighting

Let there be light — but when exactly? You would be able to decide for yourself with smart lighting. You can program smart lightbulbs to switch on at specific predetermined times, such as when you usually walk back into the home after a long, hard day at work.

Before buying any specific smart bulb, check exactly how it can be used. Maybe you like the idea of connecting the bulb to a motion detector so that the room will be instantly illuminated as you enter it?

Heating

Obviously, we all need to keep our homes sufficiently warm. Still, you might not have realised how much you can rein in your spending on heating without having to put on an extra jumper or two.

For a start, you could install a smart thermostat. This wondrous little device would allow you to automate exactly when the home’s heating goes on or off. 

It’s also possible to set up smart radiator valves that would let you give each room its own automated heating schedule.

Panoramic glass lifts

You might have long associated such lifts with shopping centres more than anything else, but homeowners really can arrange for luxury glass scenic lifts to be installed in their residences.

Even just the sight of a rounded glass lift in your abode is likely to get visitors’ jaws dropping. However, a company like Alliance Platform Lifts can give your own glass lift a custom design accounting for the property’s existing architecture and décor.

AI

Of course, there was a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023. This year, you might want to keep an eye on tech companies’ product release schedules for smart home devices that integrate AI in various clever ways. 

Imagine such a device monitoring how you tend to use it — and training itself to increasingly do much of that legwork of its own accord. 

You can also anticipate AI-powered devices being able to identify new means of enhancing their energy efficiency — a big plus for your bank balance and the planet.

Robot helpers

Yes, you can get robots that help out around the house — even if they aren’t quite as sophisticated as Rosie, the robot maid from The Jetsons.

Robot cleaners use NASA-style navigation software to map out the home and figure out which parts of it to tidy up. Also available are security robots that can guard the building in your absence and robot mowers that can be trained to trim specific lawn areas.

Voice control 

You probably already have at least one voice assistant — like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple’s Siri — at close hand, such as on your smartphone.

Nonetheless, when you want to use one of these voice assistants as a hub for controlling your smart home, it can be a good idea to invest in a smart speaker, such as an Amazon Echo or Apple HomePod. That way, you will have a device that any member of the household can use when in the house.

Security

Once upon a time, you might have put up a ‘BEWARE OF THE DOG’ sign (regardless of whether you actually had a dog) outside your home just to ward off potential trespassers.

However, all of that can seem a lot less necessary now that even many security systems come with the ‘smart’ tag. 

For example, a video doorbell can detect when someone is approaching the door and notify you on your smartphone. Meanwhile, a smart lock can enable a user to unlock a door just by tapping on a smartphone app.

Wi-Fi

As you add more and more smart devices to your home, its Wi-Fi network could come under strain. The majority of UK households have, on average, 30 devices connected to Wi-Fi — and in some homes, this number exceeds 60. 

For this reason, you might want to swap your household’s current Wi-Fi plan for one offering higher bandwidth. If the problem isn’t so much the Wi-Fi’s speed but instead its reach, see if your Internet service provider (ISP) would be willing to hand you some Wi-Fi extenders.

There you have it – just some of the ways in which technology could be instrumental in transforming what your home looks, feels, and operates like over the months to come. Which ones, of those we have outlined above (or that we might not have even mentioned), are most inspiring to you?