Genevieve Gorder, interior designer and host of Bravo’s “Best Room Wins,” is a firm believer in smart home technology. “My feeling in general about it is, why would you want a dumb house?” Gorder said. “You want your house to work more and more for you instead of you being an employee of your home. Smart home products have the ability to assist in that journey.”
In Gorder’s own home, she utilizes a smart thermostat, irrigation system, dishwasher, security system, and lighting, all programmable and controllable from her smart phone. “The amount of time spent working on your house is dramatically changed when you invest in getting the smart product up and going,” Gorder said. “It takes a little bit of time and knowledge to implement new systems into the house and a lot of people don’t have the patience for that, but once you invest that half a day or three hours to do it right, it pays off.”
As well as cutting down on energy costs, Gorder said her smart home has given her more time. “When I didn’t have my irrigation connected to my smart system that waters when it’s not raining, I would have to be out there half an hour every day watering. I guarantee you, I don’t have the patience for that.”
But saving time isn’t the only benefit to smart irrigation. In areas with climate hazards such as drought or wildfire, smart technology can provide better disaster preparedness by using sensors to detect when irrigation is needed.
Smart home technology is constantly changing, with innovations for safer and better protected homes coming fast. “You should be either working with a person like a designer to keep you in the loop or just reading up and keeping yourself in the loop,” Gorder said. “Every year there is something new.”