Setting up a smart home system is quite simple nowadays. You don’t require any home automation technology installation honolulu hi or professional assistance with the set up, and that’s because with the introduction of smart devices within the domestic industry, homeowners can do the installation and the configuration by themselves. Now who would have thought?
Here’s all you need to know about smart homes and what it really takes to maintain the whole system.
Smart Homes: Bringing Automation and Much More
A house or an apartment is categorized as a Smart Home when it has internet connected devices that can be remotely controlled or managed through mobile applications on our smartphones and tablets, and through voice enabled control as well. So what is the concept of having a Smart Home?
Bringing Easy Automation to Your Home
A Smart Home is meant to automate certain aspects of your home. Smart devices, with the unique features that they each bring about, can automate things in your home – for instance like the lighting, the thermostat system, the door lock, the sprinkler system if you have a yard, and even allow for auto and remote control of certain smart kitchen appliances as well.
When each device comes with its own mobile app and is compatible with voice assistants, then that basically does bring about automation within your home.
Energy Efficiency and Cutting Costs
Since smart devices have their mobile apps where they can be remotely controlled from regardless of wherever you are, through voice assistants if present in your home, and even because of features like scheduling and built in motion sensors, then that leaves no room for carelessness on your part. Why? Because if you can turn off the smart thermostat from your phone if you forgot to on your way out, or switch the lights on when it’s getting dark, as needed instead of leaving them on all day, then there really is no excuse.
A lot of smart devices come with features that can take care of all these problems themselves too. Like the Google Nest Learning Thermostat can turn itself down when it notices no one’s around, or the Wemo Smart Plug keeping control of any lamp plugged into it, switching it on only when needed. So as a result, smart devices don’t only just cut back on energy wastage, but also cut back on the utility bills overtime too.
Extra Home Security
Some smart devices serve as great additions to your home’s security system. Take smart cameras for instance. These devices not only have the live video of the camera available from your phones, but also facilitates two way audio so you can communicate from both ends of the camera. Similarly, devices like smart doorbells or smart smoke detectors and smart locks are all connected to your smartphone, giving you around the clock access to the devices, and so that you’re able to receive real time alerts too as needed for the times that you’re away from home.
How Do You Maintain A Smart Home Then?
Setting up a smart home is the easy part, but when it comes to maintaining the system it does take a bit of effort and money of course.
A Good Internet Plan
Here’s one thing you should know about smart devices though, as if it wasn’t already obvious from what we mentioned above, all smart devices require a 24/7 connection to the home Wi-Fi in order to actually function as they are meant to. For that you would have to look up some home internet plans that can actually support the kind of usage you would need for a Smart Home. Because not only would your smart devices be needing internet connectivity, let’s not forget our own usage of the internet – video streaming, online gaming, texting, etc.
Routers to Support the Internet Connectivity
There are always dead corners in every home and buffering issues when you move from one room to the other, or from one level to the other even. How can your smart devices work if there isn’t seamless coverage of internet available within the premises?
For that reason you would need to set up routers in different corners of the home where there isn’t much signal, or have one on each level of your home if it is a double/triple story home. Or instead of setting up several routers around the place, maybe invest in a smart router. These devices provide seamless coverage over a larger space than any regular router would.
What’s The Catch?
The smart home set up and the maintenance of the system itself may not sound like such a daunting task. Could be easily managed, right? Except like all things there are some concerns of a smart home set up. For instance, a set back to the internet connectivity could potentially shut down the system. Other than that, internet plans aren’t any cheaper, should you have to upgrade yours to maintain the system.
