{"id":26660,"date":"2022-12-30T12:27:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T12:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/30\/heres-how-to-use-your-smart-home-to-fool-burglars\/"},"modified":"2022-12-30T12:27:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T12:27:45","slug":"heres-how-to-use-your-smart-home-to-fool-burglars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/30\/heres-how-to-use-your-smart-home-to-fool-burglars\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s How to Use Your Smart Home to Fool Burglars"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Smart home gear isn\u2019t just for showing off to friends and automating your life. It\u2019s also really handy for making your home look occupied when you\u2019re away. Here\u2019s how to use your smart home gear to fool burglars.<\/p>\n

Can You Really Fool Burglars With Smart Home Gear?<\/h2>\n

Before we dive into all the clever ways you can use smart home gear to mimic a human presence in your home, it does beg the question: does mimicking a human presence in the home actually deter criminal activity?<\/p>\n

If the criminal activity you\u2019re trying to deter is an Oceans 11-style heist on your home or the criminal in question is a foreign agent hell-bent on assassinating you, then no, you\u2019re going to need more than a few hundred dollars worth of smart home gear to deter that\u2014and you should probably spend that few hundred bucks on a ticket out of town.<\/p>\n

But for the run-of-the-mill crime of opportunity, the illusion that somebody is home is an excellent deterrent. The vast majority of thieves are not living life like every day is The Purge<\/em>, they just want to want a fast and easy way to get stuff from your house to flip for cash. An occupied home throws a wrench in the \u201cfast and easy\u201d part. You don\u2019t have to make your home Fort Knox, you just have to make your home unappealing enough to send the person elsewhere.<\/p>\n

If Kevin McCallister can fool The Wet Bandits<\/a> with a stereo, some mannequins, and a cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan, we feel pretty confident with far more advanced gear, you can fool a junkie looking to steal your Xbox.<\/p>\n

Combine presence mimicking with a good home security system<\/a>, and you\u2019ll have all your bases covered.<\/p>\n

How to Mimic Occupancy With Smart Home Gear<\/h2>\n

Maybe you\u2019re on vacation for a week. Maybe you work second shift and want your home to look occupied in the evening, especially during the winter when it gets dark so early.<\/p>\n

Whatever your motivation, the crux of the illusion is harnessing your smart home gear to do the things you\u2019d do if you were home. Empty homes are eerily quiet and still. Occupied homes are bustling with light and sound.<\/p>\n

A quick note before we dig in. You can use many of the suggestions below by using features included with a particular smart home platform or device, with your smart home platform of choice, or both.<\/p>\n

So if a particular feature isn\u2019t included in the device\u2019s control app, consider using a smart home routine with your greater smart home platform like Google Assistant or Alexa. (And if you\u2019re running an advanced smart home platform like Home Assistant, the sky is the limit.)<\/p>\n

Simulate Occupancy with Smart Lights<\/h3>\n

Switching lights on and off to create the appearance of someone at home isn\u2019t a new trick by any means. People have been doing it with basic light timers for decades. And while you can do the same thing with mechanical timers or even smart plugs<\/a>, actual smart bulbs<\/a> take it to a different level.<\/p>\n

The Philips Hue platform, for example, has a vacation mode<\/a> that doesn\u2019t just flip certain lights on for a set amount of time; it actually mimics the presence of someone in the home.<\/p>\n

Tell it to mimic you between, say, 5 PM and your usual bedtime of 11 PM, and during that window, it will turn lights on and off throughout your home as if you were moving from room to room. With one or more Hue bulbs in different rooms, it\u2019s uncannily good.<\/p>\n

When I return from trips, my neighbors almost always comment that they had no idea I was gone because the house looked occupied. Sometimes even my immediate neighbors, who knew I was out of town, will say they thought I got home early.<\/p>\n

Even without Hue bulbs, you can likely recreate the effect by using a similar vacation mode in your smart light platform<\/a> of choice\u2014even inexpensive Wyze smart bulbs<\/a> have a vacation mode\u2014by setting random timers or by using an away mode if your greater smart home platform supports it. As part of the Alexa Guard functionality, Alexa supports vacation mode lighting, for example.<\/p>\n

Mimic TV Watching with Smart Bulb \u201cParty\u201d Modes<\/h3>\n

Turning lights on and off can make it look like somebody is home, but nothing says \u201cthis home is occupied,\u201d like the familiar flicker of a television set. Back in the day, it used to be simple to put an appliance timer on your TV to turn the TV on and off because TVs had mechanical switches. But timers don\u2019t work on modern TVs because plugging and unplugging them doesn\u2019t turn them on.<\/p>\n

While you can buy specialty devices that mimic TV light<\/a> if you have smart bulbs or LED strips, you can use those just as easily and without investing in specialty hardware.<\/p>\n

For example, I have a Govee-brand<\/a> adaptive TV light setup<\/a>. When I\u2019m actually watching TV it illuminates the wall behind the TV, but it also has a bunch of other features like holiday scenes, color animations, and so on.<\/p>\n

If you turn the brightness up all the way and pick one of the colorful and active scenes, it looks pretty much like you\u2019re watching TV. The Halloween and storm themes that include rapid flashes do a great job capturing the feeling of an action movie with explosions too.<\/p>\n

You can recreate the effect with any color-changing smart bulbs or light strips<\/a> with similar \u201cparty\u201d or random mode, though. Experiment with them until you find a combination with that familiar TV-flickering-in-the-night color scheme.<\/p>\n

Use Music and Podcasts to Create Lived-In Ambiance<\/h3>\n

Like lighting, sound is a strong indicator that somebody is home. Combine it with scheduled lighting and the TV illusion above, and it\u2019ll look like a full house.<\/p>\n

If you want to automate things but keep it, relatively, simple one of the easiest ways to do so is to plug a radio into a smart plug<\/a>, tune the radio to a station that features primarily talking (your local public radio station is great for this) and set a smart schedule to turn the radio while you\u2019re away.<\/p>\n

If you already have smart speakers sprinkled throughout your home, then it\u2019s trivial to incorporate audio playback into routines. You can, for example, instruct a Google Home routine to start a podcast, Spotify playlist, or other music sources.<\/p>\n

Given the sheer number of podcasts out there that amount to \u201ctwo dudes sitting around talking about random stuff\u201d (shoutout to Josh and Chuck at Stuff You Should Know<\/em><\/a>) it should be pretty easy to find something to play that sounds a lot like people hanging out in your house talking about video game trivia or the history of vampire panics.<\/p>\n

Mix all these tips together and nobody\u2014burglars, included\u2014will be able to tell when you\u2019re home, at work, or on vacation.<\/p>\n

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The Best Smart Plugs of 2022 \"\"<\/a><\/h4>\n
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Kasa Smart Plug HS103P2, Smart Home Wi-Fi Outlet Works with Alexa, Echo, Google Home & IFTTT, No Hub Required, Remote Control,15 Amp,UL Certified, 2-Pack White<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Wyze Smart Plug<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Wyze Outdoor Smart Plug<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Best Amazon Alexa Smart Plug<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Amazon Smart Plug, for home automation, Works with Alexa – A Certified for Humans Device<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Best Smart Plug for Google Assistant<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Vont Smart Plug<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Best Smart Plug for Apple HomeKit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Eve Energy Smart Plug<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n