How Turn Your House into a Smart Home

While it is not quite like the automation that you see on Star Trek, the 21^st century smart home concept is coming into full fruition. Wireless technology and a wide range of new innovations are making it possible for traditionally analog home heating and cooling systems, lighting, and other commonly used systems to integrate under a single home automation system.

Commonly Integrated Smart Home

You need to critical elements to enable your house to become a smart home. The first are home systems that use electricity to ensure a continual supply of available power.

The many systems that you might connect to create a truly smart house include:

• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
• Lighting
• Motorized shades
• Home security
• Audio and visual systems

The second critical element is to combine all of the separate control systems within a single control unit. The Internet of Things (IoT) uses cloud-based communications, like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other wireless systems, to combine smart home systems under a single control unit that learns usage patterns and optimizes them for the greatest energy efficiency, convenience and comfort.

How to Create a Smart House

Before you can turn your home into a smart house, you need to assess your ongoing needs and the potential to use a home automation. Homeowners who live in excessively hot locales, like the Desert Southwest, or locations with commonly cold winters, like Minnesota, typically rely on HVAC systems more than those located in more temperate areas.

The cost of home heating and cooling as well as the cost to provide hot water are better controlled through a smart home system. Home automation also can help you to provide lighting in the rooms most often used during the evening and early morning hours, adjust motorized blinds to deliver the optimal combination of natural light and cooling effects by blocking direct sunlight that could cause higher indoor heat during summer months.

Budgetary Concerns Always Apply

No matter which home system or combination of systems that you might want to automate first, the cost to do so always is a concern to homeowners who are unfamiliar with the smart house concept. Fortunately, you can approach home automation gradually with relatively affordable technology. Mobile technology and enabling smart apps make it possible to remotely control an array of home automation systems and monitor how efficiently they are operating.

A smart thermostat for HVAC systems and water heaters is a good example of a convenient, affordable and relatively easy-to-install smart system that you could control remotely. Simplified electronic control systems that use cloud-based communications are becoming more widely available and affordable.

Virtually any home could become a smart house that is more efficient and reduces utility costs over time, That adds up to a much better ROI for smart homeowners who embrace home automation.

Be sure and contact us for any questions you might have.

Other Blog Posts