Life becomes easier and safer as technology evolves — at least, that’s the idea. These days, you have no shortage of gadgets to make your house safer and more secure.
If a disaster scenario arises, technology can be the difference between life and death. Giving yourself and your family the best chance possible to survive is essential.
However, new technology also presents challenges. Could implementing these devices compromise your safety? Here are the advantages and disadvantages of smart technology in the prepper community.
How Smart Technology Benefits You
Usually, technology is a good thing. You’ll find many benefits from implementing devices around the house. Here are six ways smart technology might increase your home’s security and comfort.
1. Controlling the Temperature
One of smart home technology’s principal advantages is its positive impact on energy efficiency. It reduces energy consumption in every season while keeping your house comfortable. For example, smart thermostats control the inside temperature based on how it feels outside.
Smart thermostats study your routine to know when you’re home or away. For example, suppose you leave your home at 8 a.m. and return at 6 p.m. on weekdays. Your smart thermostat will adjust to your schedule and run the HVAC unit less while you’re away. Then, when you arrive home, the house will be more comfortable.
A massive benefit for preppers is controlling the thermostat remotely. Imagine a scenario where you have to bug out immediately. Once you reach safety, you can use your smartphone to adjust your home’s thermostat despite being somewhere else. Now, you can turn off the HVAC and lower your energy consumption because nobody is home to use it.
[Editor’s note: I’d never considered that I would want to change my home thermostat after I bug out, lol. But, hey, why not!]
If you want to save money, smart thermostats help by lowering your electricity bill. Energy Star says its thermostats cut bills by 8% on average, depending on your climate and monthly HVAC usage. Caring for the environment is essential for preppers — smart thermostats help you achieve this goal.
2. Bettering Your Health
Some hazards like tornadoes and thunderstorms are easy to see through your window. However, preppers also need to be aware of the less obvious threats. For example, think about carbon monoxide. This invisible gas kills over 400 Americans annually — and 100,000 more end up in the hospital.
Luckily, smart technology is on your side by alerting you when CO reaches unsafe levels in the house. Gadgets like the Google Nest detect smoke and CO and tell you where the gases are in your home. Most likely, the CO comes from appliances like your gas stove or water heater.
[Editor’s note: Not sure if this would still be useful in a major disaster scenario, but there’s no harm in ensuring you’re safe from CO poisoning during normal times.]
Another way you can control your home’s air quality is by tracking allergen levels. Over time, your house accumulates pet dander and dust, which can make your family members ill. Modern thermostats detect these allergens, letting you know when it’s time to add air purifiers or increase ventilation in the house.
3. Sleeping Easier at Night
After a long day of hunting or working on your DIY projects, you need time to rest. Sleep is essential to your health, and some people don’t get enough each night. Experts recommend at least seven hours for adults and even more for children. Lacking sleep compromises your health and ability to act in disaster situations. Fortunately, you can use smart technology to improve your sleep.
Start by using sleep trackers to monitor your sleeping habits each night. Smartwatches are a practical way to see your sleeping data because they track your heart rate and other factors affecting your rest. After seeing the data, you’ll better understand what’s affecting your sleep.
[Editor’s note: My father-in-law has been using a Fitbit lately to track his sleeping habits; seems it’s been helping him.]
With smart technology, you can start a bedtime routine and make falling asleep easier. For example, you can program your thermostat to lower the temperature at bedtime if you prefer cooler temperatures. Use a smart speaker to play white noises if you don’t like sleeping in silence.
4. Beefing up Security
As preppers, we tend to prioritize home security. Your family likely has a reaction plan ready to go when unwelcome intruders step foot onto your property. The threat of burglaries may be scary — fortunately, you can wield smart technology to thwart criminals.
An example of a smart security device is the surveillance camera. Security cameras have evolved to be more user-friendly than the ones from past decades. Modern cameras have high-definition (HD) or 4K resolution to capture crystal-clear footage of what’s happening inside your home. The excellent camera quality helps identify faces and press charges against thieves.
Savvy criminals know how to avoid light and minimize their sounds. However, they can’t hide their body heat. Smart security cameras often have thermal detection that lets you detect where people or animals are in any room. Some cameras have motion-detection lights that turn on as soon as it detects thermal activity. The bright floodlights cause most criminals to scurry like rats.
Smart technology deters criminal activity at home and can protect your family in precarious situations. For example, smart control locks let you lock and unlock your doors from anywhere. Imagine you’re at work when your spouse arrives home without their house key. The weather is worsening, so they need to take shelter soon. Luckily, you have an app to unlock the door.
Security cameras also enhance safety by using two-way audio. With this feature, you can talk to your family inside the home and give instructions if a disaster scenario arises while you’re away. Plus, your family can respond on the other end.
You can also use two-way audio to thwart criminals. Burglars will be less likely to continue their home invasion once they hear your voice from the security camera.
5. Making a Disability-friendly Home
Living with disabilities makes daily life harder, leading looters and thieves to think they have an advantage when invading your home. Thankfully, smart home technology helps preppers with disabilities take control of their property.
For example, imagine your household has somebody with a physical disability. One night, an intruder tries to break into your home, threatening this family member. Usually, they find it difficult to protect themselves. However, they can use a smartphone to stop thieves before they enter the house.
Cameras with two-way audio, smart locks and motion-detection floodlights are a few ways preppers with disabilities can make their homes more secure without overworking themselves. Some security cameras will even call local authorities for you if you can’t access your phone.
[Editor’s note: I’d never considered just how smart tech might help those with disabilities. That’s a huge benefit!]
6. Enhancing Your Entertainment Experience
Many preppers focus on health and safety because you never know when a disaster might arise. Smart devices make your home secure, but these gadgets have lighthearted advantages. For example, you can turn your house into a family entertainment hub with smart TVs and voice-controlled remotes.
Living in rural areas means you could be 100 miles from the nearest movie theater. Instead of driving, you can turn your living room into an intimate cinema. Integrated lights switch to ambient colors and set the mood for movie nights with your spouse. Use streaming devices with voice-controlled remotes to easily control what’s on the screen. These devices help preppers with disabilities by using voice commands instead of typing.
Smart TVs and speakers provide your family with entertainment and can improve your security. For example, you can remotely turn on your TV to trick thieves into thinking you’re home — even if you’re in another state.
[Editor’s note: This benefit feels like a stretch, but I can see how it might be possible to use smart technology to thwart thieves last-minute.]
How Does Smart Technology Compromise You?
Smart devices create a connected home and easier life for preppers. However, they can become a liability if they end up compromising your home security. Here are six disadvantages of using these technologies in your home.
1. Sacrificing Cybersecurity
The primary concern with advanced technology is its cybersecurity liabilities. Most companies prioritize cybersecurity when creating their devices — otherwise, they risk fines and other legal issues. However, they’re not foolproof. Being connected to the internet opens the door to cyber theft. Thieves can infect your devices with malware and steal your information, making your home less secure.
One of the biggest threats to consider is data breaches. Companies making smart technology devices contain information from you and thousands of other customers. One slip-up can make these records vulnerable to cybercriminals, who can use the data to commit identity theft and other crimes.
In 2019, one of the most popular smart security companies found itself compromised. Over 3,000 Ring customers saw their log-in credentials exposed in a data leak, allowing thieves to see email addresses, passwords and live camera footage. Similar breaches have happened to other companies like Tuya and Wyze.
2. Neglecting Your Privacy
An unfortunate part of smart technology is how it collects your information. Many of your phone’s apps track and sell your data to third parties, leading to targeted advertisements on your phone. How did that ad know you were thinking about chocolate chip cookies the other day?
Don’t be mistaken — smart devices are great. However, consider putting your reading glasses on and reading the terms and conditions because some companies have better privacy policies than others. For example, Apple products benefit preppers because they don’t sell your data to third parties.
3. Relying on the Internet
Technology is great until it’s unable to work — sometimes, you can’t rely on it when you need it most. Smart technology often depends on the internet, so an outage can compromise your home’s safety in disaster situations. Burglars can’t necessarily predict when internet outages will happen. However, they could be in the right place at the right time to take advantage.
Internet outages can make disasters even more difficult to navigate, but you’re in luck. Smart home hubs allow you to have local control over your devices. Gadgets like Hubitat and Home Assistant work without Wi-Fi, boosting your security when your internet service provider (ISP) reports outages.
4. Dependent on the Power Grid
Bad weather can knock the power out for days or even weeks. Power grids are also susceptible to cyberattacks from bad actors who want to see the world crumble. Power outages mean most of your devices are useless, so it’s essential for preppers not to rely on these technologies in life-or-death situations.
The last thing you want in a disaster scenario is a power outage, but it’s not the end of the line. You can make your devices work despite the conditions working against you.
Generators are a convenient tool when the power goes out because they’ll run for a few hours, depending on the brand and model. If you don’t have a generator, find smart devices with battery backups. Batteries will keep your smart thermostat and locks going for a few hours, keeping your house safer during disaster.
Consider your smartphone as another backup option. Some smart doorbell systems, such as the Ring Alarm Pro, stay working during power and internet outages if your devices are connected. When the world crumbles around you, it helps to have every advantage at your disposal.
5. Spending Too Much Money
The price tags on the shelves may turn off preppers on a budget. Smart home technology prices have declined in the past few years, but inflation and supply chain disruptions don’t help anybody’s wallet. These high initial costs may lead you to walk away.
If money is tight, look for inexpensive devices with a return on investment (ROI). For example, smart thermostats start at around $130, but some brands charge over $500 for the most advanced devices. Get a reasonably priced system and consider it an investment. Over time, you’ll end up gaining money with all the cash saved on electric bills.
6. Becoming Outdated
Technology evolves rapidly, so what seems innovative and futuristic today could become obsolete in only a few years. Your intelligent devices should last a long time, but newer gadgets with more safety features may be on the shelves than older models.
The outdated smart devices can become a liability if your priority is safety. Older technologies are easier for criminals to exploit because they’re less likely to have software updates. Thieves will know if you haven’t updated your devices or if the gadgets are incompatible with security patches.
Making Your Home Safer
Technology is always evolving to make your life easier at home, at work and while you’re traveling. Modern devices like security cameras and CO detectors monitor your property, alerting you when visible and invisible threats are present. They also make your home more fun by enhancing your entertainment experiences.
These devices may make your home safer, but there are liabilities to be aware of. Have backup plans when the power goes out, and opt out of data collection to protect your information.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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