Wouldn’t it be nice if you could know what’s going on in your home even when you are not there?
Chris Green went looking for peace of mind for his Louisville house after he kept leaving his garage door open.
“I didn’t want a full-blown alarm system I would have to run to turn off every time I walk in the door,” said Green.
What he found could revolutionize the way people watch their homes.
"Notion is a complete home awareness system," said Brett Jurgens, the co-founder of a Denver-based startup called Notion. "You could put this on anything that slides, moves, opens up or down, left or right any direction."
The idea is simple. They created a sensor about the size of an Oreo that has eight functions at once, detecting motion, water leaks, temperature, sound and more.
You just peel off the backing and stick it on the place you choose.
"We want to make it that easy for people to use,” said Jurgens. “We send you push notifications through our mobile app, or we can send text or email alerts as well.”
The sensors send information through Wi-Fi, and unlike most home security systems, there is no monthly fee.
“It’s also great for apartments and vacation homes, so the cost-benefit is huge,” said Jurgens.
Notion can tell you if a smoke alarm is going off, the temperature of a room, and soon, whether your propane tank has enough inside for your next barbeque.
Already, Notion can be integrated with other smartphone devices, such as Nest, to control a thermostat.
Jurgens said they are hoping they can partner with other companies, such as insurance companies, to get the devices in more homes and potentially solve the problem of water leaks.
“Water leaks are the number one cause for claims for every insurance company in the country,” he said. “If you put three to give notion sensors in for water leak detection. could we solve just with that one function a multi-billion dollar problem for insurance companies? Yeah, we could.”
"The instructions they have, I had the whole system set up in 15 minutes," said Green, who received an early version because he invested in the successful Kickstarter campaign.
“I bought three sensors,” said Green, who put one on his front door, one on his garage and one to track the temperature in the baby’s room.
"It actually shows when the temperature spike occurs in the afternoon," said Green, who is changing his thermostat to make sure the nursery doesn’t get too hot.
Green said he plans to buy more sensors, to let him know if he left the light on in the crawl space or if he has a water leak.
"It's just so easy to use and you can customize to what you want," said Green.
Notion is completely made in Colorado.
The company has been filling pre-orders, and it will be fully available in April through their siteand Amazon.
It costs about $200 for the three-sensor package.