What’s the benefit of all of this connectivity? In a single word, convenience. Having a smart home lets you do a lot of the things that you’d normally do — like adjusting the air conditioning, turning off the lights, pre-heating the oven, lending a key to your neighbor — with a lot less effort. You can set schedules for your appliances, so that certain things will happen at specific times of day, and some appliances will even learn your schedule and activities so that the amount of effort you have to put toward managing your home is drastically reduced.

In addition to convenience, however, a smart home also promotes efficiency. For example, the Nest thermostat learns how you like to have your house heated and cooled and adjusts the temperature so you don’t have to, saving energy. It also goes into “away” mode when you leave the house, further reducing your heating and cooling bills. The Webee home automation system also learns from the actions that you take and makes suggestions on how to use your smart appliances and devices more efficiently.