The home is a place that can be made to be perfectly suited for you. Now, with the fast paced technological advances. We live on our gadgets and are becoming very dependent on them to provide us with everything. The downside is that so far, most homes are not up to date and prepared for this flood of technology. With some simple modifications, your home can easily be turned into a futuristic pad to allow you to best use all the technology can offer to make your life easy.

We are constantly relying on gadgets and the interfaces that come along with them. Look around your own life, with iPhone/iPod/iPad docks and wall mounts and the 5 chargers lying around all corners of the place.

First, let’s start from the outside in, you have to look at your home and find methods that will help your home be environmentally friendly whilst also still looking good. There are products that arise each day to turn your homes, old or new into more sustainable habitats. Look at the typical notion of using solar power; the big chunky boxy thing that needs to be laid on the top of the roof and will take up all the space or the photovoltaic glass that would look great but is super expensive. Why not look at the newer things for solar energy collection; large firms such as 3M have developed photovoltaic films. These films are designed to coat ordinary windows and turn them into solar panels by a simple thin sheet of transparent film that is affordable. This technology would suit every home, simply just apply it to the window pane and let it do its job. Although it’s important to know that this film only will generate around 20% of power generated by a regular clunky solar panel, but in the end, it’s a matter of preference.

Make sure you look into any new available materials when doing renovations or constructions. There are many new inventions that have been launched into the market that are sustainable; whether recycled materials or recyclable materials. These materials greatly reduce the cost of production of new materials and help with the environment conservation. Look for the modernisation of certain home aspects, such as the garden. There is a great rise of the vertical garden trend due to the limited spaces we have within the cities. These vertical gardens allow the home to have green whilst not taking up space in big pots around the terrace. The fantastic thing is that it can be grown on a corner or on the entire façade.

City living can greatly reduce the ability of having outdoor amenities that really makes the home a relaxing place to stay in. Regardless, its not an excuse. I was blown away with this technology and am desperate to install it in a house of mine one day: indoor sunken pools.

That’s right, a sunken swimming pool with a hydraulic floor that will lift and sink as needed. When you need any extra space, just close up the floor and use the floor as you would a normal one for any social functions you might have. Maybe a good idea is to make sure all the furniture you have around there won’t get damaged by water.

The use of energy efficient products play a big part in our modern world, with energy bills rising constantly; using the right products is important. The argument between using LEDs is really redundant as it has already been proven that in the long term it provides a much better solution for power. The initial cost is around 10x higher although it also lasts 10x as long. Also, check out the usages of sensors to not waste any energy. Mostly, it should be used for public areas such as the stairwells and entrance doors as it is a much more efficient system. Wouldn’t you prefer to have your porch light on as you approach the entrance door? Rather than having to make sure you leave the light on for hours and hours to make sure the entrance isn’t dark for your return.

Think about these few aspects i mentioned here, and see if anything can be fitted to your home. The times are moving and so should you, technology is improving so rapidly whilst very conscious of people’s inability to strip everything and redo it all again. Creators of technology are constantly providing new ways of modernizing the house in a way that will prepare it for advanced compatibility. 

Check back in for next week’s article for modernisations to the interior areas of the house as we aim to furnish for the future!