COMPLETE GUIDE
You’ve got no excuse for shivering and sniffling your way through the winter months – the right smart tech can keep the cold at bay
How to cleverly coldproof your home this winter
’Tis the season to be… freezing cold, if you’re bold enough to step outside your front door. Inside your home is a different matter altogether though, and a growing number of smart tech devices are now available to keep you warm and toasty all winter long – devices which we’re going to introduce you to here.
Which bits of kit you’re actually going to need really depends on how your home is already set up, how happy you are with that configuration, and of course how much you’re willing to spend to upgrade it. You can buy systems that take care of every aspect of heating around your whole home, if necessary; or you can buy standalone devices that concentrate on heating one room in particular.
What all of these devices have in common is that you’re able to operate them through an app on your smartphone, and most offer some intelligent automations too. Your heating will no longer be based on simple on/off switches and timers – you’ll be able to set up a heating schedule perfectly tailored to your home, and the people in it, which means you should never get a shiver down the back of your spine.
For example, does your current heating system automatically switch itself off when it detects that everyone has left for the day? It’s this sort of smart tech thinking that means the best coldproofing gadgets can start saving you money almost as soon as you get them, because you’re not using up energy unnecessarily.
Besides covering the core functionality of heating up your home, smart devices are able to detect problems like leaky sinks and open windows before they can put a dent in your heating bills or your maintenance bills. It all adds up to being able to keep the cold outside of your living spaces.
We’ll be your guide to coldproofing your home the smart way, whether you want to rip out your current heating setup and start again from scratch, or are looking to add a few finishing touches to what you’ve already got in place.
CHOOSE YOUR TECH
When it comes to protecting your home against the cold, smart devices of a variety of types and purposes are available. On the larger scale, you can go for smart thermostats that control the heating across your whole home – kit by the likes of Nest, Tado, Hive and others.
These thermostats are designed to work with the majority of modern boilers out there, and come with a variety of tricks up their sleeves. They all let you set your home heating from your phone, for a start, which means you can live the sci-fi life of the future today by turning on the heating at home when you start the drive back from the office.
That’s just the beginning though – these smart thermostats can run on a schedule (to make sure everything’s toasty when you get up in the morning, for example), and even adapt their settings automatically over time, keeping
your house warm in the most efficient way possible and hopefully saving you some money at the same time.
On top of the main smart thermostats themselves, some of these models come with smart radiator valves for true room-byroom heating. If there’s no one upstairs, save some money by keeping the radiators off; likewise, if everyone’s in the lounge on a cold winter’s evening, you can make sure that’s where your heating system is focused.
Maybe you don’t want to install something quite so comprehensive, though. Smart electric radiators and fans can take care of your heating needs in individual rooms, from attics to home offices to garden sheds (if your power and Wi-Fi stretches that far).
The real benefit here is again the way you can control these devices from your phone, whether over a home Wi-Fi network or directly via Bluetooth. If you’re wrapped up warm and cosy on the sofa, then you don’t have to get up to start heating up the bedroom ready for retiring at night – or vice versa if it’s early in the morning.
Then there are the smart coldproofing solutions that perhaps aren’t so obvious – sensors for your windows and doors, for instance, that detect when something is open that shouldn’t be. Keeping your home heated for the lowest possible price isn’t just about getting a smart heating system in place: it’s also about being smart when it comes to retaining all that lovely heat.
As with most smart home device decisions you’re going to make, you need to consider what you’ve already got at home
– or what you might get in the future – when it comes to figuring out the best purchases for you. Identify what’s going to work with your boiler and the rest of the kit you’ve got at home before parting with your cash. Many of the coldproofing hardware gadgets on the market will come with support for either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, if not both. If you’re basing your smart home around Amazon or Google gadgets, or indeed devices that work with Apple’s HomeKit system, then you need to find heating products that match.
As well as giving you the option of voice control (‘Alexa, set the temperature in the living room to 22 degrees’), paying attention to this sort of home-wide compatibility means you’re able to mix and match devices from different manufacturers. That in turn ensures you can put together different devices into routines: having your lights and heating turned off together in the evening, say.
SETUP AND OPERATION
Getting these smart home coldproofing devices up and running is getting easier and easier – typically, you install the relevant smartphone app, and you get the necessary instructions for installation and setup.
That said, if you are installing a fully featured smart thermostat system, some professional help is usually recommended: this will cost you a little extra but most of the time is worth it. On the majority of smart thermostat systems, the option for professional installation will be included at the point of purchase. After that,
You’re able to mix and match devices from different manufacturers