HOME LIFE

BETTER LIVING THROUGH SMARTER TECHNOLOGY

- ALEX COX

SAFE & SOUND

Not just smart, but aware — how to equip your home with devices that are ready for any eventuality

Self–preservation is a universal core instinct of every living organism on the planet, from the top of the intellectual tree down to single-celled bacteria. If you’re building yourself a smart home, that’s something you should absolutely have in mind. A smart home that doesn’t have the sense to understand when there’s something wrong with your living space is, at least within this somewhat strained analogy, dumber than an amoeba.

Such sensing doesn’t even have to be an extra — it could be the core feature of your smart home. You can completely sidestep things like smart assistants or fancy lighting if they’re not your sort of thing, and just use the ever-growing litany of tools available to invisibly make your home safer. And we’re not just talking about security here, that’s a topic (mostly) for another day. What about fire, flood, wind, acts of God — or even acts of dog? And what about those dangers you can’t see?

Smart smoke detectors are, naturally, first on the list in terms of immediate priority. The Nest Protect ($119) is probably the most prominent of these, and it’s very clever.

Nest Protect’s night light function is subtle, but it’s another string to its bow.