What is an ‘Ordinary House’ vs. a Smart House?
In real estate, an ordinary house it’s a simple house without electronics or electric appliances, internet-enabled devices, and the like but still has the potential to be upgraded to a smart house.
A smart home is one fitted out with internet-enabled devices including appliances, lights, entertainment systems, cameras, HVAC systems, and thermostats connected to a phone, computer or remote controls for monitoring purposes.
You can transform your ordinary house into a smart house to make it more appealing and improve its character.
By George Nicola (Expert Stager)
How can a smart technologies improve your home and life in general?
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A home equipped with smart lighting systems and with connected devices can make your mind stress-free, body relaxed, and to bring some flair to your house.
With a plethora of smart technologies today, you can maximize their use for efficiency, security, and wellbeing in your home.
If you are considering turning your home into a smart home, a home automation project is what you need.
Keep reading to learn about some of the best ways to make your ordinary home smart!
Benefits of a Smart House
Automation and Convenience
Through automation, smart homes predominantly exude convenience. The automation system in your home helps you control all devices and their functions via an app or a handheld remote control provided that they are connected to the internet.
The convenience factor is a huge step towards home management and technology.
Ideally, you just need to learn how to use the specific apps on your smartphone, tablet, or PC that control your home appliances and you can easily tap into countless functions and devices.
Almost every smart product comes with a corresponding app that you can download from the App Store or Google Play, connect it to your home Wi-Fi network, and control them all!
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Maximizes Home Security
Surveillance and security devices were among the pioneer smart home products starting with smart cameras that monitor every incident in your home using your phone, tablet, or PC. You can monitor all entry points to your home including the gate, door, windows, and elevator.
The smart systems will automatically notify you when they are opened, and you can choose to deactivate them remotely in case it is an intruder.
You can also connect your home automation systems to motion detectors and receive security alerts on a number of devices round the clock whether you’re in the house or far away.
Energy-saving and Cost-saving
Compared to ordinary appliances and fixtures, smart systems make your home more energy-efficient. This is because you have full control over their use. For example, you can program your lighting as per your preferred schedule and HVAC systems to your preferred temperature throughout the day or night.
You can also program your lights and motorized shades to automatically switch on and off when you leave or enter a room.
The fact that you can easily control various fixtures in your automated smart home is why smart irrigation systems actually considered more energy efficient.
Furthermore, not only are you able to activate them when needed, they also more environmentally friendly. Simply put, smart homes use less heat, less water, and less electricity, and thus save costs.
Improves Functionality of Appliances
Appliances connected to smart systems often run more smoothly especially because you don’t have to physically operate them, and you have an array of options. For example, on your smart TV, you can find better apps to locate your favourite shows.
You can program your smart oven to cook different types of delicacies to perfection, which eliminates worries about food getting burnt or undercooked.
Another example is when you have guests, you can program your smart home theatre and audio system to manage your music and movie collection effortlessly, which keeps everyone entertained the entire time according to their preferences!
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Information at Your Fingertips
Making your ordinary home smart means that it can be controlled by AI assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa Hub, Google Home, and other AI systems. This makes life easier when you are at home, as you can issue commands for other devices provided that you are within the acceptable range of your AI assistant’s hub.
You can speak into the AI systems to perform searches, ask questions, and schedule appointments.
Basics of turning your home into a smart home: Here’s How to Start
Fast Wi-Fi Connection
All smart devices need a fast and reliable internet connection that can reach every space within your house. Without the internet, smart homes would have been non-existent. It’s like inventing an electric car, but you don’t have electricity.
Some smart devices also use Bluetooth, but Wi-Fi is the most reliable. Within connected devices, Wi-Fi has a range of 100 metres, while Bluetooth range is only 10 meters.
It is also important to know that the two common Wi-Fi frequencies are 2.4 GHz, which has a longer range, and 5 GHz, which offers faster speeds. For your router, choose a central spot void of obstacles such as walls or furniture.
For more benefits, prioritise upgrading your router if your internet service provider gave you a basic one.
Smart Lighting
After installing Wi-Fi, replace your standard lights with smart lights. The right selection of smart bulbs and lamps will allow you to remotely voice-control their brightness, temperature, and colours using Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple HomeKit system.
The colours you choose for your smart lights play a significant role in how you perceive your interior spaces. For instance, going for smart light bulbs with cold or warm glow can change your mood.
Remember, cold lights are appropriate for open spaces, while warm lights for closed spaces.
Motion-sensing Lights / Smart Switches
Motion-sensing light is a cost-effective alternative to expensive home security systems. When they detect movement, they turn on and off automatically, which is the easiest way to deter criminals who would go unnoticed.
You can choose the most appropriate location to fix them: at the gate, the door, the driveway, the kitchen, the bathroom, or simply use them as night lamps.
As an alternative, you can purchase motion-sensing switches that are often connected to lights within your home.
Their main role is to ensure that your pathways are always lit as you walk around the home. They are ideal for houses with kids and the elderly who can knock themselves over furniture and get hurt when the room is pitch dark.
Smart Plugs for Appliances
Smart plug is the most easy-to-use and cost-effective smart home devices that let you control any hardwired appliance automatically using an app or voice command. All you need is a fast Wi-Fi internet connection to install them.
First, insert it into a wall socket, and use the app to configure it. It simply links your wall socket to your appliance. It is also important to note that several smart plugs come with a scheduler option which automatically turns it on automatically at a schedule time.
Smart Speakers
A smart speaker is the easiest way to get voice control in your home. Depending on the speaker you buy, installing them also provides you access to popular voice assistants such as Google Assistant Apple Siri, and Amazon Alexa.
While Siri is restricted to the Home Pod, Google Assistant and Alexa can be connected to some third-party speakers. Simply speak the supported commands to trigger the preferred trigger actions.
Advanced Ways of Turning an Ordinary House into a Smart Home
Smart Doorbells
Smart doorbells have in-built camera and microphone that allows you to visually communicate with visitors at the door using a smartphone app. Some smart doorbells come with smart locks, which allow you to remotely unlock the door without walking to it.
Not only are they easy to use, but they are also relatively low-priced. It’s advisable to go for Wi-Fi-enabled smart doorbells because they can connect to various other smart devices and systems in your home, which is a security boost.
Smart Locks
Installing a smart lock is an added security to your front door. These locks are completely keyless, and that means they eliminate the risk of someone duplicating your keys.
Smart locks allow you to create different passcodes specific to every individual with authorised access to your home.
With their automatic locking feature it can be linked to the smart lighting system, so you can remotely lock or unlock your door effortlessly using a smartphone app.
This smart security system also eliminates mishaps, such as misplaced keys, broken keys, or forgetting to give a spare to a family member or a roommate. For ultimate security, use it together with a smart doorbell.
Smart Thermostats
Smart thermostats are big in energy efficiency once you install them in place of existing thermostats in your ordinary house.
They play a key role in monitoring usage over time, which goes a long way in improving your energy utilization based on the heating and cooling schedule in your smart home.
They automatically adjust operation times, limiting energy consumption when no one is in the house. They also feature compatible apps that allow you to monitor daily and monthly usage. This significantly cuts down your utility bills while keeping your home comfortable.
Smart Smoke Alarms
Forget about your smoke alarm battery dying when you install smart smoke detectors because they continually charge themselves. Not only do they pinpoint the exact location where the smoke in your home is coming from, but they also alert you when the devices go off on your smartphone.
Another advantage is their ability to be integrated with smart thermostats, which automatically shuts down when smoke is detected.
Install Smart Outlets
Did you know that any electronic appliance that is plugged in continue to use power even when you are not actively using them? The term for this is standby power, which can waste a lot of energy.
Smart outlets eliminates standby power by allowing you set automated rules to remotely control all power-consuming outlets and devices when you are away.
Smart Indoor and Outdoor Cameras
Smart cameras usually connect to your home Wi-Fi and allows you to watch a live camera feed, receive alerts when you are away, and record all indoor and outdoor footage.
They simply record the happenings inside and outside your smart whether you are around or not.
This smart camera can help you monitor your children, pets, workers, and even identify intruders. With their increasing popularity, smart cameras have become a lot cheaper than they used to be.
Smart Kitchens
Smart kitchens can follow instructions because they have in-built technological integrations for performing tasks, such as adjusting lighting, temperature, etc.
Other smart technologies and appliances in the modern kitchen include voice-controlled dishwashers and ovens, smart refrigerators, etc.
You can also use apps to perform tasks, such as setting the oven’s temperature!
Robot Vacuums
Rather than tiring yourself cleaning your house, robot vacuums do the dirty work for you. You can even be sleeping as they make frequent trips to suck up crumbs, dust, rubbish, pet hair, and other clutter that is lying around before manually returning them to their charging stations ready for next day tasks. The best thing about robot vacuums is that you don’t need to install them once bought.
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Key Takeaways
- An ordinary house is a simple house without electronics or electric appliances, internet-enabled devices, and the like but still has the potential to be upgraded to a smart house.
- A smart home is one fitted out with Wi-Fi enabled devices that can remotely control appliances connected to a phone or computer.
- You need to learn how to use the specific apps on your smartphone, tablet, or PC that control your smart home
- All smart devices need a fast and reliable internet connection that can reach every space within your house.
If you’re looking to automate your home with smart technologies, consider a design-intrinsic approach to achieve a stylish and intelligent home.
We can help you establish if you need full service design or just advice. Free interior design consultant >
