With smart homes, it is super easy to control any appliance from sitting over the couch. This is like a blessing for senior citizens.
Seniors usually suffer from different pains; because of that, doctors suggest elders not do difficult tasks. In this regard, a smart home can help them a lot.
For instance, take the robot vacuums ; with these modern vacuums, they don’t need to clean the house on their own. Also, some high-end robotic vacuums can empty the dirt into the dustbin themselves.
In this guide, I am sharing a few ways that smart homes can help our senior citizens a lot.
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How do smart homes work?
These modern homes consist of many internet-connected devices that are linked to the internet 24/7 and assigned for individual tasks. For example, a smart thermostat is linked to the internet and controls home temperature precisely to save energy.
Once the device is linked to the internet, we can access it over our smartphone. This way, it becomes super easy to control smart home devices.
Further, we can do a lot of automation using these smart devices called home automation. We make a group of smart gadgets in home automation and assign them a task with a trigger.
For example, the lights automatically get turned on in the morning, and the security alarm shuts off.
Many smart appliances have special integrated AI that self-learns the usage behavior and set the best settings accordingly. These devices are the best for the elderly—for example, Google Nest Learning Thermostat .
Smart home comes with smart appliances that are self-learning and we can use them to learn them so that they can work according to our schedules. We can also make adjustments according to our liking.
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Significance of Smart Homes
Smart homes have many advantages over traditional houses. It is because of its convenience and easiness of use. These new technologies make our homes much easier and more convenient as well as cost less.
Some benefits of a smart home are:
- Setting up a savvy home is much easier than a regular convenience home. All of its advanced gadgets come with instructions and support, which make it easy to set it up.
- There is no need to walk to the switch to turn on or off any appliance; with the smart home, you can do it while sitting on the couch with the smartphone.
- The most significant benefit is that we receive notifications and come to know about the updates on our devices. If our device is malfunctioning or there is any fault with it—we get a notification on our smartphone and can fix it.
- Another benefit is cost-effectiveness. Users confirm that they do preserve a lot of money after converting their homes into smart homes, as electronics can be used more efficiently, which slows down the energy costs.
How smart homes can help the elderly?
There are many reasons that a smart home is perfect for the elderly. Tech homes are conveniently straightforward to use and can be easily utilized by our elders.
Many of these intelligent home devices are easily accessible to the elders. They can use smart devices for their healthcare and assistance. Those who have to live on their own can depend on smart homes for their well-being.
The facilities that elders have in smart homes are as follow:
Ease of Use:
The biggest benefit of these modern homes for seniors is the ease of use. They can control almost the entire house while sitting on the couch or while watching TV.
It eliminates the need for walking toward the switches to control an appliance. With these savvy devices, there isn’t a need to access physical switches; all you need is your smartphone.
Further, seniors can also use their voice commands to manage home appliances. It will make them happy, and they will feel there is someone helping them.
Remote Assistance:
Seniors tend to forget things. Imagine if they are out of the house and now they are trying to remember whether they have turned off the fan or not!?
It will be tough for them to go back home just to shut off the fan.
Here comes the smart home.
Now, they can check on their cell phone which devices are working are which are not. They can check if the fan is still running or not. If they leave the fan on, they can turn it off. It doesn’t matter where they are in the world.
It is the power of a smart home.
Voice Assistant:
Elders need someone to share their feelings and thoughts with. Someone with whom they can talk and discuss things.
A voice assistant can be their true friend in this case.
A voice assistant will not only make their lives easy but become a true friend of theirs. They can share their thoughts, give commands, and get the latest news and other valuable information from the voice assistant.
Even experts recommend a voice assistant to the elders.
Medical Help:
Many smart devices of a smart home are programmed to give us notifications about our healthcare. The elderly can use such devices for their assistance with medication.
Intelligent devices are programmed to remind them of their medications in day-to-day life. They are also programmed to set up reminders for doctor checkups.
Some intelligent devices also have a visual component to ensure that the elders are taking the correct medication and the correct dosage ratio.
All of these medical devices help and elderly in daily medical health.
Seniors can also ask their voice assistant to help them with their medication.
Alarms:
You can set up many intelligent devices with silent alert systems. Many smart devices can be linked together and allow user responsiveness if a senior home enters a car and locks the door afterward.
They can use this alarm assistance remotely with the help of a cell phone to lock the car.
Home Automation:
The primary aim of smart homes is to make our daily life easy. It is why many tech devices are becoming our routine these days.
These tech devices can work together to give us peace of mind, which is essential for elders.
For example, when they come near the home, the smart garage door opener will automatically open the garage door for them.
There is endless such automation possible for the elderly.
Home Security:
Home security is another big aspect where smart homes play an excellent role for the elderly. In smart homes, everything is automated, hence home security.
Every security device like the smart doorbell , smart cameras , smart floodlights , and other alarm devices work on their own.
If these devices detect any unexpected motion, they start beeping to let the neighbor know and send a notification to the owner so that he can take action on time.
It is great for elders.
These smart security devices will work on their own and send a notification to them and frighten the intruders if something terrible happens.
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Automatic Lighting System and Thermostats:
A home cannot be smart without automatic lights and thermostats .
Elders can use their phones to control these lights, make schedules and change the color of lights. This can make every home a great, soothing one.
The same goes for thermostats.
As mentioned above, thermostats can also learn the user behavior and set the settings accordingly. In this way, smart thermostats can preserve up to 30% of energy annually.
Automatic Cleaning:
An elder living alone needs to clean his home, which is a difficult task for him at this age. To handle this batter, there are automatic vacuum cleaners .
These vacuums clean the entire house on their own without any help from the owner. Seniors can schedule the cleaning time and this robot will take care of cleaning the home itself.
These robot vacuums are essential for the elderly.
Medical Monitoring Devices:
Those seniors with any disability can wear implants that monitor both inside and outside their homes. Those elderly who do not have anyone to take care of them can use such implants. These devices can save their life of them through their functionality.
Final Thoughts
There are many benefits of smart homes for seniors, proving smart homes are very effective for senior members of society.
Many of these smart devices are a part of the Internet of Things which can be controlled by their connection to a smartphone or any other electronic. After the connection has been established between the smart devices and a smartphone, our senior members can easily use those connected smart devices.
Our senior members can also use smart security cameras and smart doorbells to look after themselves. They can use such security systems to know who is coming and who is going out of their home or working spaces.
Therefore, smart homes are the best options for our elders because they also include such devices that can assist them in saving their lives.
