How a Smart Kitchen Makes Cooking Easier

It’s no secret the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the house, acting as both a place to make our food each day and a gathering place for families.

It’s also where we spend a good portion of our day. The average American spends just over two hours preparing and cleaning up after meals each day. And if you’re prepping a holiday feast, that number jumps significantly—it takes 7 hours on average to prep and cook a Thanksgiving meal.

With that in mind, it makes sense to improve your experience in the kitchen as much as possible.

Smart home ideas for the kitchen

Take a look at how a smart kitchen can help you out in the kitchen.

Let your smart speaker lend a hand

A smart assistant like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa becomes your personal assistant in the kitchen by performing a number of tasks for you when your hands are full, like:

 

• Adjust the temperature. If you've ever had the oven and burners going all at once, you know how stuffy and warm the kitchen can get. With a smart thermostat in your smart home, you can ask a smart assistant to lower the temperature without having to pause your meal prep. "Alexa, lower the temperature 5 degrees."
• Set timers. Timers are a must in the kitchen, especially when you're juggling tasks. But when your hands are covered in food, who wants to smear it all over the oven timer? With your smart assistant, you don't have to. Just say, "Hey Google, set the timer for 30 minutes."(Fun fact: you can actually set multiple timers and name them, so if you're cooking multiple dishes, you can set a veggie timer, main dish timer, and dessert timer to help you keep track. "Alexa, set veggie timer for 10 minutes."
• Answer questions. Want to double a recipe, do measurement conversions, find out how to substitute a missing ingredient, or are unsure of the internal temperature your meat should be? Just ask Google or Alexa!
  "Alexa, how many tablespoons in a cup?"
  "Hey Google, what should the internal temperature of turkey be?"
• Make a grocery list. If you used up the last of the milk or need to pick up some eggs next time you go to the store, just tell your smart assistant to add it to the list. You can access it from your smart home app next time you're at the store. "Alexa, add garlic salt to my shopping list."

Keep an eye on the rest of the house

When you're preoccupied in the kitchen, who's keeping an eye on the rest of the house? You can with your smart home's security cameras.

With an indoor Vivint Indoor Camera, you can log in to your Vivint app and check out your live camera feed without even leaving the kitchen. You can even use the two-way talk feature to tell your kids to start setting the table.

What if you're busy in the kitchen and the doorbell rings? You don't have to let your gravy scorch while you sprint to the front door. Just access the doorbell camera feed on your smart home app to see who's at the door. You can use the two-way talk feature to tell unexpected visitors that you're busy, or tell your guests to let themselves in (a smart front door lock will come in handy here, too.)

Stay safe with smoke detectors

At some point or another, it happens to everyone—your cooking sets off the smoke detectors. Luckily, Vivint's smoke detector will keep you safe. Not only will it sound the alarm to alert you, but your system will also cut off airflow to the rest of the house to help limit potential damage.

A smart home also goes a step further to protect you from cooking mishaps by automatically alerting smart home monitoring specialists when your smoke alarms sound. They'll check in on you and, if necessary, request assistance from the fire department while you get your family to safety.

Install a smart home today

Whether you’re packing lunches for the kids, cooking a holiday feast, or just grabbing a quick snack, a smart kitchen can make preparing and cooking meals easier than ever.

Give us a call at 844.481.8630 today for a free quote on a Vivint system. One of our Smart Home Pros will help create a customized package just for you.