Upgrading to a Smart Home

chris.ha • Dec 16, 2019

We are living in the golden age of technology, so why not use it to our advantage? Smart home technology can make your whole life much simpler by allowing you to control your home systems remotely from your smartphone or a touch screen device. Smart home automation allows the luxury of high-tech functionality that was not possible in the past. Installing smart devices into your home can benefit you in many ways including maximizing home security, increased energy efficiency, improved appliance functionality, etc. Here are some tips for building your smart home.


Plan

First off you want to plan out your smart home before you jump into purchasing all your gadgets. You want to draw up a budget & set goals for this project. Make a list of everything you would like to automate in your home. Consider if you want security cameras or video doorbells. Do you want smart light bulbs? Consider want brand you want as well and make sure they are all compatible.


Secure

Once you start purchasing your smart home devices, you want to make sure they are all secure to avoid hackers. Consider renaming your WiFi network and changing the default passwords. Creating a secure password that will make it difficult for potential hackers to figure out is a good idea.


Choose a Brand

When beginning your smart home upgrade, try to stick to one brand if possible. This is especially a good idea for light bulbs. You don’t want bulbs from different brands because some might be brighter or have different colors/hues than the other and you’ll just end up with a headache. If you choose an item that isn’t supplied by the major brand you are trying to stick to, it’s okay. Try and see if that product is compatible with your other devices like Alexa or Google Home.


Placement

When placing your devices around your home, you want to choose a place in the house with a lot of open space to avoid interferences with the voice assistant. Rooms with bulky objects might block your soundwaves. When Alexa doesn’t hear what you are saying, you might be annoyed after yelling 3 times at the little blue device across the room.


Crowding the WiFi

Connecting too many devices to your WiFi network can cause slower speeds, which no one wants when they are in the middle of their Netflix show. Each smart device you get will most likely have to be connected to your Wifi. Utilizing Huds can come in handy in a situation where you have acquired multiple smart home gadgets that connect to your network. You can install a new router or set up a guest network.


Save Money and Energy

You can save so much money in the long run by investing in smart bulbs and smart thermostats. You will see your savings on your monthly electric bill. Who doesn’t love a decreased monthly bill payment? Along with saving you money, smart bulbs are LED lit and last much longer than normal lightbulbs.


Alexa Skills

Something many Alexa owners don’t know is that you can enable Alexa skills through the app. Alexa skills has some pretty awesome features like:


  • Trivia games
  • Find my phone
  • Sleep & relaxation noises
  • Big sky


Security


Smart home automation is a great tool for home security. You can connect motion sensors, surveillance cameras, and automated door locks to your home to maximize your home protection. This makes it very convenient when you’re in bed and realize you might have forgotten to lock the door, now you can lock it from your phone. A cool feature many people don’t know about is that you can display your security cameras on your SmartTV.


Smart Plugs


Smart plugs have the power to turn any device into a smart device in terms of turning them on and off. They make life so much more convenient by allowing you to turn on things whenever you want. Hooking up things like a coffee maker, slow cooker, washer, dryer, lights, etc.


Centralized App


Once you install multiple smart home devices, you will probably have a couple of different apps downloaded in order to use them. This can get annoying, but smarthubs can solve this. SmartThings hub allows you to configure a bunch of different apps into their one app to make things much easier and more centralized.


Turning your home into a smart home can really make your life easier and who doesn’t want that? Although these devices are great for many different reasons, always remember to start your smart home upgrade in moderation and know the privacy policies.



Written by:


The Brown Home Group @ Keller Williams Advantage II Realty


321-348-8720


Sourced from:


https://bluespeedav.com/blog/item/7-greatest-advantages-of-smart-home-automation

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