How I Use My Smart Home System to Help My Asthma

I love technology. I always have. Nowadays there are more and more smart home systems and options available to make high-tech living easy and accessible. I have slowly been building my smart home. A few lights here, a couple of outlets there, and a couple of other gizmos make my house a little more interesting to live in. As odd as it may sound, making a smart home allows me to use my creativity in unusual ways. It’s even allowed me to put in place some technology and devices that help with my asthma.

Ways I use my smart home to help my asthma

Smart plugs

I live in a small apartment where outlets are at a premium. I am 100% sure that I have all of my breakers maxed out because I have so many things plugged into the few outlets I have. Part of this struggle is finding a place to plug in my nebulizer when I am dealing with an asthma exacerbation. The outlets close to my bed are all full, so my options are to unplug something close, which is not always easy to do, or find an outlet on the other side of the room that doesn’t have anything in it.

Now, here’s the genius of the smart home. I plug my nebulizer into the wall on the opposite side of the room and use the long tubing so that the mask is easily reachable while I’m in bed. But it’s not exactly convenient because I would need to get up to turn the machine on. So, I use a smart plug! A smart plug is a plug adapter that can be voice controlled with a smart home system, more specifically, a voice command. When I plug my nebulizer into the smart plug, I actually turn the machine on. But if the plug is not "on," neither is the machine. When I want to do a nebulizer treatment, I simply fill up the mask with medicine and say "Turn on my nebulizer." The smart home turns on the plug, which has my already "on" machine attached to it, and voila, my nebulizer is on and I didn’t have to leave the bed.

Connecting my HEPA filter

A few months ago I bought a HEPA filter for my apartment. I spent some time in the hospital with my asthma over the summer and wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could at home to control my symptoms. The cool thing is that I can connect my HEPA filter to my smart home. This allows me to adjust the settings, turn it on or off if I am away, and it even alerts me when I need to change the filter. I tell you, it’s the simple things.

The smart lock

Now, here’s my favorite one. My smart lock. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to the emergency room with an asthma attack and they’ve ended up admitting me. That never used to be a problem, until I got a dog. Dogs can be so helpful, yet cause so many complications at times. A few months after I got my dog, I was admitted to the hospital and couldn’t find anyone that had one of my house keys that were available to let my dog out. My poor pup ended up being locked in her crate for over 24 hours. Let me tell you, I had a smart lock ordered before I was even released from the hospital! With a smart lock, I am able to unlock my door remotely for someone no matter where I am. So although not everyone who helps me take care of my dog has a physical key to my apartment, I am able to unlock the door for them to get in and take care of my dog. I cannot tell you how many times this has come in handy!

Could smart home technology be helpful for your asthma?

Who knew that a smart home could be so helpful for my asthma? The more technology advances, I am sure I will be adding more pieces to my smart home that can help me manage my health problems.

Do you have a smart home system? How do you use it to help with your asthma? Let us know in the comments!