The 4 Cheapest Ways To Turn Your House Into A Smart Home – BGR

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As smart home technology has become increasingly popular, it has also become more and more accessible. There are a number of devices out there that can help with smart home upgrades, including devices that enable automation around the house, provide energy efficiency, and offer more convenient forms of entertainment. You don’t have to break the bank in order to add these smart home amenities to your living quarters. Budget-friendly smart home tech is out there, offering impressive functionality at a fraction of the price many people associate with creating a home of the future.

With a focus on the needs of beginners and enthusiasts whose budget is a high priority, we’ve gathered some ways to turn your house into a smart home. Each selection delivers practical benefits as well as the potential for some fun, as a smart home should be just as much fun as it is convenient. So whether you live in a house or an apartment, whether you’re upgrading essential smart home gadgets or shopping for your first, here are some affordable, entertaining, and simple-to-set-up smart home options.

Smart plugs turn regular electronics into smart devices by controlling their power supply. They’re incredibly convenient, as they don’t replace your wall outlet, but plug directly into it. Once plugged in, all you have to do is plug devices like lamps, fans, coffee makers, and even devices that need charging into the smart plug. These plugs function over your home’s Wi-Fi connection, and from its companion app, you’ll have complete control over the flow of electricity going through it. You can also set smart plugs up for automation, ensuring lights and other small electronics turn off when you aren’t using them.

In addition to convenience, smart plugs offer one of the most affordable entry points to smart home technology. Brands such as Kasa, TP-Link, and Govee top our picks for the best smart plugs. Even if you prefer to shop these top brands, you’re likely to find them friendly to your wallet. The Kasa Smart Plug Mini is available in a 4-pack for $37, and the Govee Smart Plug 15A is available in a 4-pack for $30. If you hope to get going with your smart home at even lower prices, budget brands can offer some savings, or you can simply accrue an inventory of smart plugs by purchasing them individually over time.

A smart speaker serves as a central control hub for your smart home. It offers more smart home integration than a standard Bluetooth speaker and more affordability than a device like a smart display. A smart speaker will allow you to tap into other devices using voice commands instead of having to pull out your phone to fiddle through an app. You can have it set timers, check the weather, control lights and smart plugs, and provide you with some music. A smart speaker is also a great device to look into, even if you don’t have any existing smart home devices, as it has a lot of built-in functionality all on its own.

A cheap but incredibly capable option is the Google Nest Mini. It retails for $60, but it’s also a regular on the sale rack, as it frequently sees discounts at Amazon. Audio quality was a strong focus when Google designed this smart speaker. It has double the bass of the original Nest Mini, and it allows you to stream anything from music to sports, and from news to podcasts. While it offers a range of integrations with other Google smart home products, the Nest Mini can control smart lights, smart plugs, and other compatible devices throughout your home. You can even pair multiple Nest Minis together for synchronized multi-room audio.

While some of the most affordable smart home tech can be a little utilitarian, a video doorbell is a device that’s both practical and gives you a real sense of feeling like you’re putting it to use. With a video doorbell mounted on your front door, you can greet delivery drivers, guests, and other visitors right on your phone. Two-way audio lets you communicate with whoever is there, which can be useful when expecting deliveries you won’t be at home for. A video doorbell also acts as a deterrent to intruders, with motion detection sending you alerts the moment somebody approaches your home.

Video doorbells might at first seem like a costly smart home investment, but there are a lot of cheap options out there for those shopping on a budget. Ring Video Doorbells are frequently discounted at Amazon, with the Ring Video Wired Doorbell and Ring Battery Doorbell being a couple of the brand’s cheapest options. Other popular video doorbell brands include Blink, Ecobee, Wyze, and Eufy. Models by these brands are generally priced in the $50-$150 range. More features, of course, will be found in more expensive video doorbells, but entry-level models offer great value for those budgeting their way through a smart home setup.

Like smart plugs, smart light bulbs are one of the cheapest ways to go about making your home a little smarter. They connect to your smartphone or hub over Wi-Fi and are able to change color temperature based on how you like your home to feel. Several smart bulbs even have color-changing options, which makes them a fun way to add different moods and atmospheres to the rooms in your house. Smart lighting is often used to accent things like home theater setups, but all it takes to start implementing a new vibe around the house is a single smart bulb.

You can find individual smart bulbs for as little as $8 at Amazon, though there’s more value to purchasing them in packs. Govee Smart Light Bulbs are available in a 4-pack for $40, and they have the capacity to change among 16 million different colors. The Tapo TP-Link Smart Light Bulbs are a similar product, and they go for $43 per 4-pack. No matter which brand you go with, smart bulbs will fit right into your home with no need for hardware beyond a device that gives you access to their accompanying mobile app.

Smart home setups can be as complicated and as expensive as one wants, with devices like smart TVs, smart thermostats, and smart refrigerators all capable of integrating under one roof. The cheapest, yet still useful entry points, however, are where we kept our attention here. We focused on affordable devices that offer an easy setup and compatibility across ecosystems like Amazon Alexa and Google Home. The notion of putting together a smart home can be a little intimidating, so the gadgets we’ve presented here are also intended to fill a smart home need all on their own while remaining part of any smart home expansion you may have in mind.