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Novice’s Guide to Smart Homes

Roland Harris
September 20, 2018

Description: You might have heard of smart homes as the latest and greatest in home technology, but do you know what it means? In this article we’ll give you the primes on what smart home technology is and how to use it to take your home into the future.

A smart home in simple terms is the collection of digital and intelligent devices that automate operations in your home. These devices carry out the normal operations in the house like the coffee maker, smart TVs, and refrigerator. The home network connects them together to perform their operations under one system controlled by the home computer system.

Moreover, this integration allows connections to the internet to send or receive information. This protocol allows you to control your house and the gadget within it from remote locations. For instance, you get live updates of happenings around the house through sensors connected to the alarm system, and then to the home computer.

In other words it’s the concept of using an intelligent system to manage your houses, thus letting artificial intelligence run our homes. We get reliable services from the diligent systems comprising these digital home appliances like microwave ovens, and washing machines. Therefore you have more time for performing other duties.

The essence of having a smart home is energy efficiency. The centrally controlled operations are easy to regulate in terms of monitoring how much energy they utilize. Newer concepts like the energy source are some strategies incorporated into the smart home design to make it more relevant in the future. Smart homes propagate principles of self-reliance and environmental consciousness.

Make Your Home Smart

The technology of smart homes become flexible enough that it can be introduced into any home. You don’t need to rebuild anything or make any serious changes, you can do it to your home as it is.  In fact there are very good reasons to do so. Having strategies for consuming less energy for better outputs is a perfect starting point for making your home smart. You will soon get to the level of installing a computer with specialized server software for managing your house.

Even though new building materials and techniques are incorporated into smart home designs, you can work with your house as it is. Energy efficiency is somewhat a background principle in this concept. The backbone is the kind of gadget you install into the house and how they integrate with each other to harmoniously work together.

The following are some easy tips you can start today for making your home smart:

  • Smart bulbs: They offer the option of having an intelligent lighting system without the need for rewiring. These bulbs are user-friendly; you just screw or unscrew them like normal bulbs. Just that their operation is intelligently operated by a sub-system embedded inside.
  • Smart sockets: You get to control your old toaster or oven using your smartphone through having these smart power outlets installed.
  • Smart locks: Enable your doors, and windows, and other entry or exits points to have digital control. You can control their opening or closing through the smart security system, and get alerts when they open or close.
  • Smart thermostats: They are used to control appliances like air conditioning systems, and their main objective is energy efficiency.
  • Smart speakers: They offer a hub for connecting a variety of multimedia and entertainment devices. You can also use smart TVs as another option for multimedia entertainment hub.
  • Smart hubs: They offer a medium that supports more versatile connections allowing many more appliances integrated into your home network.

Smart Home Design

Several engineering firms have developed smart house as newly constructed units. They have incorporated all the elements that make up a smart home. All the gadgets are either installed before the house is occupied or allocations made for such installations. So new users just board in and enjoy the ride.

New faster building techniques make these houses more viable. New materials used to make walls offer better insulations making them more energy efficient. The design also incorporates techniques that make the houses more structurally sound.

Energy sources that the smart homes rely on is an aspect with growing interest and attention. Buyers are becoming more sensitive on which energy sources are utilized, and how much energy the house consumes. Recycling, reducing, and reusing are other strategies making these houses more sustainable.

Conclusion

A smart home is widely considered a concept of the future. In the real sense, it is a way of utilizing our resources in a better way. So the smart homes are an expression of these efforts. On this account, we encourage you to start making your home smart today. If you know any other way of making your home smart, please share with us in comments below.

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