Smart home? Where to start

If you are thinking about making your home smart it is because you like the comfort that technology can offer, and let’s face it, technology has already invaded our whole lives.

Just picture this! Imagine how the lights would turn on automatically when you enter a perfectly conditioned home while your favourite music starts playing. Did you like the scenario? You can make it happen.

First of all, you need to think about how far you would like to go with automation, surely you will be happy to know that it is not overly complicated, but it depends on what you want. Also, making your home smart depends on your budget and how much you are willing to spend.

To make your home smart we suggest you start with the basics and then gradually implement new things.

What are the benefits of having a smart home?

The main benefit is that you can control everything, from the light, the security to home appliances from your smart device. This not only makes your life easier, but it also makes your home more comfortable.

Where to start?

Get a voice assistant

Through a smart speaker, you can introduce voice assist technology into your home. There are many smart speakers available for you in the market from recognized brands like Apple, Amazon, Google among others. Once you set it you can give them voice commands like please play some music or ask questions like how the weather is.

Remember that they need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network all the time for you to catch their attention with a “hello” at any moment.

Get a gateway or home controller

All smart devices need to communicate between them and that is why you need to buy a gateway. In this way, you will be able to access them and mainly control them through your smartphone.

What you need to consider before buying one is the compatibility with the voice assistant, WIFI support, control via smartphone and security.

Put sensors

When a sensor detects a certain action, it sends the data to the home controller and after receiving it, the home controller sends the command to the smart devices to perform a predefined action.

You can implement sensors in the rooms to detect movement to control the lighting, or in the doors and windows to open and close them automatically. Also, you can implement a temperature sensor, luminosity sensor, wind sensor among others.

Set light automation

Nowadays there exist many smart light bulbs in the market, you can put them when you need illumination and then set the automation through your smartphone. For example, you can set your smart bulb to turn on when you enter the room or at a specific time.

Related to light you can also control it with sensors and even make your dimmer smart, in this way you will be able to set the right lighting according to the environment you want to create while saving energy consumption.

Automate your blinds

Automatic blinds are an amazing way to help control the natural lighting. You will be able to control them through your voice assistant or smartphone depending on its compatibility. Right now, in the market there exist a variety of designs that will suit perfectly with your home decoration.

Automate your Air conditioner

If you don’t have an air conditioner system you can start looking for an intelligent one. The new features in these systems include connectivity that let you control your air conditioner system from your smartphone, tablet or voice assistant.

If you already have an air conditioner system you don’t have to get rid of it. Remember that you need to perform maintenance to your air conditioning system regularly for it to extend its lifespan, in this way you can be sure your AC is working perfectly fine.

The advantages of having an intelligent AC is the comfort and efficiency compared to the traditional systems. You will be able to control it by voice, integrating it into the whole home automation to make it stop when the room reaches a certain temperature or control it remotely.

To start the automation the easiest way is to acquire a kit that lets you transform your regular AC into a smart one. You can choose the kit from the ones available in the market, just make sure the kit is compatible with your AC brand and has good connectivity.

Set smart plugs

You can have non-smart devices that can become smart when you connect them to smart plugs. To use it you just simply need to connect your device to your normal outlets and then, if they are powered by the smart plugs, you will be able to turn them on or off from your smart device.

Improve your home security

You can get smart cameras that connect with your WIFI network. In this way, you will see who is at the door and unlock the door without getting up. This works even when you are not at home, you can open the door from your smartphone if someone needs to enter the house, but you are not there.

Remember that you can automate everything in the house, but then again it depends on your budget and how much you are willing to invest to benefit your comfort. As we mentioned before, it is better to start with the basics and keep implementing new things gradually.

Also, we encourage you to do this as a DIY project because it is not difficult to implement and you will have a lot of fun discovering which new element in the house you want to automate this time!