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A comprehensive guide to the latest Smart Home technology that can make your home life more comfortable, efficient and secure.
No matter where you live or what you do for a living, we’re all looking for user-friendly solutions that can make our lives easier, while also saving us money and time. The best Smart Home devices on the market today do just that, and are designed to improve the efficiency, safety and comfort of your home. Think:
But with a wide array of options to choose from, it can be difficult to determine which products would best suit your home, budget and lifestyle. That’s where this guide comes in—featuring an in-depth overview of the most popular Smart Home products, plus tips on setting up your connected home and considerations for purchasing or renting your new Smart equipment. You’ll come away with a better understanding of the latest Smart Home systems and services that will allow you to take advantage of the potential savings, efficiencies and comfort delivered by connected technology.
Whether you’re searching for a way to access media across multiple devices, to safeguard your home from potential intruders, or to get a handle on your energy consumption, remember: you can always Call on Reliance™ to find the right solutions for your home.
Smart Homes use WiFi-enabled products—also called Smart Home devices—to support the remote monitoring and management of home appliances and systems, including the thermostat, HVAC, indoor and outdoor lighting, security cameras, media players and more. In addition to Internet connectivity, most Smart Home devices use cutting-edge technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning to monitor user behaviour patterns, which allows the devices to automatically update settings based on the preferences of people in the home.
Because Smart Home products and systems monitor and learn user patterns and preferences over time, they often become key tools in making homes more energy efficient. As the ultimate in “set and forget” technology, At the same time, devices like Smart Home door locks (some including cameras) and alarm systems offer peace of mind whether you’re home or away, and can boost the overall protection of your home and contents from intruders—or even just untimely visitors!
Dial in your energy consumption with a Smart Thermostat that learns from you, programs itself automatically and can help save energy during peak usage.
Use Smart Doorbells to see who’s at your front door, even if you’re not at home, tamper-proof, keyless deadbolt locks that lock automatically when you’re away, wireless indoor and outdoor cameras that offer a real-time view of your property, and more.
Enlist a Smart Home Hub to keep track of your schedule, receive reminders automatically, make shopping lists, control compatible devices (including lights, thermostat, and switches), and more.
*One of the most popular Smart Home devices in Canada* – control your heating and cooling automatically, with built-in technology that quickly learns your preferences and keeps your dwelling at the perfect temperature—whether you’re at home or away.
Smart technology makes it easier to conserve energy, which may lower your heating and cooling bills.
24/7/365 control via an app on your smart device.
Fully transparent energy consumption makes it easier to monitor how much energy you use and when.
The Nest Learning Thermostat – works with other Google Home products, making it super-easy to use and voice-prompt compatible.
Use it with: A Smart Home Hub or Smart Home Speaker to control the temperature settings in your home with a simple voice command.
Control the temperature of your home from anywhere
Less expensive than the Nest Learning Thermostat with most of the same features.
Seamless communication between your thermostat and the Google Home app. One of our Home Comfort Advisors can advise you as to which connected thermostat will work best with your heating and cooling equipment.
Stylish Connected Thermostat
Less expensive than the Nest Learning Thermostat with many of the same features. White surround blends in seamlessly with most décor.
Use it with: Seamless communication between your thermostat and the Nest app. One of our Home Comfort Advisors can advise you as to which connected thermostat will work best with your heating and cooling equipment.
The ultimate “virtual personal assistant,” with a diverse set of features—including user-friendly touchscreen, speakers and dashboard functionality—for control across your connected home.
Hands-free voice control over an array of compatible devices on the market today, from TVs and indoor/outdoor lights to security cameras and thermostats, with the flexibility to watch YouTube videos, stream music, listen to podcasts or audiobooks, and display treasured photos. photos on the ultimate digital photo frame.
Use it with: The Google Nest Learning Thermostat to control temperature settings automatically, whether you’re at home or away.
The Centre of Your Helpful Home – The Nest Hub (2nd Gen)
Watch shows and play your favourite songs*. Keep track of your schedule with calendars and reminders.
Use it with: Use your voice or a simple tap to control other compatible smart devices in your home**. Use your Nest Hub (2nd Gen) to turn on or off your lights, lock your door and see who’s on your porch*.
These smoke alarm and CO detector helps you outsmart danger, whether you’re at home or away. It tells you what’s wrong, tests itself, can be silenced from your phone, and so much more.
Powerful smoke detector and CO sensors built in to one easy-to-use unit.
Sends alerts to your phone if something’s wrong, allowing you to call emergency services more quickly whether you’re home or away.
Use it with: An indoor Smart Home Camera to view the situation inside your home before you call emergency services.
Get voice-controlled help, instant weather reports, news, traffic updates, music and so much more.
Hands-free help, info and entertainment at your beck and call.
Use it with: A Smart Thermostat like the Nest Learning Thermostat to control your home’s temperature settings with a simple voice command.
Detect suspicious movement and sounds and sends an alert with an image directly to your phone or email.
Smart enough to automatically zoom in for close-up tracking; use your phone to see who’s there, even when you’re not.
Weatherproof construction and hidden power cord provide seamless security in even the worst conditions.
The Nest Cam (Outdoor) helps you look after home 24/7, rain or shine. It alerts your phone when there’s activity, and lets you talk and listen from the Nest app. When you subscribe to Nest Aware, you also get 24/7 continuous recording and person alerts, so you know right away if someone’s there.*
Use it with: An indoor Smart Home Camera to view the situation inside your home before you call emergency services.
See and hear what’s going on at home, even when you’re not there.
Smart enough to automatically zoom in for close-up tracking; use your phone to see who’s there, even when you’re not.
Nest Cam (Indoor) – Did you shut the window? Did the baby wake up? What’s the dog getting into? Nest Cam helps you stay connected to things – in super clear 1080p HD video. It sends alerts to your phone when there’s motion or sound.*
Use it with: An Outdoor Smart Camera for versatile, broad-scope protection of the perimeter of your home.
A keyless deadbolt lock that’s smart enough to secure your door automatically when you’re away. Some include cameras for added security and protection from unwanted visitors.
No more searching for keys or wondering whether you locked your front door!
Open and check the status of your door from anywhere via an app on your phone or other smart device.
Use it with: An Outdoor Smart Camera for versatile, broad-scope protection of the perimeter of your home.
Say goodbye to dead zones while accessing a stronger network connection in farther-reaching corners of your home.
Scalable Wi-Fi coverage delivers stronger performance across your connected home, for more consistent video and music streaming, web chatting and gaming with less lag time.
Use it with: A “virtual personal assistant” like the Nest Hub Max, which allows you to control all of your smart home devices with your voice or the swipe of a finger.
Safely and conveniently see who’s coming and going, even when you’re not at home.
24/7/365 video streaming, with access via smart device or PC, so you can see, hear and speak to visitors in real time from anywhere.
HD video delivers crisp images, even at night, for the ultimate home protection.
Receive alerts when someone or something is at your door, even if they don’t ring the bell.
The Google Nest Hello Doorbell™ – machine learning technology recognizes family and friends and prerecorded quick responses let you answer the door even when you can’t get to it. Meanwhile, front door video footage gets saved in the cloud for next-generation security.
Use it with: A Smart Lock for the ultimate in home privacy and protection.
Flexible, temperature-controlled comfort throughout your home.
Simply place sensors on a wall or shelf in each room to identify hot and cold zones across your home.
Nest Temperature Sensors – Compatible with the Nest Learning Thermostat or Nest Thermostat E, use these sensors to monitor the temperature of your home at different times of the day or night.
Use it with: The Nest Wifi router for reliable network connectivity and control in every room.
A floodlight and camera all in one.
Everything that the Nest Cam (Outdoor) has to offer with the added benefit of flooding the area with light when the motion sensor is triggered.
The Nest Cam with Floodlight will let you see what is happening outside when the sun goes down.
Use it with the rest of your smart home ecosystem to get the full picture on what is happening at home.
Up the efficiency factor of your Smart Home setup with these 3 compatible products:
Most devices you’d plug into a standard wall outlet can become “smarter” when you use a Wi-Fi–connected plug.
Some models offer power monitoring, “away mode” and extra charging ports for advanced functionality and ease of use.
Use it with: A Smart Home Speaker like Google Home or Google Home Mini, for hands-free control of all of your connected devices.
Control your connected home from afar with these Smart replacements for traditional electrical switches.
Use it with: Traditional or Smart Lighting or any switch-wired devices to increase energy efficiency and reduce power consumption, especially when you’re away from home.
Choose from a variety of models, including ones that are dimmable out of the box (i.e., without a dimmer switch), change colour and even play music.
Use it with: Smart Switches, which can control multiple bulbs in different devices at one time.
Building a Smart Home can be a difficult task, especially with the wide variety of brands and products available in the Canadian market today. This five-step approach can help:
Think about your daily habits and patterns—what would make your life easier, more comfortable and more efficient?
Next, consider your current Smart situation: Are you just starting to dip your toe into the Smart Home pool and want to begin integrating time- and cost-saving devices here and there in your home? Or, are you looking to expand on the gadgets you’re already using with even smarter technology? Or, further still, are you considering kitting out a completely connected home—from doorbell to lighting, speakers to security cameras indoors and out, smoke and CO detector to water valve control?
You’ll need to investigate the suitability of each product against your goals and current situation. Ask yourself:
We recommend that you aim to integrate products with the widest compatibility as possible—especially if you’re new to the Smart Home category. This way, you can build up your connected home without having to worry too much about potential conflicts as you introduce new devices in the future.
Based on what you learned in Step 2, now is the time to get your home ready for the new products or solutions that you’ve selected.
This process can be as easy as downloading a Smart Home monitoring app to your phone or installing a Smart Home desktop app to your computer. On the other hand, you might need to investigate the best place to put a wireless Smart Home camera on the outside of your house or upgrade your Internet package to take advantage of the new functionality you’re planning to introduce to your home.
Note: If you have any doubts about whether a product is right for your home, what steps you need to take to prepare your home, or if you’re unsure of your tech-installation capabilities—it’s important to consult with a professional service provider. When you work with a technician who’s trained in connected technology and knows the ins and outs of product compatibility, installation and troubleshooting, you’ll be setting both yourself and your new Smart product up for greater success over time.
Many Smart Home devices are what’s called “plug and play,” meaning they’re often functional straight out of the box and likely only need to be charged up and connected to your Wi-Fi network to get to work. This includes many Smart Speakers, Hubs and Smoke Detectors, as well as most Smart Plugs, Switches and Lightbulbs.
However, other devices, including Smart Doorbells and Locks, Cameras and Thermostats, require some in-home setup. Most often, this involves personalization—setting unique passcodes (Smart Locks); checking record settings (indoor and outdoor Smart Cameras and Smart Doorbells with audiovisual capabilities); specifying preferences and schedules (Smart Thermostats); or other quick steps to help your new Smart Home devices learn your patterns and behaviour.
Setup and installation instructions are often available inside the package of the new device, but an even safer bet is to enlist a trained Smart Home Technicians, like those on-staff at Reliance Home Comfort, who’ll save you the time and hassle of setting up your new equipment, and will even guide you through the use of your new Smart Home products. And if you ever have a problem that requires in-home service, those expert technicians are then only a phone call away.
One of the easiest steps overall—essentially, you’ll need to keep your Smart Home apps updated (i.e., downloading new versions when they become available), add or update schedules and preferences, and so on, to keep your devices functioning optimally.
The good news is that, because they’re “smart,” most devices will “tell you” when they need maintenance: They’ll alert you when their batteries are low or a new version of their app is available. They may even notify you when they detect new or different behaviour patterns from what they’ve learned.
Reliance Smart Home service packages are an easy, worry-free and affordable way to build your connected home. And when you choose Reliance for your Smart Home technology, you can rest assured that each of our technicians has been specially trained in the installation and setup of Smart Home products. Take advantage of these benefits when you Call on Reliance™ for your Smart Home needs:
When you choose Reliance for your connected home needs, your Smart Home products are covered from start to finish—and if anything goes wrong, we’re only a phone call away!
Google, Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Thermostat, Nest Thermostat E, Nest Temperature Sensor, Nest Audio, Nest Mini, Nest Hub Max, Nest Hub (2nd gen), Nest Wifi, Nest Protect, Nest x Yale Lock, Nest Cam (outdoor or indoor, battery), Nest Cam with floodlight, Nest Cam (indoor, wired), Nest Doorbell (battery), and Nest Doorbell (wired) are trademarks of Google LLC.
*The Nest Hub Max requires a Wi-Fi network, a nearby electrical socket, and a compatible (Android, iOS) mobile device. A Google Account is required for full access to features.
[1] Google Duo account required to make video calls and leave video messages.
[2] Night Vision not supported.
[3] Personalized results, for up to six users, require additional enrollment and setup.
[4] YouTube TV and music services require a subscription. TV and music services require a subscription.
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