How smart is your plumbing?
Can it save you time? Money? Conserve water? Detect a leak, alert you or shut off the water?
Can it enhance your life in a good way?
It’s a tall order for your plumbing but with new technology, it’s all doable.
The shower takes center stage as one of the most popular smart home products. It can be activated, programmed, and personalized by voice, phone or controller.
Turn your shower on with an app, set it to the perfect temperature and it’s ready for you to step into when you arrive home at the end of the work day. The shower can also be paused remotely to conserve water.
Additional enhancements can include adding aromatherapy essential oil scents to de-stress and enhance mood. Some showers have mist and/or steam systems. Some can encompass an entire spa system.
Showerheads are available in different sizes and shapes. They can deliver different effects ranging from a massage to a rainforest experience.
Soap or shampoo in the eyes? This isn’t a problem with a hand-held shower and magnetic dock. The shower head releases easily and snaps securely back into place without fumbling about feeling for the hook and possibility breaking it.
The shower itself can range in size from a compact square stall to an entire room and everything in between.
Showers are not the only fixture that has become smarter. Faucets have also undergone a major revolution.
Motion detector faucets in this age of severe viruses, the annual flu, and colds can help keep them at bay. More commonly used in the kitchen, motion detector faucets can act as an assistant to the cook.
There are also smart faucets that can be controlled by voice, wave sensor, or smartphone app, to deliver specific amounts of water at temperatures for cooking and baking, plant watering, heating baby bottles, as well as precise hand washing and soaping. It can also turn off and on again, without touching the handle.
Smart home plumbing also extends the whole home – the entire water system. What if your plumbing could let you know before disaster strikes? Technology is available to help mitigate some potentially major water problems. It varies from a simple alert to sophisticated alarm and/or monitoring systems tied to a fixture such as a sump pump or the whole-house water supply. Some require turning off the water manually while other plumbing technology will shut off the water supply automatically.
A smart home water monitoring and leak detection system, or an equivalent flow control system can be installed on the main water line and if a leak is detected, the shut-off feature will automatically turn the water off. It also has a smart home capability for notification through your cell phone.
Certain fixtures also have extra protections that can be added. A monitor for the sump pump will call you on your cell phone if there is any flooding or a pump failure. Best of all, it can be retrofitted to an existing sump pump.
A smart water sensor, sometimes called a floor sensor or puck sensor, can be installed anywhere in the home. It will detect water on the floor and sound an alarm. It can also be connected to a smart home water system that’s synced to your cell phone to send an alert that way.
Contact Plumbtech at 705-722-7209 for all your smart plumbing needs. Estimates are free.
