Life in the 21st century has seen drastic changes when compared to the lifestyle during the 80s, 90s, or even early 20s. Advanced gadgets have made their space in our homes, workspace, and almost every possible place, hence expanding the horizon of human existence either in the deep sea or in space! For those who feel that they are left behind the trend or want to catch up with the modern cozy lifestyle where smart work wins over hard work then this article is just the right solution for you. In this article, we will discuss the basics of getting started to set up your smart home along with the choices available to do the same.
Smart Homes: Changing The Lifestyle One Step At A Time
Almost all tech giants such as Google, Apple, Philips, etc. have bombarded their users with a wide range of gadgets that makes lives better, easier, and smart. The trend has shifted from mocking the thought of having automation at home to welcoming any new ideas that might reduce human efforts. Day by day the numbers of those opting for setting up a smart home are increasing drastically and here we will also focus on the same, which is how to build your smart home. Unlike the olden days where construction or building any new item for the home required lots of DIY skills and experience, now modern smart homes are possible by simple steps and by everyone. All-in-one gadgets that control the other smart objects make the task even easier as during any problem or inspection one can simply focus on it. There are several options for one to choose when it comes to getting a digitalized home starting from options for lighting, doorbell, etc. to cleaning your house when you are far away.
This is an advantage as the user must get the best of what they are looking for but it makes the task of setting up a smart home very confusing and almost like a challenge. The reality strikes hard if you do not plan properly and start to set up your smart home, as it is not as smooth as usually represented in commercials to flawlessly automate your entire house. To begin with, here are the few gadgets that make the house smarter and can be further improved if required.
Steps To Build Your Smart Home
Here are some of the best steps and things to build your home smart:
Internet connectivity
To set up your smart home, the most important requirement is internet connectivity. The internet connectivity needs to be stable, and strong as it makes a wireless transmission, connecting of several gadgets, far away surveillance, etc. possible and without which automation of the home is not possible.
Check out the best available internet service providers and choose the WIFI connectivity as required. In general, a connection with 100 Mbps speed is enough for smaller families, 300 to 500 Mbps for medium-sized families, and about 1000 Mbps for large families.
Smart lighting
Smart lighting allows the users to enjoy controlling the lights without actually using the physical switches as it is linked either to the Wi-Fi or the central Hub system. Smart lights such as the products of Philips Hue allow individual light control also along with group control with the help of its application.
The functions like changing the brightness, colors, etc. are possible by this setup. Along with this, it is always better to add in the smart switches or dimmers as the traditional switches would hinder the smart activity since once the switch is off, the smart bulb is no longer smart. Manufacturers like Lutron, TP-Link, Leviton, etc. do not require a separate hub as they directly link to Wi-Fi. The advantage of having smart lighting set up is that it helps to fool burglars especially if you are far from home as the lights can be switched on and off, to create an image of the house being occupied by people.
Smart speakers
Smart speakers take convenience to the next level as the control of the gadgets like smart lights, robotic vacuum cleaners, etc. is possible by voice commands instead of opening an application or using the smartphone. Just imagine, a simple command to dim the lights or lock the door might give you the complete sense of living in the future or a fully automated home.
The big players such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple’s HomePod smart speaker, etc. come along with their respective voice assistants – Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri respectively. These not only work as smart speakers that can answer your every possible question but these also act as a centralized hub that can control all other smart gadgets compatible with them.
Smart Thermostats
Smart thermostats are devices that deliver comfort and improved efficiency by cost reduction, saving energy, etc. One can schedule their heating and cooling durations based on their requirement and several smart thermostats can even detect and work based on your presence. This helps in reducing energy consumption as the heating or cooling cycles work only when required. All these are just the tip of the iceberg as one will find tremendous options for converting an ordinary space into a smarter automatic home. Some of the solutions other than these gadgets are:
- Smart locks
- Smart doorbells
- Cameras and smart security system
- Smart plugs and switches
- Smart kitchen appliances, TVs, remote controls, etc.
Also, check out: Home 2.0: Create A Smart Living Space With Smart Plugs And Switches
Smart Hub
This is the next step to upgrade the experience of having smart appliances and gadgets as mentioned earlier as a smart hub like the Samsung SmartThings or Wink Hub 2 is the solution to integrate them and control all of them through this single appliance. Apart from using smart speakers with an in-built hub feature, one can also use the IFFF technology which stands for the ‘If This Then That’ software solution. It helps to connect all the smart appliances on your smartphone without using any other hardware.
Also, read about: Comparison of Amazon Echo And Google Home – Which Is The Smarter Choice
Final Words
In this article, we have discussed how to set up your smart home from scratch along with the gadgets, appliances, and other solutions that would help to build your perfect smart home. Hope this was useful for you to get to experience an advanced modern lifestyle with comfort and ease.
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