A Truly Smart Home - Xfinity and The Philadelphia Magazine Design Home

For months, I have watched the latest Philadelphia Magazine Design Home go from an empty lot, to an 8200 square foot luxury manor home. Trees went, and trees came. The footprint was poured, the frame went up, stones, a pool and a three-car garage with a lift were all added.

All of those amazing and beautiful things were visible from the outside. What you couldn't see, and I  found out last week, was all the amazing stuff on the INSIDE. The 2014 Design Home is not just pretty to look at and luxurious to be in, it is also fully equipped with Xfinity Home.  Comcast and Real Mom Media invited me, along with some other area bloggers, to come check it all out for ourselves.

The house is simply stunning. With four floors of living space, room for three cars in the garage and luxurious outdoor living space, this house was something to see. What was so fascinating, was what you couldn't see. On my visit, I learned that Xfinity Home offers customers a way to manage your home security and "smart home" devices in a simple and secure way, from anywhere. The platform seamlessly integrates a wide range of electronics, appliances and security technology into one easy-to-use experience.

According to Comcast, one in five Americans own a home appliance that's connected to the internet, and it's estimated that there will be 25 billion (BILLION!!) devices connected to the Internet by 2015 and 50 billion by 2020.

Now, if you are anything like me, you're probably asking yourself, who needs that much connectivity?? You may be surprised. With Xfinity Home you can control your lights and your thermostat. Those are two ways that Xfinity Home may be able to help you lower your utility costs and help your home run more efficiently. In fact, EcoFactor learns your home's heating and cooling patterns and automatically makes adjustments or you can make adjustments remotely.

The security sensors can alert you to such things as leaking water in your basement, broken windows or opened doors. Multiple arming modes can help keep you safe around the clock. And again, you can monitor this remotely through the Xfinity Home App.

If home security and monitoring isn't your thing, Xfinity has a nice selection of Apps for their customers that can help you with your entertainment and on the go lifestyle. My favorite is by far Xfinity Connect. This keeps me in touch with my email and home phone and voice mail no matter where I may be. A close second is the Xfinity WiFi App. With this app, you can locate thousands of Xfinity hotspots across the country.

For you TV buffs, you may want to check out Xfinity TV Go, which lets you watch live TV on any device anywhere you go (Hello Good Wife!) or check out Xfinity TV Remote which allows you to control your TV from your smartphone. Never forget to turn on the DVR again!

So this house really is smart on both the outside AND on the inside. It's also move-in ready, and I'm ready . . .now only to come up with the money.

What home technology are you most interested in learning more about?

catch you soon -
I was invited by Comcast and Real Mom Media to tour the Philadelphia Design Home and the Comcast features of the home. I received a Samsung Tab4 from Comcast to facilitate my review of Xfinity. .All opinions, are as always my very own.