WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT—I am standing in an ultra-modern home directly on the beach in the fanciest part of the ritzy bedroom community where I grew up. But our house was a split level built in 1951, and if we wanted to change the channel on the TV, we had to get up from the LayZBoy.

No such need in the smart house, which uses technology from Tesla and Apple. There are no less than three Teslas parked outside, and one of them is connected to a Tesla charger. On the side of the house is a Tesla Powerwall, a thin white battery array that takes in power from the $21,000 Tesla Energy six-kilowatt solar array on the roof. The house isn’t off the grid, but resells power to it (a process called net metering) after the batteries are fully charged. Outside, Tesla rules; inside, it’s Apple. If you have an iPhone, look for the little house icon with an orange background. The My Home app is built into every Apple phone, though most people don’t know it’s there. The phone can be a powerful tool for turning your accessories on or off.

On a table in the smart home’s living room is a $300 Apple HomePod, an Amazon Dot competitor that does a whole lot more than play music. The house has 100 inter-operable smart devices (lighting, HVAC, air quality, shades, TV, outlets, sensors, security, music), which means that nearly every appliance and light in the house is connected. Say, “Hey Siri, turn off all the lights,” and they’re off, just like that. Come home after a hard day and tell Siri you’re home and the blinds go up, lights come on, the music starts, and the pre-warmed or cooled house is ready to welcome you. My host was Phil Levieff, who runs a Westport-based company called TecKnow, which specializes in creating smart homes (about 11 to date). I sit on an environmental committee, Sustainable Fairfield, with Phil, and for years I’ve watched him “summon” his Tesla and talk about the wonders of the smart home. Now I was seeing it for myself.