Smart homes are getting more and more popular — and with great reason. Home automation is the ultimate combination of technology, security, and convenience. The list of things smart homes can do is expanding everyday, and so are the possibilities, so it’s understandable that creating a smart home can become overwhelming. Before we answer the question, “What are the components of a smart home?” Let us first understand what a smart home is.
What Is A Smart Home?
Like any new technology, there can be some confusion about what is behind the buzzword. So, before we begin talking about network technology and device compatibility, let’s define “smart home” as simply as possible.
By taking advantage of networking technologies and innovations in connected devices and voice recognition, it is now possible to bring numerous aspects of your home online – heating, lighting, entryways, entertainment systems, etc.
Lights that once needed to be switched on and off can now be commanded using your voice. And thermostats that need to be adjusted by hand can now be controlled remotely using your smartphone. Automation such as this – spread throughout an entire house – makes a home smart. Put another way, it is the internet of things in the home.
The best smart home setups have an entire network of intelligent devices, enabling you to effortlessly monitor and control any aspect of your house, whether home or away. These smart devices – from doorbells to motion sensors and appliances – can be connected via Wi-Fi or cellular to your smartphone or a single wireless hub. Each device can be controlled using your phone or by the sound of your voice through a smart speaker.
Now that you have a general idea of a smart home let’s dig into some basics.
What Does A Smart Home Do?
A connected house adds convenience and efficiency to your everyday life by helping to automate minor tasks and chores. In other terms, it will help you put some of your day-to-day routine on autopilot for more time to do what you love.
How can this technology be integrated into your home? You may already know some common smart home devices – such as thermostats and smart lights. But there is a whole plethora of devices coming online.
Let’s keep it simple by focusing on the most important components of a smart home.
What Are the Components of a Smart Home?
Lighting
Different rooms come with different lighting needs, but you may also need varying levels or types of light based on what you’re doing at the time. Low-level lighting in the living room is good for listening to your favorite music, and reactive lighting (where the lighting shifts in sync with moving images) is good for watching movies, but you will probably want the room more brightly and constantly lit if you’re sewing or reading a book.
Home automation allows you and your family to take control of your lighting, tweaking and adjusting it to suit your needs at various times of the day, all automatically without you having to lift a finger!
Heating
Smart home heating lets you change the heating in an entire room with one button press, automatically depending on the time of day or once you start an activity like exercising, cooking, or watching a movie snuggled with your loved ones on the sofa on a cold winter evening.
Heating your home is likely something you take for granted, so you leave it alone to do its thing. Whether you are using gas, oil, or some other source, if you check your energy bills over the last few years, we bet you will see some significant rises. A home automation system can enable you to monitor your energy use, minimize it, and reign in those costs, saving you some extra money.
Security
With smart home security, your home can be protected against burglaries, break-ins, intrusion, property damage, and trespassing, just like a security system or standard alarm. If the smart home system detects any of these, it could raise the alarm by sending text messages and email alerts, sounding sirens, and even flashing the lights to attract attention.
You can have lights work automatically at night or when you’re away from home to increase the security of your house. Lighten up those dark areas if motion is detected, and if you are away on holiday, you can turn the lights on and off at irregular intervals, making it look like your home is still occupied.
Energy Efficiency
There are two reasons we as customers want to save energy – the obvious one is to lessen our bills, and the other is to help lessen greenhouse gasses and pollution and save our planet.
If we’re being honest, though, most people will only spend money to make changes if it will save us money in the long term!
Home automation (by definition) can automate energy savings for you. It can monitor where and how you utilize energy, helping you identify how you can save savings. You can then set your smart home to control these areas and leave it to run. It does look after itself; things happen – silently saving you money.
Emergency
A smart home system can bring peace of mind to you and your family, constantly monitoring and looking for potential emergencies, ready to act as soon as something unexpected happens.
Flooding, water leaks, fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, and even air quality can be under real-time surveillance by the Home Automation system, enabling it to give an early warning before disaster strikes.
Why Do You Want A Smart Home?
Here are some advantages you will get to enjoy with a smart house:
Convenience
Imagine not needing to walk again and again to flip on a light switch 10 to 30 times a day and trudging up and down stairs to turn the thermostat up, down, and again. These might sound like minor time-savers, but you will quickly get accustomed to the ease of controlling appliances and other devices from your smartphone or – even more easily – with your voice.
Security
Whether at home or away, smart gadgets provide safety for you and your loved ones. Wireless security cameras for the outdoors and intelligent doorbells can detect when someone is getting close to your residence. Smart carbon monoxide and smoke detectors will notify your mobile device if there’s an issue. When you’re not home, manage your lighting from a distance and watch indoor security cameras using your phone.
Savings
You can save on your utility bills with air conditioning, automated heating, and lighting controls. Schedule the thermostat to utilize less energy when you are away, and then adjust your home to the perfect temperature right before you return. Set exterior lights so that they switch on and off by themselves without ever worrying if you have left something on overnight.
Entertainment
Connect your entertainment setup to your streaming collections, enabling you to enjoy music and videos whenever possible. Imagine a song suddenly coming to mind, and voila! You can instruct your intelligent assistant to stream it to your stereo: “Hey, Google, play Safety Dance.”
As with any home improvement, weighing your costs against the budget before you start is important. This is where we at Custom Integrators come in. We can help you create a smart home depending on your needs and budget. Please reach out to us today!