You don’t have to wait until you own a home to start a smart home. If you rent, you can still enjoy the same benefits of home automation with your purchase of a simple, wire-free setup… the kind that, not surprisingly, you’ll find at shop.ezlo.com That way, when it’s time to move onto a new place, perhaps your first home, you can simply pack up your smart home system with your futon, Papasan chair, and vintage stereo system and off you go.
Fortunately, setting up a smart apartment is quick and easy. The Vera Mobile app by Ezlo presents you with straight-foward instructions, along with a step-by-step pairing wizard that will guide you in adding hubs, lighting, locks, thermostats, door sensors, voice assistants, and more. You’ll be enjoying the benefits of home automation faster than you can say, “Siri, open the garage door.”
Speaking of amazing things you can do with a smarter apartment, there are thousands of them, from automating interior and exterior lights and cameras, to having your coffee already brewed when you walk into the kitchen. Here are just a few of our more popular apartment automation examples.
Light up your front entryway and add a virtual chime
Most of the time the front door hallway is not a very well lit place, even in the day time. Easily set the system to turn on the lights whenever you open the door or walk-in, and the motion sensor is triggered. The VeraMobile app also sends alerts whenever the door is open or closed using a magnetic sensor. This can be your “virtual chime”.
More than that, if you share your apartment with a roommate and plan to bring someone over but don’t want to disturb him, this is a great way of knowing whether he has been home or not.
Add extra security to the balcony door or fire escape
Putting a motion sensor or door sensor on these access points can give you some added security. Just like at the front, if this sensor detects movement coming through the balcony it can trigger the lights to turn on. If it was a burglar coming in, the lights would definitely be a deterrent.
If you wanted to, you can also have a siren go off when any of the sensors detect motion or the door is open. The system is smart enough to be configured to only turn on the lights after sunset, and trigger the siren only when you’re not home. That’s possible with scheduled and geofence scenes.
Turn on the AC when you start your workout with Siri Shortcuts
Because anyone will take a shortcut to convenience and comfort, here’s a neat little trick to integrate various other apps on your phone, with Vera scenes and your smart apartment devices.
Need to cool off during a home workout? You can set your Ceiling Fan or AC to turn on “automagically”, when you start a workout on your Apple Watch.
Sounds cool, right? Learn how you can set Siri Shortcuts with the article we wrote a while back. On the other hand, if your idea of a workout is settling in on the couch and reaching for the remote to binge watch your favorite Netflix series…
Get lazy with voice commands
By now voice commands are the most common way in which people interact with their surroundings. And the best thing is that you don’t have to choose—Ezlo PlugHub hub works with either Amazon Alexa or Google Home so you can use your voice to naturally control your devices— “Alexa, Turn Off the Living Room Lights!”
Add one-touch security
These few uses alone are reason enough to start a smart apartment but you can use the smart technology to be lazy. If you’re so busy during the day that you basically don’t want to get off the couch to turn off the lights at night you can create a “1 touch security & comfort”.
Tap “good night” on your phone and the app arms your sensors then silently tells Alexa to shut off all the lights, without saying a word. Because sometimes your wife or kids are asleep and you don’t want to wake them up.
Ready to make your place smart? Make the smart move.
Start going apartment automation smart with the tiny, but mighty Ezlo PlugHub! Our smallest, most affordable controller — just $59.95 — is the perfect way to get your smart home started… and to discover how home automation can bring incredible convenience, comfort, and peace of mind to your everyday life.
With its built-in WiFi and Z-Wave radios, the Ezlo PlugHub gives you the ability to control all of our system’s devices using just your smartphone and the VeraMobile app, including lights, sensors, door locks, thermostats, and more. Life may be good now, but it can be a whole lot better with Ezlo PlugHub. To learn more about the Ezlo PlugHub, visit shop.ezlo.com
