The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your Smart Home
The concept of the smart home has been around for decades. Smart devices were being developed as early as the 1960s, although few of these would-be innovations made it to market. True smart home solutions have only become affordable to everyday consumers during the past decade or so.
Smart home tech can make your space more comfortable and enhance everyday living. If you’re using smart home controls to take charge of lighting and heating systems, you can curb your energy consumption and bills. As well as reducing your outgoings, embracing this user-friendly technology is one of the easiest ways to live an eco-friendly existence.
Are you keen to set up your smart home but unsure of how to do so? Transforming your space into a smart home is simpler than you think. Check out these simple steps to reach your goal.
Photo by Anete Lusina
How To Set Up Your Smart Home
Start with a Smart Speaker
You’ll need to integrate multiple systems and different hardware to bring automation to your home. Therefore, you’ll need a user-friendly platform to serve as a foundation. Do you use Amazon Alexa or Echo daily? Perhaps you’re a Google Nest sort of person. You’re in good company. As of 2023, more than 63 million US households regularly use smart home devices. As well as offering instant answers to casual queries, these nifty virtual assistants can be used to anchor your first smart home platform.
Both Google and Amazon offer an exhaustive range of smart home hardware, meaning you don’t have to worry about limited functionality and compatibility issues. If you feel more comfortable with your go-to search engine, stick with Google Home devices. Can’t bear the thought of saying farewell to your Alexa? An Amazon-based ecosystem is the same idea.
Custom Smart Home Platform Solutions
Although these popular smart speakers are readily available and designed with everyday users in mind, there are alternatives out there. There’s an entire industry dedicated to providing bespoke smart home platforms to users with an insight into the finer points of this technology. While these advanced solutions tend to come with a premium price tag, the cost is more than justified when you consider the scope of customization.
However, to get the most out of a tailored third-party solution, you need to be comfortable with things like basic programming. If you feel you’re facing too steep a learning curve, there’s no point wasting a small fortune on a system you’ll rarely engage with.
Install Smart Thermostats
Has your heating bill recently gone through the roof? Even when unit costs are low, it’s easy to spend over the odds when heating your home during the colder months. The fact is, most heating systems and thermostat controls aren’t particularly efficient.
You can enjoy instant savings by investing in a smart thermostat. As well as allowing you to adjust thermostat settings remotely, you can plan to heat your home around a flexible schedule. Do you want to walk into a warm and welcoming living room? Fire up the thermostat app on your smartphone an hour or two before leaving the office, supermarket, or wherever you are.
Consider Renewable Energy
Do you have a bigger budget to invest in your smart home redesign? It might be time to reduce your dependency on the grid and start reaping the benefits of renewable energy. Solar panels are becoming increasingly common in the United States, with 3.7% of residential properties generating their electricity with PV systems. While there’s the outlying cost to consider, solar panels will begin to pay for themselves after just a few years.
Enhance Your Interiors with Smart Lighting Solutions
Here’s another low-profile way of bringing smart tech into your home. While the cost of lighting your rooms is marginal compared to heating them, keeping an unused space illuminated doesn’t make sense. However, smart solutions provide you with an effective way of enhancing the lighting in your home.
You don’t even need to invest in expensive floor lamps and wall-mounted fixtures. Smart bulbs can be picked up relatively cheaply and be added to existing fixtures. You can use different colours and levels of brightness to change the mood of your space or go all out by automating your interior lighting.
Safeguard Your Home
Every year, more than one million homes are burgled in the United States. While insurance policies may cover your material losses, the emotional impact of having your personal space invaded isn’t easy to overcome. You’ll probably find that your insurance premiums will increase if you claim on your policy to replace stolen possessions. While bulky surveillance cameras and intruder alarms have been around for decades, there are more effective ways you can increase your home’s security.
Today, any homeowner looking to protect their property can take security into their own hands. Smart cameras are incredibly discreet, while motion and window sensors create a figurative ring of steel around your home. Thanks to wireless connectivity, these devices can integrate seamlessly. If your home is broken into, real-time alerts will ensure a rapid response from law enforcement. However, you can always check in on your home surveillance system with an app on your smartphone.
Replace Existing Appliances with Smart Upgrades
Looking to make domestic life as laid-back as possible? Just about every one of your appliances can probably be replaced by a smart alternative. Smart refrigerators can keep track of your food inventory, making it easier to plan meals and prepare shopping lists. Does a busy schedule mean you can’t always complete those essential chores? Robotic vacuum cleaners can take on some of the slack, while you can turn to robotic lawnmowers to keep your outdoor spaces looking their best.
What’s Next for Smart Home Tech?
If you have the money to spare, you can overhaul your entire home with smart technology. Budget-friendly smart speakers are an option for everyone, while inexpensive smart bulbs mean you can modernize your lighting system in moments. Smart appliances are becoming increasingly common, with the price of many devices falling in line with their conventional counterparts. However, this market explosion presents a few challenges.
Compatibility issues between different device manufacturers can quickly derail your plans for an integrated smart home. However, there’s hope for those keen to reap the benefits of automated solutions. In the past few years, many leading hardware manufacturers and software developers like Google, Samsung, and Apple have committed to producing more smart home devices that can communicate freely with each other. This strive towards interoperability means consumers won’t be forced to pay over the odds for premium brands. What’s more, older smart appliances can still be incorporated into an evolving smart home populated by newly-released technology.
Ready to reimagine your home with smart technology? Head to CADdetails.com for more ideas on how you can make your home more connected and autonomous.
Author: Wizer Energy
Cover image by Sebastian Scholz (Nuki) on Unsplash
