Smart Home 101: The Beginner Guide for Smart Home
Over the past few years, smart home tech has become more and more accessible. With our lives increasingly transformed by the internet of things, it seems everything from our light bulbs to our thermostat is becoming connected. Some builder in Phoenix area has started to include smart home devices into their new construction homes. If you are planning to upgrade your home to “smart home” but don’t know how to begin. Here some of the a few common ways you can build a smart home system.
What Is a Smart Home?
Smart Home is the term commonly used to define as a home that are equipped with Internet-enabled devices. These devices are capable of communicating with one another and can be controlled remotely. Most common smart home devices are lighting, thermostat, TVs, entertainment audio & video systems, security, and camera systems.
What Do You Want to Do?
Before you start piling out your house with all sorts of smart home gear, it’s important to establish why you want a smart home in the first place. Is it for convenience? Then you might want devices that support voice control through something like the Amazon Echo or Google Home. Do you wish everything was automated? Then you probably want to narrow down products with good automation features or IFTTT support. Do you want good home security? Then you want a line of products with sensors and sirens. Maybe you want a bit of everything.
Once you’ve answered those questions, you’ll have a better idea of what kind of things to look for as you shop. Not every smart home product works with other smart home products. As you build your home, you’ll want to pick ones that support the devices and services you want.
Choose Your Digital Assistant
The first step to get started with smart home is to choose your smart home hub and platform. The most popular ones include Amazon Alexa, Google Home Assistant, and Apple HomeKit. When deciding which one to use as the base for your smart home, consider things like whether you prefer one system over the others, what technology you already own, and what activities you want to automate. For instance, if you’re an Amazon Prime member and listen to Amazon Music regularly, you may find more value with Alexa. Or, if you want to sync your Google activity including Gmail and Chrome, then Google Assistant may be the right ecosystem for you. If you’re locked into Apple’s ecosystem, you’ll be well aware of Siri, and you can now use him to take control of your smart home.
Hub or No Hub?
The basic and entry level way to control your smart home device by using a smart speaker, such as Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod. Each individual smart home devices will be connected to your home wifi. Then you can control your devices with the apps. You will be able to control a surprising number of appliances using your voice.
With a smart hub, such as SmartThings, Wink, you can control a range of devices from a single app. Most smart hub is using Z-Wave and ZigBee protocol. All this means is that some devices will ‘speak’ one of these ‘languages’ and be able to connect and communicate, while others won’t. So, you want to make sure which protocol you want to use, unless you want to have multiple hubs.
Smart Speaker
For most people interested in living in a smart home, smart speaker is the entry point. You can use it to look up information, order pizzas, play podcasts, and tons more. More importantly for our purposes, you can also use it to control smart home gadgets and connect them all together. Google Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot are the entry product if you want to test the water. The two smart speakers largely do the same things and work with the same products. So if you prefer one company over the other, just go with that.
Smart Lighting
Smart lights can lower your energy bill. All smart lights are LEDs, which consume far less electricity. Many smart lighting systems work perfectly well without a central hub and are still capable of interacting with other smart home elements. Sengled Wi-Fi smart bulb and Kasa’s Smart Wi-Fi LED Light Bulb for example, connect over Wi-Fi. It’s super easy to set up. You just download the app, twist in the bulb and it’s ready to set up. Once you go through the usual steps (log in, connect the device to Wi-Fi, etc.), you can control via your smartphone, and you can set schedules for when these lights turn on and off.
Smart Plugs
A smart plug is the easiest and cheapest way to make any appliance in your home “smart”. Simply insert the Amazon Smart Plug in a wall outlet and plug in your devices. Just like that, you’ll be able to control your electronics remotely by phone to turn the plug on or off. Similar to the Kasa Smart Wifi Plug, you can even schedule the plugs to activate at certain times of the day, for example to start any appliance in the morning. An inexpensive and simplistic smart home solution.
Smart Thermostats
One of the most obvious benefits of a connected thermostat is that it will let you remotely set the temperature in your house using your smartphone. These devices can go far beyond establishing a heating and cooling schedule based on when you anticipate being home to enjoy those benefits. They can detect when you’re home and when you’re away, so that your HVAC system operates only when it’s needed.
Smart Doorbells
You’ll never have to guess who’s at your door when you have a smart doorbell. Smart doorbell will send a live feed to your smartphone or tablet when someone pushes the button at your front door. Plus, it acts as an intercom, helpful for those who have trouble getting to the door quickly. It is a really good security camera that could help monitor your front door as well.
Swee Ng, Realtor and Phoenix East Valley resident specializing in win-win real estate transaction through great communication and fighting for his clients’ best interest. After all, this is more than real estates, this is about your life and your dreams.
If you are looking to buy or sell your home in Phoenix AZ area, we hope you will consider us. Contact us today for complimentary consultation.
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