Getting smart about home in Upper St. Clair
Pet owners everywhere can identify with the plight of Upper St. Clair resident Serena Ferguson:
“I couldn’t figure out what my dogs were doing when we were at work.”
Tiring of the general upheaval caused by unsupervised canines, Serena and her husband, John, decided to invest in making their home a smart one.
”I think we all wonder what happens in our house when we’re not home, and now, actually, I know,” Serena Ferguson said about the capabilities provided by their Xfinity Home security and automation platform. “It’s documented, so no surprises when the curtain or the lampshade is crooked. I can figure out exactly what happened.”
On the whole, the system provides for a high degree of connectivity among its various monitoring and operational devices.
“I like the fact that it’s multiple platform, so I’m not tied to the touch screen or my laptop,” Ferguson said. “I have my phone when I’m outside. If I’m out front and see that a door opens, it pops up on my phone, and I know that the 2-year-old is trying to get out the back, which he does as soon as he knows that I am not in his line of sight.”
The platform controls a variety of household operations, from setting thermostats and controlling electrical outlets to locking doors and sealing the garage. Greg Wells, regional general manager of Xfinity Home for Philadelphia-based Comcast, explained that the corporation has “partnered with some of the leaders in various Internet-based services, that we can now work together with them to bring everything into one app.”
The result is the ability to program the system to perform automated tasks.
“I can set up a rule that says, between 8 o’clock in the morning and 4 o’clock in the afternoon, turn my heat down in the winter or my air conditioning down in the summer, and save some money,” Wells said. “I have a rule in my house that turns the light in my front room off and on for 15 minutes every hour, so it looks like someone’s there.”
Homeowners use computers, tablets and smartphones to set the automated tasks, and a TV interface allows for monitoring on the big screen.
“It’s really made our life easier, because it’s integrated with the television, with all of our apps, with the online portal,” Ferguson said. “So I really feel connected at all times, and I feel like we can definitely be able to keep track and tabs on everybody.”
Regarding ease of use, she is quick to reassure technophobes.
“My 2-year-old can figure it out,” she said about her younger son, Charlie. And about older son Jordan: “Then I have my 20-year-old techie who says, ‘You know, Mom, it can do this.’ He’s teaching me stuff.
“Even my mother-in-law, who’s in her 70s, can use the remote to say, ‘weather,’ because that’s what she watches. The home security piece of it, too, she can figure it out.”
Security features include video clips available for viewing for up to 10 days, which Mom might find to be especially beneficial.
“Now that I have older kids,” Ferguson said, 17-year-old daughter Bailey included, “I want to make sure that they’re taking out the trash, that they’re doing the dishes. I can see them even when I’m not here. And I have proof, because I can go back to a recording.”
Wells described a scenario for parents who are elsewhere at a certain time of day.
“I can set a rule up that says between 3 and 3:30, if my front door doesn’t open, send me a text so I know that my kids didn’t come home from school. And when my front door opens, send me a text and a picture, and I can see that my kids did get home from school,” he said. “So that’s the kind of flexibility and peace of mind you get with it.”