What Is a Smart Home?
Smart homes have existed in science fiction for decades. Today, the benefits of home automation are well within reach for the average consumer. In the simplest terms, a smart home is a home with connected smart devices. These devices connect together using different connection types, like WiFi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee, among others. These systems can be used to control your home’s lights, climate, entertainment system, coffee machines, and whatever else you can think up. Depending on the system, it can be controlled locally at home as well as remotely away from the house. New users often find their first experiences with smart home technology to feel magical.
Smart Home Control and Automation
Smart home automation is different than basic smart home control. Smart home control can give you the ability to turn your device on with your smart phone or voice assistant, but smart home automation is much more than that. Automations use sensors within and outside your home, so your actions and environment work in tandem to control your devices. Automations are activated by a trigger; like the time of day, a window being opened, or a person entering or leaving a room.
For example: If the motion sensors do not sense anybody in a room for a specific period of time you can set your lights to turn off.
Benefits of a Smart Home
Time Saving – Smart home devices can help you save time. By automating home processes, you don’t have to do them manually. A couple of examples include switching lights on and off around the house, using a robot vacuum to clean for you, and changing your climate temperature remotely.
Safety & Security – You can use smart home technology to feel more safe and secure at home. You can use automated lights, cameras, and door sensors to be aware of your environment. You can also use leak sensors to notify you of water leaks under your sink or in the bathroom. When combined with a smart water valve, you can feel secure in knowing your water will shut off if a leak is detected.
Independence – Smart home technology can be used to foster independence for people of all ages and abilities. Voice assistants can help control devices, robot vacuums can clean on a schedule or on demand, and smart thermostats can control your living climate depending on occupancy or temperature. There’s even evidence that voice assistants can be helpful for those with dementia.
Fun – While all of these other benefits are great, smart home technology is also fun to play with and show off!
Conclusion
Smart homes can be as unique as their individual owners and can be modified to do just about anything you can think of. Many newcomers begin with smart plugs or smart bulbs and there are a lot of off-the-shelf devices you can use to begin. While smart home control is neat, automation is where the true magic lies. There are many benefits of having a smart home. Smart homes can help save time and increase your safety, security, and independence. Most importantly, though, smart homes are fun.
