The Delicate Art of Making a 1907 House Smarter
The Delicate Art of Making a 1907 House Smarter
让 1907 年的老宅变“聪明”的精妙艺术
At the very end of 2025, my wife and I bought our first home, a 1907 Craftsman in the heart of Portland, Oregon. It’s a beautiful old house, listed on the National Historic Registry, and is largely unchanged from the day it was built. This is exactly what we dreamed of in a house. It’s loaded with history and vibes, mostly unmessed with across the decades. We’re now simultaneously updating and restoring the home with a limited budget, big ideas, our own style, and plenty of sweat equity. 2025 年底，我和妻子买下了我们的第一套房——位于俄勒冈州波特兰市中心的一栋 1907 年建成的工匠风格（Craftsman）住宅。这是一栋美丽的老房子，被列入了国家历史名录，自建成之日起基本保持原貌。这正是我们梦想中的房子：它充满了历史感和独特的氛围，几十年来几乎未被破坏。我们现在正以有限的预算、宏大的构想、个人的风格以及大量的汗水投入，同步进行着房屋的翻新与修复工作。
The place we moved into was the level opposite of a “smart home”—and figuring out thoughtful ways to integrate modern technology into this old house without sacrificing aesthetics or ruining the vibe is the guiding principle. 我们搬进来的这个地方与“智能家居”完全是两个极端。如何在不牺牲美感或破坏氛围的前提下，想出巧妙的方法将现代科技融入这座老宅，成了我们的指导原则。
We’re only getting started, but after a busy six months of learning, researching, and working cutting-edge technology into a house from the Roosevelt administration (Teddy, not FDR), I’ve kept a running log of the tech choices we’ve made along the way. Today, our house is starting to feel simultaneously old and new, which is very much the goal. It’s a lot of work, but I assure you it’s also a wonderful time. 虽然我们才刚刚起步，但在忙碌的六个月里，通过学习、研究并将尖端技术引入这座罗斯福政府时期（指西奥多·罗斯福，而非富兰克林·罗斯福）的房子，我记录下了我们一路做出的技术选择。如今，我们的房子开始呈现出一种既古老又现代的感觉，这正是我们的目标。这虽然工作量巨大，但我向你保证，这也是一段美妙的时光。
A Smart Thermostat
智能恒温器
Replacing the home’s heating system was a day one fix—our furnace was kicking off carbon monoxide and needed to be addressed immediately. We had a local furnace company in the basement before even moving in. But for daily use, we paired our spiffy new furnace with Ecobee’s new, midrange Ecobee Enhanced smart thermostat, which has a larger touchscreen than the basic Essential model and built-in radar for motion detection. 更换房屋的供暖系统是入住第一天就必须解决的问题——我们的旧锅炉在排放一氧化碳，必须立即处理。甚至在我们搬进去之前，当地的锅炉公司就已经在地下室施工了。为了日常使用，我们将崭新的锅炉与 Ecobee 新款中端智能恒温器“Ecobee Enhanced”进行了配对。相比基础款 Essential 型号，它拥有更大的触摸屏，并内置了用于运动检测的雷达。
In making this choice, I consulted WIRED’s in-depth review of the Ecobee, which prioritizes the unit’s ease of setup and intuitive interface—this made a strong case for selecting the Ecobee over other similar smart thermostats, like the Google Nest, which lacks the Ecobee’s presence sensors. 在做出选择时，我参考了《连线》（WIRED）杂志对 Ecobee 的深度评测。评测强调了该设备易于设置且界面直观的优点，这使得 Ecobee 比起 Google Nest 等其他缺乏存在感应器的同类智能恒温器更具竞争力。
The Ecobee gives us a monthly recap of our furnace usage and the average temperature in our home; walking into a low home-energy-score environment in a home that lacks insulation and gets drafty, having this monthly recap has been helpful already. Many states have a smart thermostat rebate program through local gas and power companies, and right now we’re earning around $10 off each monthly bill for having a smart thermostat in the house. Ecobee 会为我们提供锅炉使用情况和室内平均温度的月度总结。对于一栋缺乏隔热、容易漏风且能源评分较低的老房子来说，这份月度报告非常有帮助。许多州通过当地的燃气和电力公司提供智能恒温器回扣计划，目前我们因为安装了智能恒温器，每月账单能节省约 10 美元。
The Ecobee sits unobtrusively in our dining room; I’ve toyed with adding a vintage-leaning thermostat backing plate into the mix (Atomic Surplus makes really cool ones), though most of these are more midcentury than early 20th century. For now, a pop of digital in our old dining room doesn’t look too out of place. Ecobee 安静地安装在我们的餐厅里。我曾考虑过加装一个复古风格的恒温器背板（Atomic Surplus 制作的背板非常酷），尽管大多数背板的风格更偏向 20 世纪中叶而非 20 世纪初。目前看来，在我们古老的餐厅里点缀一点数字科技感，看起来并不突兀。
A Smart Air Conditioner for Older Windows
适用于老式窗户的智能空调
Installing a proper whole-home air conditioning system into our home—which had never been done before—proved dauntingly cost-prohibitive as a day one update. And so instead we’ve opted to go with a couple of these excellent smart units from Midea, whose products install into any standard-sized window and simultaneously cool, dehumidify, and ventilate. 为我们的房子安装一套完整的中央空调系统（此前从未有过）在入住初期显得成本高得令人望而却步。因此，我们选择了美的（Midea）的几台出色的智能空调，它们可以安装在任何标准尺寸的窗户上，同时具备制冷、除湿和通风功能。
These are perfect for the two working bedrooms in our home: They are whisper-quiet because the condenser part of the unit is actually outside, and the unit’s U-shaped design makes it so you only have to have your window open around six inches to install, as opposed to the normal 20 inches of most traditional window air conditioners. Our windows are very old and don’t open all the way—this makes the Midea’s U-shape especially helpful, and guided our decision to select this unit. 这些空调非常适合我们家里的两间卧室：它们运行起来静如耳语，因为冷凝器部分实际上是在室外。其 U 型设计使得安装时只需将窗户打开约 6 英寸（约 15 厘米），而大多数传统窗式空调通常需要打开 20 英寸（约 50 厘米）。我们的窗户非常老旧，无法完全打开，这使得美的的 U 型设计显得格外实用，也促使我们最终选择了这款产品。
The Midea’s app functionality is really nice. You can put your airflow on a schedule, and it can be turned on and off remotely, a function that we used with great relish on the drive home from a recent camping trip. It has a clever sleep function as well, which lets you set the room colder as you’re falling asleep, then warming things up as the ambient temperature cools outside over the course of the night. Plus the filter is easy to access and clean. 美的的 App 功能非常出色。你可以为气流设置时间表，并进行远程开关机——最近一次露营回家的路上，我们非常享受这一功能。它还有一个巧妙的睡眠功能，让你在入睡时将房间调冷，随着夜间室外温度下降，它会自动调高温度。此外，滤网也非常容易拆卸和清洗。
At some point we will likely upgrade the air cooling system for the whole house, but these Midea units have made it possible to delay that choice without sacrificing comfort in our sleeping space. 未来我们很可能会升级全屋的空调系统，但这些美的空调让我们在不牺牲睡眠空间舒适度的前提下，推迟了这一决定。
A Smart Lock That Doesn’t Require Hardwiring
无需硬接线的智能门锁
I don’t want to make it sound as if our front door was held together by rusted chicken wire upon moving in, but it wasn’t far off. Addressing the door locks was a top-line need, and this system by Philips checked every box. 我不想夸大其词，说我们搬进来时前门是用生锈的铁丝网勉强固定住的，但情况也差不了多少。解决门锁问题是当务之急，而飞利浦（Philips）的这套系统满足了我们所有的需求。
Efficient, affordable, and smart, these locks remove the need for bulky jangling keys (the bête noir of our rental days) and replaced them with an all-in-one unit that connects to our Wi-Fi, uses our unique fingerprints for entry, and can be easily updated with one-time codes for guests, the occasional pet-sitter, and so forth. 这些门锁高效、实惠且智能，省去了携带笨重钥匙的麻烦（那曾是我们租房时代的噩梦）。它被一个一体化设备所取代，该设备连接 Wi-Fi，使用我们独特的指纹进行开锁，并可以轻松为客人、偶尔上门的宠物看护人等设置一次性密码。
There are many smart home locks on the market, and WIRED’s guide features several great choices, but the Philips 4200 does not require its own “hub,” dongle, or additional apparatus in order to start working immediately. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built into the 4200, which runs on batteries and doesn’t need to be hardwired. And the all-in-one nature of the 4200 helps keep things smartly priced: The entire unit is available for around $120, with no additional products or subscriptions required to do its thing. 市面上有许多智能门锁，《连线》的指南也推荐了几个不错的选择，但飞利浦 4200 不需要额外的“网关”、加密狗或其他设备即可立即工作。4200 内置了 Wi-Fi 和蓝牙，使用电池供电，无需硬接线。4200 的一体化特性使其价格非常合理：整套设备售价约 120 美元，无需购买额外产品或订阅服务即可正常使用。
Perhaps you’ve encountered a smart lock like this during an Airbnb stay, but having it on the door of your home is kind of a game changer. It’s simplified a step of our life, and a… 也许你在入住 Airbnb 时曾见过这样的智能门锁，但把它装在自己家的门上，感觉完全不同。它简化了我们生活中的一个环节，而且……