5 smart home devices to install before winter

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As winter approaches, it’s time to start preparing for the colder months. Whether you’re looking to deal with dry air after the heating has been running for a few weeks straight, or you’re just trying to figure out why this room keeps getting colder than the rest of your house, there are many useful devices you can use to make your home smarter and more efficient in the winter. Some of them will help you keep an eye on sudden temperature changes and inform you about issues like frozen pipes, leaks caused by unforeseen scenarios, etc.

To help you face the impending cold, we’ve rounded up five devices worth installing before winter. These devices range from gadgets like a smart thermostat, a good humidifier, a water leak sensor, and even a few options for your outdoor lights and holiday decorations, which will see a lot more use once it starts to get dark earlier in the evening. If you are looking for other ways to save, you can always look into smart home automation which also helps in reducing excessive energy consumption.

A smart thermostat is one of the best places to start, as it will help you stay in control of your heating during the cold winter months. There are many great smart thermostats out there, but if you’re shopping for one for the first time, an Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is a solid option. This smart thermostat has several useful features, including its Smart Home & Away function. When enabled, this feature uses a built-in presence sensor to detect when you have left the house. It can then adjust the temperature while you’re away so your heat isn’t as strong when you’re not around to enjoy it. You can also set temperature settings according to a chosen schedule, and Ecobee’s Smart Recovery feature will help you preheat your home before these schedule changes.

The Premium model also comes with Ecobee’s SmartSensor, which can track both the temperature and occupancy in another room, and the device will also send an alert if the temperature or humidity in your home changes unexpectedly. You can even set up a low temperature alert, which will help you detect problems with your heating system before you have to worry about your pipes freezing unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Energy Star says certified smart thermostats save about 8% on heating and cooling bills, or about $50 per year on average. It’s not much, of course. But every penny counts when you’re trying to save money.

Running the heat all day tends to dry out the air, but a humidifier can help make a big difference. Additionally, getting a smart humidifier is much less work than a standard humidifier because it can sense the current humidity in the air and then change its power based on those readings. The GoveeLife Smart Humidifier 2 is a smart choice because it can hold up to 6 liters of water and because it produces up to 300 milliliters of mist per hour. The company rated the system for rooms between 107 and 500 square feet and it comes with its own built-in humidity sensor. This sensor operates in parallel with the system’s automatic mode.

The EPA suggests keeping indoor humidity between 30% and 50% and recommends never exceeding 50%, as higher humidity can encourage mold growth and create other moisture-related problems in your home. Auto mode makes this task easier by measuring humidity levels in the air and then increasing or decreasing the mist output for you based on the target percentage you choose.

Leak sensors are handy all year round, but they are even more useful in winter near pipes that may freeze or burst. Pipes in unheated areas are among those that freeze most often, and they are often found in places you don’t visit frequently, like basements, crawl spaces, and attics. Pipes that run along exterior walls with little or no insulation are also more likely to freeze, especially during very cold periods.

The YoLink 4 Water Leak Sensor can help you by checking for cold temperatures as well as leaks. You can choose to be alerted whenever the temperature drops between 23 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit, and if the sensor detects water, it will sound a 105 decibel alarm and alert you in the app. The sensor has two electrodes at the top to capture drops from above and four at the bottom to detect water accumulation on the floor. The only real caveat to keep in mind is that you’ll need a YoLink hub with an internet connection to get full functionality.

Water leak sensors are one of those essential smart home sensors that every home owner should have. And the YoLink is a solid choice because of its versatility as well as the fact that you can connect it to the YoLink app as well as external services like Alexa and Home Assistant.

Outdoor lighting becomes much more important as daylight saving time ends on November 1, especially around walkways, steps and entryways. You can replace an existing light fixture with a motion-activated light, but if you already have Hue lights in your home, the Philips Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor is a better choice. It’s completely wireless and runs on two AA batteries.

The sensor is rated for temperatures ranging from -20 to 45 degrees Celsius (about -4 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit) and it has an IP54 rating, so it should be tough enough to withstand rain and dust. There’s also a built-in daylight sensor, so your lights don’t have to come on when it’s already light out. You can also choose different lighting scenes for up to 10 hours of the day, making it easy to customize the brightness of your lights whenever they are motion activated. For example, your driveway lights might turn on at full brightness in the evening, then switch to something dimmer once everyone goes to bed. This way you can still see into the driveway, but the lights themselves won’t blind you through the window. The sensor does, however, require a Hue Bridge to work, so this option works best for those who have already invested in the Philips Hue ecosystem.

Christmas lights and inflatable decorations are difficult to turn on and off by hand every night, especially when it’s freezing. Gadgets like the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi EP40 Outdoor Socket can help alleviate this problem, however. This particular one gives you two outlets that you can control together or individually from the Kasa, Alexa or Google Home app. It doesn’t even need a hub to work, as you simply connect it to your home’s 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network and then set things up in the app. From there, you can program each take individually or group them into different scenes.

The EP40 is IP64 rated and operates in temperatures from -4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Both outlets, however, share a maximum load of 15 amps. Smart plugs are a fairly inexpensive way to automate items you already own, and they typically last three to five years, potentially longer depending on how you take care of them. We recommend sticking to smaller loads like lights here, and the manufacturer recommends keeping the load below 80% of the outlet’s rated maximum.

When we decided to put together this list, we wanted to highlight items that actually had useful benefits to offer, as well as items that had been highly rated by users who purchased them. We know that winter can be a stressful time, especially with all the holidays, so every device we decided to highlight had to genuinely make your life easier in one way or another – whether that’s helping to reduce costs, making it easier to manage the things you need to deal with, or simply keeping you informed of important issues like freezing or burst pipes. If a device did not meet at least one of these parameters, it was not selected.

Of course, there are plenty of other useful devices that can make your home smarter without breaking the bank. And if you’re shopping at Costco, you can even take a look at some of our recommended smart home tech to purchase at Costco as you prepare for winter to give you even more ideas on what’s worth buying as the weather gets colder.