How To Pump Up Your Party With Home Automation

There ain’t no party like a smart home party hosted by your home automation. If you like to host parties, and are looking to include your smart home products, there might be a few things you hadn’t thought of.

I admit it, I like to show off my smart home technology just like most people who have a nice car like to show it off. Sometimes even the most practical smart home products have so much to show off when it comes to parties. Here are a few ideas for you if you have an upcoming party and would like to show off your smart home prowess.

Smart Security Planning Ahead

Before you get the party going you should plan your security out in advance. You are going to have a lot of people at your home, and you’ll be the one running this show. You don’t want to have to unlock the door every time someone shows up and let them in.

You can set up a smart doorbell like Ring to greet your guests. I also like to use a smart lock in combination with a keypad. You can then set up a temporary security code and give it to your guests ahead of time or simply grant access from your phone as they arrive.

Pre-Party Smart Coffee

If you are like me, then it takes a lot out of you to plan and host a party. Luckily you can use a smart kitchen gadget like a Wi-Fi coffee maker to keep you caffeinated during the pre-party. You can set it to start at a specific time. Or if you want to be a little bit lazy you can turn it on from while you are still in bed on your smartphone. When you are finished swilling that fine brew, make sure you set up another round to automatically brew when the party will be nearing its end.

Smart Party Cleaning

With the invention of automated cleaning robots, like the Roomba, they have become a staple for most smart home users. The same is especially true before you are going to have people in your house. Personally, I have mine set on a nightly schedule, so that it will vacuum while I’m sleeping. However, being that you might be a little extra anal the day of the party I like to run it again manually.

Smart Kitchen Gadgets

Now that we’ve gotten tidied up and caffeinated, we need to think about prepping the food for the party. This is absolutely crucial to having a good party with your smart home automation. It takes so much of the stress and worries out of the cooking you’ll be doing. You can find out all about the recommended tools for the kitchen over on my recommended tools page.

Smart Home Thermometers

I love smart gadgets like wi-fi cooking thermometers. Most are already preprogrammed to know what the internal temperature of whatever meat you are cooking should be that way you don’t have to wonder if the meat is cooked or undercooked. You can even set up the alerts on your phone to let you know when the meat is done.

Smart Slow Cooker

I love slow cookers for parties. You can throw in some Swedish meatballs or have a nice buffalo chicken dip for your party without thinking much about it. I love slow cookers, even more, when they are smart slow cookers. They go one step further by making all the controls accessible via users’ smartphones. This will let you start or stop cooking, adjust temperatures and cook times, as well as set up notifications for yourself.

Smart Sous Vide

If you still find slow cookers a little bit old school, then you can use a smart sous-vide remote cooking device. This is a way of cooking in which food is placed in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag and cooked slowly in steam or a water bath.  These little beauties will hold the tank at refrigerator temperature until it’s ready to cook. Just set the timer on the app and “fahget about it”!  Personally, this is one of my favorite ways to cook on a daily basis. Mostly because I tend to be a bit lazy when it comes to cooking.

Smart Party Lighting

No smart home party is right without the proper lighting. So you should set up your smart home lighting with the right hue. You know, like Phillips Hue. They have a great ambient set of lights that allow you to set the room color to a nice warm blue or a stellar hot pink. Literally just about any color you can think of. You can see more about them over here on Amazon.

Once the party really gets going you’ll want to have some rockin lights to go with that music. That’s where a smart disco ball lighting effect can really make the difference. There are a lot of relatively inexpensive options when it comes to this.

Personally, though I prefer these Smart LED rope kits. They give off a nice ambient light throughout the entire room. You can choose from 16 million different colors… literally. You can even use your Amazon Echo to control them when you want to change the color.

These are especially great for Christmas parties or New Years Eve parties. The best part about smart home lighting for a party is that you can control it from anywhere with your phone.

Smart Party Music

Everybody have fun tonight! Well, if you want to wang chung your heart out you are going to need some good music. Especially since everyone has a different type of music that they like. So you are going to need a good mix and no one wants to have to sit there DJ’ing all night long while your friends are having fun.

So make sure you set up playlists through Spotify or Amazon Music prior to the party. Then use Alexa voice commands to skip a song if need be or to crank up the volume!

I also have Sonos speakers set up in conjunction with Alexa. So no matter what room you are in you get to enjoy the music.

It’s Gettin Hot In Here!

Parties get hot. The more people you have packed into your living room, the hotter it gets. This is where a smart home thermostat like the Ecobee comes in very handy. The new Ecobee 4 thermostats have Alexa built right in. So you can control the temperature of the room with the sound of your voice. Just ask your Alexa to turn down the temperature in the living room. You gotta love home automation technology for its comfort benefits, especially during a crowded party. You can read more about smart thermostats in my article titled best smart thermostats. You can also read my article about how to how to make your dumb air conditioner smart.

Alexa Party Games

Alexa has become a huge driver in the home automation market, but what’s great is she knows how to party with the best of them. Alexa has some great third-party skills that make her a really fun addition to any party. She’s full of parlor tricks, easter eggs, and pretty corny jokes. What you may be missing, however, is that Alexa is loaded with all kinds of party games. Below is a short list…

• Bingo
• Tic Tac Toe
• Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
• Akinator
• Blackjack
• Earplay
• The Wayne Investigation
• The Magic Door
• Where In The World
• Memory Match
• Hunt The Yeti
• Escape The Room
• Song Quiz
• Millionaire Quiz Game
• Deal or No Deal
• True or False
• Jeopardy!
• Volley Trivia Showdown Game
• Amazing Word Master Game
• Would You Rather For Family
• Dice

Continuing The Party

If you start your party somewhere else, whether at someone else’s home or at a restaurant. You can easily turn everything on right from your phone when you are on your way home. You could even set up a geofence with IFTTT, so that when you arrive home everything automatically turns on before you and your guests even set one foot in the door.

Conclusion

When I was growing up we didn’t have these kinds of conveniences. So for me, smart home parties are a lot of fun. The idea of being able to set a playlist of music and forget it is really amazing. There’s no need to hire a DJ anymore with innovations like this. Your guests will love it and so will you. For more smart home automation tips you can read my article titled 31 Smart Home Automation Tips as well.