Smart Home Technology for a Modern Living Experience
Smart homes have revolutionised the modern living experience. This blog is a beginner’s guide to the ins and outs of home–automation, so you can see if a smart home is right for your lifestyle.
What is a smart home?
The term ‘smart home’ refers to a home that uses internet-connected appliances and devices to allow for remote monitoring and managements for systems such as heating and lighting. This has also been known as home automation.
Smart homes have been introduced as a means of adding further convenience to people’s lives. They provide homeowners with a level of comfort, security and energy security unseen in a typical home. The convenience of some smart homes is so great that home appliances can be controlled whilst out and about from just an app on your phone.
We are seeing an increase in all kinds of buildings, from residential to skyscraper, embracing smart technologies to improve building efficiency, energy costs, environmental damage and ensured maximum security.
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How smart homes work
The way in which smart homes work is varied, however the most common defining factor is the ability to remotely control all smart devices and appliances connected to a network.
Lights, security and thermostats are all examples of appliances that can be network-connected and controllable via a smart home hub. The hub refers to a hardware device that acts as a central control system for the entire house and can gather user data and communicate wordlessly. All appliance apps can be combined into a single smart home app in order for homeowners to control them from one place.
Smart home devices can be programmed to follow verbal commands or specific schedules such as “open the blinds and “lower the volume on the television”.
In addition to this, these appliances can learn behaviours through data collection and act according to their owners routine. This can include a smart coffee machine making a coffee automatically every morning or heating turning on and off at certain times of day.
Examples of smart home technologies
Technology has touched every aspect of the modern domestic space, from fridges to lightbulbs. We are now in the age of smart home technologies gaining more and more popularity and presence in our homes.
A great example of this is the rise in popularity of the smart TV, wifi-connecting and with the ability to access online applications and on-demand and be controlled by voice recognition. This can also been seen in smart lighting systems, which can regulate themselves based on daylight availability. Doorbells can be smart products too, using cameras to sense movement, film said movement and alert homeowners via phone notification. Even pet-feeders can automatically dispense food, or sense when a pet is near to feed it.
Smart homeowners can use smart locks and garage doors to allow or deny access to visitors. These products can also sense when residents are near and unlock the doors for them. Houseplants and lawn sprinklers can also be activated remotely or on a timer to maintain the outside of the smart home.
Impressively, some smart home monitoring systems can sense power surges and turn off appliances to prevent damage. In some cases, they can also sense water failures or freezing pipes and turn off the water so the home isn’t at risk of flooding.
For network-connected devices, often all it takes is a wall plug-in to be able to act as the medium from which basic, household devices can be controlled and monitored remotely.
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Smart home pros and cons
Like any product created to convenience and enhance one’s lifestyle enhancing, there are pros and cons. Whilst smart homes were introduced solely for a heightened level of convenience for the modern, busy lifestyle – sometimes the over-simplification of everyday processes in the home has the opposite effect.
The pros of owning a smart home include but are not limited to;
- The increased convenience in comparison to traditional methods of appliance usage.
- Home security can be enhanced as a result of access to live camera footage and alerts.
- Usage can result in long-term financials savings if using efficient energy sources.
Smart home watch outs include;
- Remembering different passwords and monitoring product security consistently could be tricky for some
- A certain level of technological knowledge is required to be able to fully utilise all smart home functions
Smart homes at Paerata Rise
Paerata Rise has recently added smart homes to their ranks with a new technology being used by Landmark Homes, one of Paerata Rise’s build partners. Both parties are excited to put this modern technology to use and watch the transition for home to smart home take place in Paerata Rise.
The technology provider, Smartlife, use an intelligent platform in order to interconnect all relevant devices in your home so you can control your lighting, entertainment, security and energy from the convenience of your phone.
Alongside smart home innovation, Paerata Rise build partners have introduced an energy-efficiency system in their new homes, helping residents reduce their energy consumption.
It is clear that smart homes have already established themselves being able to create ideal home conditions, and are showing no sign of stopping. Setting a new standard of modernised living one smart device at a time.
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