5 Ideas to Make Your Garage Smarter – On the House
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5 Ideas to Make Your Garage Smarter

By on February 5, 2016

Apps and technology that makes your garage and garage doors smarter

5MsartGarages_ohd-anywhere-garage-door-opener-app

Imagine you’re at work and your babysitter accidentally locks herself and your children out of the house.  Or a stranger somehow opens the garage door of your summer home. To help you with these and many other potential situations, Overhead Door, the inventor of the upward lifting garage door, has launched its new smart device enabled garage door controller, OHD Anywhere™. OHD Anywhere™ allows homeowners to remotely monitor, as well as change, the open/close position of a garage door from their compatible smart device, providing convenience and peace of mind to those who need to know the status of their garage door while away from home. In addition, OHD Anywhere™ can be especially convenient for families who wish to monitor an elderly parent’s house or a vacation home.

garage door smart products

The Chamberlain MyQ Garage Door Opener is another product that lets you open and close your garage door from anywhere over an internet connection. The product also has the ability to allow you to set custom alerts and monitor the open/closed status of your garage door.

According to CNET:
“Broad compatibility means the MyQ should work on your current garage hardware. Chamberlain’s inclusive attitude also means you can coordinate the MyQ to interact with a growing number of connected home platforms.

The world of connected garage door openers is surprisingly broad. In addition to Chamberlain’s own fixed units with built-in connectivity, it shares the same MyQ technology with sister brand Liftmaster. Sears’ Craftsman also has it own line of connected openers using a tech it calls AssureLink. You’ll also find at least half-a-dozen options on the retrofit market.”

 

The WINK App is a system that works with a variety of products including Chamberlain, Nest, Schlage and other garage door openers and systems – allowing an integration that is where many of today’s products are moving towards.

 

Apple's HomeKit

Apple’s HomeKit is a suite of tools that will let the makers of smart home products integrate their wares more deeply into Apple’s mobile OS. HomeKit works through the apps that control each of your home products. It integrates and enables all your apps to work in the background and from your device. According to Apple, the HomeKit data is “always encrypted, so the only people who know when you’re setting your lights to turn off or your thermostat up are the ones in your household.”

 

According to SlingShot Power, “Witricity was easily the wildest demo I got at CES. Who’d have thought that enough electricity could safely pass through the air (or concrete, or even your body) to charge a cell phone or turn on a light bulb. This isn’t some pie-in-the-sky concept, either, it’s just about ready to ship (the technology has been in development for more than eight years).”

Your could power your laptop and your cell phone without ever needing an AC adapter. The cool factor comes when you drive your electric car into the garage and charge it – without plugging it in.

 

The garage door sensor from Pella – Insynctive Home Automation. Your can sync the wireless Garage Door Sensor to a compatible home automation system, and you can make sure your garage door is closed from virtually anywhere using a smartphone, tablet or computer.

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