What makes a Smart Home?

We’re already over half-way through 2017.  I know you’ve heard the term ‘smart home’ by now.  You may have an idea of what it means, or you may just think it’s just another type of science fiction future that we probably won’t see in our lifetimes (uhm… flying cars, anyone?).  But seriously, there are various levels of ‘smart’ when it comes to smart homes.  You could have a home completely decked out with technology that many of those sci-fi movies set in the future teased us with years ago.  Or you could have just one or two of those technologies active in your home, just barely crossing that line into ‘smart home’ territory.  The point is, there’s really no set list of abilities, enabled by recent technology, that you need to achieve before you can call your home a smart home.  But if you really want the bragging rights… these are the technologies you should strive to obtain if you’re one of the few (for now) that want to make their home ‘smart’.

Local Area Network  

• Many family homes today already have these.  Many don’t even realize it.  The only real requirements to having a Local Area Network (or LAN) in your home is to have multiple computers or devices that connect to each other through a router, switch, or hub.  If you have internet in your home, you most likely already have a router.  Today, the home routers are generally wifi enabled and have your internet ‘modem’ built in.  If you purchased (or lease) your modem from an internet service provider (ISP) then most likely it will have wireless access built into it.  When you connect a computer (laptop, desktop), tablet, or smart phone to your wireless router, you’re probably doing so because you want the device to share in your home internet connection.  In doing so, you are connecting to your home’s LAN.

• There are many ways your LAN can be configured, and in some cases, you might not even be able to communicate with other devices connected to the same network.  In those cases, the LAN is generally for internet traffic only.  However, there is most likely a setting in your router’s configuration page where you can enable communication with other local devices.  When this is enabled, you then have your very own network.  It’s this network that smart homes need so that they can communicate with local devices, usually so appliances, lighting, and many other things can be controlled through a central local application, usually on a device such as a tablet.  Sometimes, even by your voice!  There are also ‘smart’ devices that have access to the internet, with the manufacturers servers creating a gateway for access through company created smart phone apps, or even direct website interfaces.  For instance, I can check on and control my home’s thermostats from anywhere in the world.  Now THAT’S smart!

Security

• Door Locks – Do you have or know someone with one of those awesome ‘keyless entry’ and ‘push-button start’ vehicles?  I’m the proud owner of one!  Well, guess what?  That same technology can be applied to your home!!  Imagine, you have your house key-fob in your pocket as you arrive late at night.  You park your car in the drive then just as you touch the doorknob on the front door you hear a ‘click’ and the door unlocks for you like magic.  This is a real technology that is available today.  And it’s definitely on the ‘bragging rights’ list!

• Surveillance Cameras – These have been around for an extremely long time.  But recent digital advances have made cameras that can record for days, even weeks, on a super small USB drive, a commonplace thing.  There’s many levels on this one.  You could have one or two cameras, monitoring only the high traffic areas such as your front door, inside and out.  Or you could have cameras for every room, and every outside area including front, back, and side yards.  More cameras, mean more options to connect them together.  You could even purchase IP cameras which then connect into your LAN and record content to a central network attached storage (NAS) location.  And believe it or not, there’s even the ability to connect to any camera in your network from your smart phone anywhere in the world.  All this can be had today for much cheaper than you might imagine!  Another interesting and recent advancement is face recognition.  My PS4 actually has this as an option while the PS4 camera is attached.  So far, it’s always recognized who I was, even with many other people sitting on the couch with me.  As the technology advances even more, you might only need to smile for the camera to unlock your front door!

• Alarm Systems – These have been around for decades too.  But now they have even more bells and whistles.  Imagine being able to arm and disarm your home alarm system with a push of a button on your smart phone.  Or even just ‘speaking’ an order to the system while you’re in your home.  And when you’re alarm system goes off, rather than wait for the police to call you, you could be alerted instantaneously anywhere in the world.

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Connected Appliances

• Refrigerators – Samsung seems to be leading the charge here with their ‘app fridges’.  These are the ones you may have heard about.  They have cameras inside that you can use to peek at the contents of your fridge from your smartphone while you’re away.  No more calling and asking your significant other if you need to pick up milk!

• Thermostats – There’s quite a few options here.  Nest thermostats being the most well-known.  No matter the brand, you can generally be certain of a few capabilities.  These include the ability to set schedules.  No more setting the thermostat colder or hotter by hand, now you can dictate when to cool, when to heat, and when to take a break.  I personally use the Emerson Sensi thermostats and love the fact that I can be lying in bed, whip out my smartphone, and manually adjust the AC to make the upstairs a bit cooler… all without ever leaving the comfy, comfy bed.

• Electric Usage Monitors – This space is quite amazing.  From a simple panel in the home, via a smartphone app, or through logging into a website, you can view your home’s entire electric usage.  You can also make tweaks to how bright the lights are in the home, when to turn certain receptacles off and on, and even have the whole thing make tweaks for you in the hopes that your electric bill doesn’t end up giving you a heart attack.  A good one to check out would be Agilewaves Home Energy Dashboard.

• Lighting – There are so many different ways this one can be accomplished.  They even make special light-bulbs you can buy that have little wifi radios, making every single standard light bulb socket in your home a potential ‘smart’ light.  Some can even change the color of the lighting, to set mood or to help give your tired eyes a much needed rest.  Many systems can be tied into home automation systems as well.  Making it possible for certain lights to turn on automatically when you arrive home.  And to turn off most every light on a nightly schedule.

• Vacuums – I’m sure you’ve heard of iRobot vacuums by now.  They sure are handy.  Made even handier with the ability to communicate with them from anywhere in the world.  Until they have the ability to empty their bins in the trash, however, I’m still not convinced of the need for connectivity.

• Lawn Mowers – Yes.  You can now purchase a lawn mower that works much the same way as a robotic vacuum.  You can program it to mow on a schedule, leaving it’s charging dock, entering it’s programmed area to mow, and returning to keep it’s charge topped off.  Ready and waiting for the next scheduled time, or until you whip out your smartphone or home tablet and tell it to give the yard a quick trim before company arrives.

• Misc – There’s many more smart/connected appliances in existence or ‘on the way’.  Some of these include washers/dryers that can start and finish their cycles during the best peak time of day, saving you electricity.  Ovens that you can completely control from your smartphone (No more asking yourself: “Did I leave the oven on?”).  Even smart faucets, where you can restrict their usage.  Keeping your little one’s unable to turn them on and waste water, or even potentially drowning themselves by accident.

Automation Systems

• Amazon Echo – Here’s a very interesting ‘hub’ for the smart home.  It’s been out for some time and at this point there’s thousands of tasks Alexa, the Echo’s version of Apple’s Siri, can perform.  Some things only require an internet connection, while other tasks require connecting in other devices on your network.

• Google Home – This is basically the same thing as the Amazon Echo, but with more Google.  It’s sort of an evolution of Google’s ‘Okay Google’ on Android smartphones.  But with a lot more power and capability at it’s command.  It’s certainly going to give the Amazon Echo a run for it’s money as it matures.

• Apple HomePod – Another competitor to the Amazon Echo.  This time it’s Siri’s turn at helping automate your smart home.  This is a direct evolution of Siri, the personal assistant on iPhone.  If you love Siri, you’ll love Apple HomePod.  Just know, Apple isn’t really about allowing outsiders into the party.  They lock down their devices and do not allow ‘just for fun’ developers access to play around and add more functionality to their ecosystems.  If you’re fine with this, then by all means check out this worthy option!

• Other Dedicated Smart Home Automation Systems – This is where you’ll find those premium options for smart home automation.  It’s also where you’ll most likely pay an arm and a leg!  Not only for the kits, but also for the installations.  However, none of the previously listed options can hold a candle to just how much control these dedicated systems can provide.  Set scenes, such as football night, or romantic dinner.  Ensuring every single connected device in your smart home is set accordingly.  Also, you could make a schedule for everything.  Here’s just a small example: If you always cook a pizza in the oven at 5pm on Wednesday night, the oven could automatically preheat for you.  You could even set up a sort of safety catch, so that if the home security doesn’t detect your presence in the home, it’ll just skip it this time.  These type of systems are where the most control will always come from.  And if you are having your smart home built from the ground up, this is where you should start.

Have full home control in the palm of your hands

So there you have it!  It’s nowhere near a conclusive nor comprehensive list by any means.  But it’s certainly a start.  Tackle at least one of the options above and you too will be able to tell all your friends and family that you’re the proud owner of a smart home!

If you need assistance in any capacity, from upgrading or installing just one or two ‘smart technologies’ … all the way to creating the fully automated, fully featured smart home of your dreams, then let us know! That’s what UpMyTech absolutely loves to do!