Smart homes are growing in popularity. So, how smart is your home?
Chances are, you’ve dabbled in this area or want to capitalise on the advantages that smart home technology can offer.
There are plenty of options that can make your home more confirmtable and even things that can make life easier.
However, dabbling here and there does not always mean your home is functioning as smart as it can be. So today, Retrolec will be discussing some important smart options for your home that aren’t always as straightforward as buying an applicance.
Do You Have A Smart Home? How To Make It Smarter
Building A Smart Home From The Ground Up
Every great smart home utilises what is truly first and foremost: a home automation smart hub.
Although optional, these systems act with a two-fold purpose, allowing for both automation and control. These hubs, also known as central controllers, tie everything smart together under a single point of control. This allows you to do things like automating devices and electronics.
This in itself can make life easier as you can set ‘getting ready for work’ mode, or ‘prepare dinner’, or even ‘make it cozy when I come home’!
Using a hub helps to clear your wifi channel of the unnecessary noise of various smart devices listening in. Examples of popular smart hubs are SmartThings, Home Assistant or Hubitat. All of these options make using devices from different manufacturers and different technologies a breeze by letting them work together on a single platform.
What Can I Make Smart?
Technology now allows you to make almost everything in your home smart. BUt, here are some of the most popular smart home options:
Lighting
Lighting is one of the most popular smart home upgrades, and there are heaps of options to do it! From smart switches to smart bulbs and plugs to wall panels, there’s a lot to choose from.
Smart lights use wireless transmissions to send and receive signals, so you’ll want to make sure they are compatible with and connectable to your hub. You can kit out every light in your home so that that it is connected to a central smart system or simply add key task lights or lighting areas.
That way, you can automate your outdoor lights to come on 5 minutes before arriving home from work or use voice commands to turn off the hallway light to kids left on from your bed!
Security and Cameras
Like most smart home upgrades, cameras and security systems are another inexpensive investment that provides peace of mind and the potential to save you money in the long term.
There are several benefits to having a live feed of the exterior of your property - including monitoring your pets, security for your belongings as well as deterring any unwanted visitors from the get go just by being there.
However, installing a camera indoors or outdoors may seem like a daunting task. Dismantling walls, wiring ethernet and power cables while also being conscious of any water interference may be out of scope, even for veteran DIY’ers.
For some, a simple smart Doorbell security camera will suffice.
Before attempting any wiring work, flick over a call to a qualified electrician to see if they can make the job a breeze, without the risks.
Automate Your Heating
We’ve all been there. Leaving the comfort of our toasty office air conditioning only to return home to a freezing house that needs an hour to warm up. And it works for the warmer months too. Coming into Summer, nobody wants to come home to a stinking hot household after a long day either.
There’s hundreds of inexpensive options to regulate your heating, whether it’s warming the house up twenty minutes before your alarm goes off during frosty Winter mornings, or cooling the house down before you get home from work after it has been bathing in the kiwi summer sun all day.
Smart thermostats such as Nest, Ecobee and HoneyWell let you plan and automate your home's temperature with Home Assistant.
If you want to add more layers to your house's thermoregulation, there’s always heated towel racks, radiant floor heating or heat lamps in the bathroom.
Connecting Key Devices
How many times have you put on a load of washing and forgotten about it? Or left the remote on the other side of the room when you want to change the channel?
Probably more times than you care to think about, right? Well, with smart home connectivity all of that annoyance could be gone forever. You can connect key devices to your hub that provide alerts and can be controlled centrally or by voice.
These can be devices that are smart themselves or ones that are connected to smart sockets or plugs. Have a chat with your electrician about the best way to connect everything together.
Whether the job is big or small - book a consultation with Retrolec today and let the experts take care of the electrics for you.
