Smart home. Even though it sounds very futuristic and unreal, more and more people are designing it. Why? Because it makes our daily life easier. What exactly is a smart home? A smart home is a home in which all devices are communicating with each other and with us. Our possibilities of making our home a smart one are nearly endless. Connected home devices talk to each other and we can customise what they say or do.
Connect your home
If we are not sure if we are ready for the future and smart home, we can start small. Upgrading our home is a lot easier than some of the household chores. We can start as simple as changing the porch light. For start, we will need a central hub. A hub to which all the devices will connect. This will be the “brains” of the house. The hub and the app on our smartphone allow us to control and manage the smart home devices even if we are not home.
How much does connected home cost? It all depends on how big our home is or how updated we want it to be.
The best thing about smart home products is that we don’t have to remember if we left the window or the door open. All we can do is check the app on our smartphone and since everything is automated we can close it with the touch of a button or a swipe.
Good home technology combines the best of home and technology. After all, we might be changing our phones every few years, but we expect our home appliances to last for years.
The best way to start is to plan what we will need devices for. We need to think about how technology will help us improve our lives and help us the most. We have all bought new gadgets and didn’t need them in the end. If we think about it, we will not buy unnecessary devices and this will be the most cost-efficient too.
Perks of having a smart home
Having a smart home can help ease our worries. No more wondering if we left our door open or unlocked, or if we forgot to turn off the iron and no more coming to a cold home because the weather took turn for the worse. All that can now be checked and adjusted through our smartphone.
If we are looking to save money in the long run smart home is the way to go. We often start saving money by cutting back on coffees, dinners or buying unnecessary things like clothes, shoes or homeware. Did you ever calculate how much money you can save on utility bills?
The answer is – a lot. Just remember how many times you left for work and left the light or TV on. With smart home technology, we save money on our energy bills and save money with heating. Why would we leave the heating on for whole day just to get home to a warm house? With smart home technology, we can turn the heating off after we leave our house and turn it on before we get home. With a smart home, we can find out exactly how much energy are appliances using.
Most homeowners start to build their smart home with security. Smart hubs, sensors and cameras can help us protect our home and give us peace of mind. Now we can check on our house from work and if anything is wrong the smart home technology will send us an alert.
Of course, the most obvious perk of having a connected home is smart lighting. No more getting up to turn the light off. Connected home allows us to do that from a cosy sofa.
Best smart home devices
If we are planning transforming our home into a connected home we have to think of it like taking control of our home and putting it into our hands. Literally. We will be able to control our appliances, devices, locks, thermostats, light bulbs from an app on our smartphone. Your smart home will interact with the Z-Wave network and Z-Wave devices. Z-Wave technology will not interfere with your Wi-Fi network. Sounds great, right? But where to begin. We have to start simple. Start with simple smart home devices like thermostats, locks or lighting. With the thermostat, we can control the temperature in our house and manage the home’s energy efficiency. Smart locks are great because we won’t have to worry if we closed the doors or lock them. Smart lighting is where most people start turning their home into a connected home. We can automate lighting in our home with switches, plugs, dimmers and light bulbs. Nowadays is more affordable to have a smart home. With the best smart home devices, we can improve our day to day life and make our daily tasks effortless.
