Smart home technology is no longer a luxury reserved for the wealthy or tech-savvy, and her explanation the industry has responded with ever sophisticated solutions. While many associate this technology with gadgets such as Google’s Nest and Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s HomeKit, the term is more expansive than that and encompasses numerous options for your home. They range from remote-controlled lighting and heating to CCTV doorbells, home security systems and smart locks. Some allow you to keep tabs on children, elderly relatives and pets as well as monitor electricity or water usage, and much more.

Integration is the primary ingredient of an effective smart home system. This is why the most effective products integrate with other systems and devices to make your home smarter. A smart light bulb, for instance is able to communicate with an centralized hub to set your lights on a schedule or turn them off when you leave the house. A video doorbell can alert you to visitors who might be coming in, and your alarm system can call the police or fire departments. Once you’ve learned the IFTTT (If this, then that) service, you can use services such as Stringify to automate devices in more complicated ways.

Of course, bringing in new technology into the home comes with its own concerns. That’s why CNET strives to know the privacy policies of the companies, highlight issues and take questions directly to the companies involved.