Turning a regular home into a smart home is an excellent change, but it is a big one, too, and you can easily find yourself wondering where to begin. With the help of this article, you should be able to solve that problem more easily and get off to a storming start with your smart home automation.
Three smart home systems often create an excellent foundation for your smart home project, improving your home life incredibly efficiently. These are systems that almost everyone will use, and
everyone will notice the improvement of automating.
- Smart lighting
- Smart security
- Smart heating, ventilation and air conditioning
Smart Lighting
Smart lighting is probably the most obvious smart system you can have in your home, and one of the most fun, too. Change each room’s atmosphere, ambience, visibility, visual temperature and feeling with simple commands, wall controls or mobile phones.
Almost everyone already has lighting power and control systems running through their homes. With anything from a tiny tweak to a full overhaul, you can bring this more fully under your control than it has ever been before. Give yourself the option to change the temperature, colour and intensity of all the lights in every room at will, and save useful presets, too. For example, you can have bright yet warm dinnertime lights dimmed film-watching settings and the timed switch on at 8 to simulate occupancy while you’re on holiday. That’s just the beginning, too. There is tons of enjoyment to be had changing each light’s colours and intensities as you like. Go on – Bring back the child in you again.
Try: Lutron HomeWorks QS
If you are looking to create a truly beautiful smart home with amazing aesthetic experiences, Lutron HomeWorks QS is the way to do it. Lutron HomeWorks QS is a complete home automation solution for control of light, heating and associated aesthetics in premium smart homes. More than any other system, Lutron’s strength is in its ability to create an amazing, automatic aesthetic within your smart home.
Beyond that, it can create a positive environment by synchronising lighting, heating, air conditioning, audio-visual systems and more.
Smart Security
Smart security can change your life by keeping your family and your belongings extra safe and giving you peace of mind.
As well as providing a meaningful change, the essential technology also qualifies by being easily accessible. You can start with a simple video doorbell to make answering the door easier and prevent you from getting burgled (whether you are at home or not). From there you can expand your security system until you have your entire house locked down with remote doors and window locks. Not to mention covered with sensors and CCTV as you like. There are even systems like SimpliSafe, which are designed to be built in this way for those who would rather spread the cost, or not take the plunge. With all this being available, you’re probably asking yourself why you haven’t already got your home locked down with Smart Security.
Try: Arlo Video Doorbell 2nd Generation
This is an all-around great choice for a household that is dipping its toes into the world of smart security. It has extensive, 180-degree HD to 2K coverage, meaning you won’t miss anything that happens anywhere on your doorstep. It’s hugely versatile and compatible with a wide range of virtual assistants and smart home systems, so it’s ideal for beginners. The only drawback is that a subscription is needed to access some of the functions.
Smart Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
Controlling our indoor climate has been crucial since ancient times. This is especially true when it comes to heating our homes. From bordered fires at the entrance to our caves to smart thermostats and boilers in our homes, hitting the ideal temperature with less effort and expenditure has always been the name of the game.
Of course, today we have environmental sustainability to worry about. That’s an extra reason to invest in something that could save up to 31% of your energy bill, and there’s another big one, too:
Halfway through writing this article, we received news from the BBC that; “A typical household's annual energy bill will rise by £149 in October under the new price cap.”
It continues to say that “People using an average amount of gas and electricity will pay £1,717 a year, a 10% rise compared with now.”
We've had to pay more in the past. However, it reverses a downward trend that has continued since the bad old days of 2022’s energy crisis and the Energy Price Guarantee
For most people, space and water heating are the most energy-intensive systems in their home, so saving a significant proportion of energy used to run them is easily a top-3 essential investment. Especially as energy prices start to climb again. In terms of numbers, Prices run from £50 - £300 for thermostats and from £800 to £2500 for a smart boiler. Estimates of savings vary wildly, from a conservative 8.4% from Google’s Nest team to a pretty ambitious 31% from Tado.
Try: A smart thermostat - Polar Bear Zentium
These thermostats can be calibrated to work with almost any heating or air conditioning setup, from a simple boiler and radiators to the most advanced smart boilers and HVAC systems. This means that you (or we) can probably integrate them with your current setup, and then retrofit them to keep functioning as your house gets smarter. For example, when you install a heater or air conditioner, these can be integrated; to give a quick heat or cool air boost
Or, if you need to replace your boiler: A Worcester Bosh 8000 Combi – Smart Boiler
A smart boiler can top off the energy and heating bill savings of a smart thermostat by combining the smart functionality directly into the boiler and saving heat lost during lag or imperfect integration The Worcester Bosch range is widely recognised as the best on the market, ranked number 1 by Heatable with A-rated efficiency and awarded the Which? Best buy award 2 years in a row.
Conclusion
Start your smart home in a way that is sensible, cosy, effective, attractive and safe for you and your family with these three smart home systems. These three essential smart home systems are a great way to start.
- Smart lighting
- Smart security
- Smart heating, ventilation and air conditioning
These will give a good foundation of systems on which to base your home. Hopefully, our recommendations can also help you ensure your smart home systems are top of the range. Good look and remember to book a smart design call if you need help.
