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There’s numerous benefits to turning your home into a smart home and can be achieved for a lot less than you think as well as saving you money on your electricity bills. Having a smart home allows you to turn on or off your lights and appliances with nothing more than a voice command, or even creating schedules where these things happen at various times of the day.
Things You Can Do In A Smart Home
Change the lighting to suit your liking
Lighting is by far the easiest thing to change and can be controlled by voice, phone or tablet. You can set the scene to whatever you like, colours, brightness or even in sync with the movie you’re watching at the time.
Even more impressive is the ability to set up routines such as turning on certain lights as you get home or enter a room and turn them back off again as you leave automatically. How about turning the lights off during the day as you open the curtains.
Play music anywhere in the house
Whether you’re a casual listener or extreme audiophile, connect your favourite music streaming service, DVD/CD player or even a turntable. With various speaker setups you can play music in one room, multiple rooms or even continue it from one room to another as you move around the house.
How about setting your alarm to wake you up to your favourite song at the specified time in the morning.
Complete cinema experience
With the simple press of a button or a voice command you can turn on your entire home entertainment system including TV, BluRay player, amplifier, draw the curtains and dim the lights.
No need to fumble around looking for the right remote control or even getting up from the couch.
Save money on your electricity bill
Luxuries aside, there’s some real financial benefits to setting up a smart home in your house or unit. Everyday our homes are filling up with more and more electronic items and appliances which can all add up on your electricity bill. Not to mention creature comforts like air-conditioning.
Remote sensors, smart thermostats and timers can all assist ensure your electricity is being used only when it’s needed. Better yet adjust your heating or air-conditioning to come on more gradually before you arrive home meaning the motors aren’t working so hard to achieve the desired temp. Dim lights in zones where you still need light but not the expense of lights running at full brightness.
Kill the ‘stand-by’ on your TV or any other appliances and save every last drop of electricity whilst you're sleeping or at work and furthermore saving you money.
Safety and security
Cameras can be set to monitor your home whether you’re home or away, alert you to people around your home or at your door where you can choose to see and talk to visitors remotely if needed.Want to let the kids in when they get home from school or even a tradesman while you're out (your friendly Impact Electrical electrician perhaps).
Smoke detectors and passive sensors can also be linked to your smart home ensuring even while you’re away alerting you of any danger. Maybe it’s just the kids burning the toast, or maybe you need to call emergency services immediately, either way at least you know for certain.
More automation
There’s plenty more that can be connected to your smart home, particularly in the kitchen like fridge, stove, oven and even the coffee machine and there’s plenty more things around the home that can be added. As to just how much you wish to turn “smart” is really only limited to your imagination now.
There are two ways to achieve a handy and convenient smart home and each with various levels of complexity; the do it yourself (DIY) option, and, the electrician method.
The DIY Option
If you’re just starting out and would rather take things slow. The DIY solution is simple and ,as the name suggests, you can in fact get yourself setup without the need to hire an electrician and still manage to have some fantastic and clever smart functions throughout your home for lights and power.
Whilst it is easy to get started yourself, the drawbacks of the DIY option can be overall costs of things like smart bulbs can actually outweigh that of a professional electrician option by a long shot.
If you are simply after 1 or 2 lights then this is the best option, keep in mind that smart bulbs will only work whilst the light switch is left on, if someone switches off at the wall there will be no power for it to activate and effectively defeat the purpose.
Most DIY options are controlled via a smartphone app or a voice assistant such as Google’s Nest Home & Mini options or similarly Amazon’s Alexa.
The DIY method can lead into multiple different apps on your phone or iPad all trying to control different things throughout the house, incompatibilities can begin to present themselves as your smart home grows. Your options are limited in the number of devices that can be installed without the need for an electrician so it’s best to have a plan before you leap too far forward.
The Electrician Method
Depending on your budget you may find the upfront cost a little daunting by getting a licenced electrician to set up your home network for you. In the long run however, the professional approach will not only cost you less, save you more, the capabilities and ease of use are much greater.
An electrician can save money by installing smart switches on the wall instead of at the light, meaning your existing lighting may already be suited just fine whilst also allowing the lights to continue to be manually controlled. This is also applicable to your powerpoints and other charging or power stations throughout the home.
A licenced electrician can help set up more of the intricacies of your smart home to ensure you maximise efficiency and effectiveness as well as show you how to utilise it.
Putting It All Together
Installing one or several central control screens in your wall will also allow you to have an at a glance type view of the entire home including your calendar for the day, weather forecast and of course the status of your electricity usage.
Entering the market is a number of entry level screens and assistance like the Google Nest Hub and Amazon’s Echo Show which can be used stand alone or in conjunction with the rest of the equipment and are compatible with most smart home equipment.
If you’re looking to get started, reach out to your local electrician like Impact Electrical with experience in smart homes who can provide an upfront quote and advice to get started.
