Make Your Dumb House a Smart House
What kind of tech would a tech guy buy if a tech guy could buy tech?
It’s time to wire up your dumb home and make it smart! And maybe you’ll score some holiday deals, too.
When we fielded the reader survey for The Cave Project (it’s still open BTW!), one of the questions we received was about what technology The Swans use in our home. And let us tell you, we have a LOT of technology powering our household — some for utility, some for fun, and some that’s just silly. That’s what today’s issue is all about.
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Our dumb homes can be smart homes with a few tech purchases, but which are the right ones? Join Jenny and Greg Swan for a conversation about the technology that fuels their home, how Greg “bricked” their smart fridge, how Jenny’s robot vacuum army led to a dog poop fiasco, and how to reconcile surveillance culture with safety when it comes to cameras and microphones in your home.
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The concept of the "Internet of Things" first appeared in a speech by Peter T. Lewis, to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in September 1985. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the integration of people, processes, and technology with connectable devices and sensors to enable remote monitoring, status, manipulation, and evaluation of trends of such devices (source).
In the last 38 years, the most consumer-facing aspect of IoT has been the innovation of after-market smart home devices — often credited to inspiration from the 1933 World’s Fair and science fiction, like The Jetsons and Star Trek.
It’s pretty fun to look back at how Looney Tunes imagined the automated home of the future 70 years ago...
"Design for Leaving" is a Looney Tunes short from 1954 parodying smart home technology of the day, including the Design for Living House in the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago.
Daffy plays a salesman from the Acme Future-Antic Push-Button Home of Tomorrow Household Appliance Company who installs the most wonderful intelligent home systems in Elmer Fudd's home (sending him to Duluth while the installation was completed!).
The "system of the future" includes advancements in automated fire monitoring and home security, cleaning devices for wall scrubbing and window washing, tie-tying, a home elevator, and a most impressive central control panel filled with a hundred buttons that control all of the new appliances.
This episode aired almost 10 years before The Jetsons, and it's fun to see a lot of this technology come to fruition 70 years later. Stream it here.
The Swan Smart Home Recommended Tech List™️
We’re living in a world even better than The Jetsons imagined. And at our home, we have five super-plugged-in humans using technology as a key part of our lives, not an unnecessary add-on.
As we discussed on the podcast, Jenny and Greg Swan have invested a lot of our household budget on technology that powers our lives. We get asked all the time about what we use — and why we chose what we chose — and it was really fun compiling the list of what’s working best for us. Here are our recommendations!
Amazon Echo Dot - we have one in every single room and use it as a whole-home intercom for announcements, 1:1 drop-ins, and have it hooked to the doorbell. We think we have eight of these now.
Amazon Echo Show - this little guy is great for video calls, music, and you can even watch shows via Prime Video. A nice little kitchen TV. We have one in the basement for face-to-face video intercom calls, too.
Ring Security System - after getting pretty deep into the ADT ecosystem at our last home, we shifted to Ring and have really enjoyed the ability to integrate wired cameras, wireless cameras, flood monitors, motion sensors, doorbell, and others.
Ring Mailbox Sensor - Jenny Swan loves mail. She LOOOVES mail. And she wants to know when we get new mail. This thing tells her. Greg has notifications turned off.
Ring Flood Freeze Monitor - we use this for a sump pump alarm, and we have a second one next to our 10-year-old water heater in case it fails. Fingers crossed we never have an issue! But at least we’ll know.
Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Control - this lets Amazon deliver packages inside your garage. Plus, you know that feeling when you’re lying in bed and aren’t sure if your kid closed the garage door? You can check it with your phone! And close it!
Wi-Fi Deadbolts - you’ll want to choose one that fits your home style, your budget, and that works with the rest of your IoT system. These are great for letting service techs into your house with a temporary code! Amazon has some affordable entry-level ones, too. But thanks to all of our smart home tech, Greg is *almost* off keys entirely. He can’t wait to declare, “I’m off keys!”
Samsung Smart Fridge - we got one without the in-door ice maker and actually didn’t hook up the drawer ice maker. Samsung icemakers are notorious for failing. However, we’ve really enjoyed the Google Calendar and Google Photos integration, the Ring integration, and being able to “see” inside the fridge from the grocery store. And yes, I bricked the screen the first day we had it and it became an expensive “dumb fridge.” We talked a lot about that debacle on the podcast.
Midea Wifi Dehumidifier - this thing sucks… water! And yes, it has an app and is hooked into our Alexa ecosystem to tell you when it’s full.
Netatmo Weather Station - this is an external weather monitor that hooks into a whole system of smart weather stations you can see on this map here. It also has internal home sensors with a CO2 monitor, which is so great when you have a bunch of people over because it sends a ping to my phone, and we go open a window or the door to refresh some oxygen in the room. We got an add-on Netatmo rain gauge that’s pretty fun, too. Micro-weather forecasting rocks!
GE Profile Opal 2.0 Countertop Nugget Ice Maker with Side Tank — this was a holiday gift for Jenny Swan last year. It makes Sonic Drive-In-style nugget ice, and yes it hooks into your wifi system and has an app for some reason.
Shark Ultra Robot Vacuum — We’re not even embarrassed to share that we have three of these! Jenny Swan calls them her robot army. After being frustrated with the Roomba’s chaos goblin mannerisms, we switched to Shark and have shopped Black Friday sales to upgrade to ones with a self-empty base, home mapping, and wifi. And yes, you know the fear of having it run through dog poop and ruin all the rugs in your house? That happened to us. We talked about that on the podcast, too.
Kasa Smart Plugs - turn your house into an IoT smart home with the ability to turn on/off anything with a power source (lamps, Christmas trees, etc). These are way cheaper than the Amazon brand and work similarly. They don’t need a hub and work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or set up your own schedule in the Kasa app. When we have family or friends staying in the house, they have to text me to ask to turn the lights on or off, which is honestly the kind of power we crave.
Amazon Fire TV Stick - we have three of these for our dumb TVs. They aren’t our favorite menu or user experience, but they sure are cheap solutions.
Roku Express 4K+ - we use one of these on one of our smart TVs that has a bad native user-experience. Roku is so smooth and satisfying.
Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder with Camera Solar Power - yeah, even our bird feeder is smart. Greg’s favorite move is to export the video and use generative A.I. to make Daft Punk-inspired bird videos. Be sure to get the solar-powered one.
Apple AirTags - for keys, wallet, purse, and even our dog. Things you don’t want to lose.
Ubiquiti Networks UniFi Dream Machine Pro and Switch - this is what runs our home powered by Century Link 1 GB fiber. We are not IT experts and would defer you to someone smarter than me for setting up stuff like that! Ha.
*Note: these are affiliate links. Because if you like a reco and buy something, we would love a check for $.08 cents. Greg promises to buy gadgets with it.
See you in the future!
Jenny & Greg