As more items inside and outside of the home become able to connect, the Internet of Things and the smart home have become two powerful and intermingled concepts in the world of the web. Here we take a look at what they mean, how they connect (literally and conceptually) and how they can work for you.
Once upon a time, when sports people were tough and politicians were honest, the internet only connected computers to each other via. servers. There may have been the occasional printer or photocopier, but generally, it was PCs and work computers with monitors, keyboards, mice and such that surfed the web.
As more and more home and office tools and appliances gain computational and communicative abilities, they are connecting to the internet. From Alexa to your AC to your fridge, this new wave of web-ready devices forms the varied and expanding Internet of Things (IoT), which stands in contrast to the more droll traditional state of affairs. Today, entire kitchens of appliances or offices of utilities can connect to the web.
Not only that; they connect in multi-layered networks that may already help to run your home without your knowledge. Smart blinds and window controls can connect to heating and air conditioning systems to keep your home at the optimal temperature. All your kitchen appliances can form a network to help you cook, while all your Amazon tools can form another one. This allows them to do a wide range of things they could not before, while also posing some new challenges for homeowners and producers alike.
Smart homes rely on the Internet of Things to function properly and achieve full automation. Almost every automated thing within a smart home will connect to the internet to fulfil its role properly. As such, the majority of smart home systems and items are considered to be part of the Internet of Things. Not everything that forms part of the Internet of Things is part of a smart home or home automation system though. In fact, many IoT items and systems reside in offices, on streets or even under the ground, helping our essential services such as water and electricity flow properly.
Data retrieval: The time is not far away when your cooker can communicate with your fridge to check that you have eggs, milk and butter etc. before you start to cook an omelette in the morning. The connected things in our house can already check little things for our convenience and this ability will only grow over the coming years.
A lot of our readers probably already enjoy the benefits of appliances on the Internet of Things, whether they know it or not. If you use an Amazon Echo with Alexa or have an on-demand media service such as Netflix on your TV, you’re already connected to it, albeit still paddling in the shallow end. Things like web-ready fridges and car chargers will really have you living as part of the Internet of Things in years to come.
Whatever your situation at the moment, carving out your own niche on the IoT is a must-do for anyone looking to enjoy an ultra-modern lifestyle. The first step on the road to doing this is getting your hands on a smart speaker, preferably with Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant compatibility. These are the three market-leading voice assistants with which you can control your own personal little network of things from bargain-basement-level smart homes to the kind of premium automated homesteads we specialise in. They are all widely compatible and user-friendly. If in doubt, go for Alexa or Google Assistant.
There are two ways to avoid obsolescence in your web-ready appliances. One is to stick to large, reliable and well-established brands like Amazon, Google, Apple, Sonos or Lutron. However, this narrows down your choices considerably, especially for niche applications.
A more flexible and variable way to keep your ‘things’ on the internet is to hire a professional installer and integrator to look after them for you. This can take a huge weight off your mind as integrators let you enjoy all the advantages of the Internet of Things while they handle and avoid the drawbacks.
If this sounds like a promising option to you, book a chat with us to see how we can help you.
A good house builder or housing developer follows the trends in home design and construction. A great builder or developer leads by predicting the trends before they happen. One such trend that will redefine the housing market more and more in 2024 and beyond is smart home integration.
In the early days of home automation, many smart devices fitted into homes as they stood. You could pop an Alexa on your kitchen counter and a smart vacuum dock under your dresser or sofa.
Now, home automation increasingly demands homes that are either built or adapted to allow for it. As smart home devices are increasingly systemised and integrated, they require houses that are designed around them more and more. This could be compared to the early development of central heating or electrics where the first systems were always installed to fit around existing houses. Then after systems became more expansive and normalised, houses were increasingly developed and built with these systems installed.
Normalisation of systems and devices is another driving force behind smart home integration into housing design, just as it has been for many other integrations. Today, houses are routinely designed and built to contain fridges, cookers, washing machines, baths, and showers. Meanwhile, some premium homes allow for jacuzzis, hot tubs, and large-screen TVs. As we go into 2024 and the second half of the twenties, the same will begin to come true for smart devices and systems.
There were 375 million smart homes around the world at the end of 2023, and this is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 10.7% (CAGR 2024-2028) according to Statista. This is an impressive growth ratio, thanks in part to smart home technology breaking through across the board and being accepted by most people: This is illustrated by a recent survey by Compare the Market which showed that only 7.9% of respondents didn’t own any smart devices or want to invest in any.
During the 19th century, expensive new electric devices were first installed in large new-build houses like Cragside in Northumberland because the owners could afford to install them. The same is true of modern premium homes old and new, which will be the first to benefit from adaptation to smart technology. Indeed, some already are. Housing developers at the premium end of the market have begun to work with smart home integrators and home automators like ourselves to provide their clients with the smart home technology they desire. As smart systems become cheaper and more widely available, we can expect more and more homes to be developed to accommodate the technology across the market, as they did with electricity over the past decades.
The big questions that remain are how is this change going to affect smart home development and what areas will be affected.
Like so many things, early examples of smart home technology function simply on a stand-alone basis, often with easy installs. Alexas for example might be compared to early mass-market gas heaters, which could be plugged into a canister and turned on. Now though, home heating systems are commonly integrated with mains gas, electricity and water as well as devices such as thermostats, something which happens from construction in almost all new builds.
By the early 2020s, smart home systems had already moved toward some level of general integration, with smart audio-visual, security, energy and heating systems often linked to phones, virtual assistants and each other. Because of this, We’re beginning to see more sophisticated and integrated smart home control systems taking the place of more simple setups in some places. Further down the line, Master Appraisal Services predicts that over half a billion homes worldwide will have at least one type of complete smart system installed by 2028. That’s 24% of all households around the world with a fully integrated smart system, such as smart heating, smart security, smart lighting or smart energy tracking.
A statistic like this illustrates how important it will be to build houses ready to incorporate smart home systems. New builds without these will require a significant proportion of buyers to make costly adaptations to their homes after purchase, which could be quite a repellent.
The integration of individual smart devices into the home is likely to become more of an attraction in the coming years as well. For example, some homes already exist with cubby holes for smart vacuum docks. Perhaps less exotic is the tendency for many smart fridges to be of the wide American design, requiring more space in the average kitchen. In the same area, exciting new things are coming our way in smart hob technology: New electric hobs allow owners to allot different areas to different types of cooking, warming, and cooling with the touch of a button. Meanwhile, there are bespoke kitchen systems that track what is in the fridge and cupboards, providing a list of recipes that can be made, which are then transferred to a screen on the hob. Mass-produced, integrated versions of this system are already in development. Needless to say, it could be a huge draw to the many food lovers and family chefs out there.
Smart lighting can achieve some amazing effects while allowing residents to switch between different scenes. This is particularly true at the premium end of the market. Just recently, Baker Stone worked with architects and landscapers to turn the garden of one Italian villa into a wonderland of illuminated flowers and trees. The lights used for this ranged from average-sized lanterns and spotlights to imposing structures the size of small trees. Many of these lights have smart lighting features such as colour, direction, and intensity changes, which go well beyond the basics to create different scenes.
Of course, large and striking smart lights like these require much more than a particular fitting and maybe some special wiring. For now, such lavishness is limited to very high-end construction projects, but more and more complex lighting designs will likely expand to the upper-mid and mid-market over the next five to ten years.
Standards are a big part of any industry’s development, making products and services easier to work with. As we progress through the 2020s, increasingly prevalent standards in smart home integration like KNX and the new Matter standard are changing the home automation market for the better. These are gradually putting an end to awkward wiring and integration problems, as well as early obsolescence. The upshot is that experts from other industries, from housing developers to architects, will find it easier to adapt to and work with smart home technologies and experts. It will become much easier to design and develop buildings to accommodate smart home systems. Meanwhile, those within the industry will be able to achieve more in the same projects. And we can all be secure in the knowledge that our installations are safe and long-lived.
As we have already mentioned, central heating is one of the most integral systems in a building, often requiring gas and water piping, as well as multiple mains electricity connections. This makes replacing it with a smart equivalent after the fact expensive, which makes installing smart central heating systems in new build homes a great investment for housing developers and a draw for buyers.
The public recognises the benefits, too. A recent survey by Compare the Market found that smart thermostats and heating systems were the third most popular smart technology people wanted if they didn’t own them already, and the second most popular integrated smart system after smart security. While smart security can, and perhaps should, be added to houses after the fact, true smart heating systems require adaptation of the building or installation during construction.
Housing developers and smart home specialists need to integrate smart technology into new and old homes together.
There was a time not so long ago when a homeowner could plug the best of smart technology into their home and be happy that they were on the cutting edge. Now and in the future though, smart systems need to be integrated with each other and, more importantly, with the houses they occupy. As this becomes the case, housing designers, developers, and builders gain the opportunity to satisfy their customers and lead the market in a novel way, while adding value to the homes they build.
To learn more about how this could benefit your business and its projects, book a free design call with one of our senior specialists.
Smart homes are increasingly sought after by high-value homeowners. This means the ability to design or renovate a house to accommodate smart technology is increasingly valuable to the designers of those homes. It provides a competitive edge and opens businesses up to a rapidly growing market, as discussed in our previous blog on the business case for smart home design.
The case for incorporating smart home design into architecture and interior design practice is compelling as covered in our previous blog on the subject. When you’ve decided to do it though, the next question is how.
To answer this question, we’ve created a free guide on the subject for architects, interior designers and home design professionals.
Seamless integration means that all systems must work together to provide outcomes while minimising user effort.
Elevated experience requires more options for improving the quality of life and experience in the home. This means shrewdly specified tech, rather than just more tech.
Superior technology - from designer lighting to home cinemas, a wider and better choice is available to premium purchasers. It is important to research and specify these technologies carefully.
Bespoke design – As in all areas of premium home design, high-value smart homes are more often designed around the user’s personal desires or expected desires. This requires more in-depth briefing and discussion of requirements.
This will be a familiar challenge for high-value home design professionals. High-spending clients expect more personalisation for their money. This starts with a well-planned discussion, which can be personal for a defined user, or general for a commercial client. Here are some recommended questions to help start the conversation.
Smart homes have a range of benefits, but there are four very specific, tangible advantages to focus on when discussing smart options with clients.
Integration is the key to a lot of the great experiences of a smart home. That could mean throwing a dinner party with the perfect ambience at the click of a switch thanks to lighting, heating, music and more, or simply saving time by closing the blinds, turning off the lights and the alarm and starting up the heating before bed.
This is done by integrating smart systems to work together at the push of a button or the tick of a sensor to create the desired combined effect automatically. It can be a complex and multifaceted process and one of the areas a systems integrator like Baker Stone Systems can help with. Training is also available to bring this knowledge into your company.
There are very few restrictions when designing a smart home, and just a few simple requirements. This is because smart home layouts are highly flexible, especially at a premium level. The only specific, regular requirements are that all services are brought into the property at one point and (often, but not always) that a central processing hub is specified near that point.
Furthermore, the electrics aren’t as unique as one might imagine and most specialists or contractors can install them after just a couple of hours of training.
While general design is flexible, getting the right wiring infrastructure in place is key. The most expensive mistake you can make is not putting the right infrastructure in at the beginning of a project.
Despite what some providers claim, wireless only doesn’t work, but an unreliable web connection can be accounted for. The house doesn’t shut down when it disconnects!
Involving a smart home integrator in your project adds value, reduces friction and helps things move quickly. Integrators like Baker Stone will work with you to prepare a brief, develop the project, specify tech and integrate smart systems into the design with minimal disruption.
Deciding early to include smart systems integration in a home design project makes execution cheaper, more effective and less time-consuming. Here are some signs that a project may benefit from such expertise:
If you found those tips valuable and you want a more complete guide to incorporating smart systems into your design practice, download our pdf from the link below.
If you have a domestic design, construction or refit project that requires, or might benefit from, smart systems, talk it through with us in a professional partnership meeting.
The popularity of every invention, product and idea in history can be roughly described by one shape – the product life cycle curve. The smart home as a concept and each of the products and innovations that are part of it are gradually describing their own bell curve as they mature.
The World Connected Home Markets Report is one of a significant number of industry agencies predicting that in the next two to five years, smart homes will move on from the introductory stage to the serious growth stage. This may sound like an abstract development, but it has a lot of serious real-world implications for the smart home industry.
Like every product or idea in its introduction stage, the smart home has been seen as something exciting, futuristic, unusual and high-end. Very gradual take up by trailblazers and those with the resources to indulge in avant-garde luxuries is represented by a shallow rise on the unit sales graph. Shallow, that is, compared to what is to come.
A quick look at the history of Google Searches for 'smart home' on a graph shows this gradual, upward-curving rise in popularity clearly.
Google Trends chart of searches for 'smart home' over time
Behind the sales, searches and maths, smart homes have spent the last decade or so being normalised and popularised by sellers and the consumers who might buy them. Meanwhile, more companies have established ways to create and sell smart home tech effectively at a lower cost, competing to make the products and services involved available to more people.
This has set the stage for the industry to explode into its growth stage with sales and popularity rising at rates not seen before. This has several implications for those in the industry, as well as the professionals on the periphery, like the housing developers, architects, and interior designers Baker Stone works with.
Architects and developers that offer or accommodate smart tech in their practices still stand out as groundbreakers, becoming the first choice for those looking for automated homes. Small but innovative smart-friendly businesses can out-compete slower, bigger ones and win high-tech contracts ahead of them.
The same has been true of every new technology in its growth stage. It’s how, in creating Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg overcame industry heavyweights Myspace and Friendster – remember them?
As the introduction stage gives way to the growth stage though, large, weighty businesses will begin to follow where the smaller, more dynamic ones have led and the small, early entrants will grow to dominate the new space. Time is running out for small and agile SMEs to enter the space in a competition-trumping way. However, it has not run out yet.
The market is still accelerating. Worldwide business income from smart homes is forecast to increase by almost twice as much over the next year as it did over the last, according to figures from Statista. Indeed, since 2021, the global market has grown by $11.3 billion; a jump that is set to be dwarfed by a $20.5 billion increase between 2022 and 2023. This is a rapidly growing market with much space for new entrants and many rewards for those who enter successfully.
Looking beyond 2023, market growth settles down remarkably quickly, adding around £20 billion per year reliably for the next three years until the end of the assessment period. Going back to our product life cycle curve, this looks like the very definition of introduction giving way to linear growth.
Economically, those who invested in smart homes early benefited from the lack of competition and exponential growth, but they had to face the same issues as any groundbreaker. After all, it’s not called breaking new ground because it is easy. The early-days smart tech market was hard to navigate and easy to fall foul of due to bad luck and lack of specific knowledge.
Part of the reason why markets in the growth stage expand so reliably is that these problems have been sorted out. Pitfalls and unlucky incidents are much less likely to consume resources and whole companies.
That means the short stage when introduction becomes growth is the ideal point at which to enter the market. Begin now to reap maximum benefit from growth that is still accelerating and will soon take hold, while avoiding the pratfalls of an early-days introductory market. There’s still room for relatively small businesses to become established, yet they are much less likely to be damaged.
For those who agree that now is a good time to get into the smart homes market, there are three options for entry.
Specialising in innovative smart homes is a great way to hit a niche in the competitive home design and construction market. A number of architecture and design companies, as well as developers like Trivselhus have done this successfully. However, it is a big leap that takes huge commitment and adaptability on the part of the company in question. More established and mainstream businesses may want to consider the other options...
Partnering with a smart home provision specialist is a viable option for architects, developers and interior designers alike. With careful consideration and adaptation on both sides, businesses across the home development spectrum can benefit hugely from this. If you want to explore the prospect of partnering with Baker Stone, you can book a call to discuss your position with us.
Keep it in the company and offer valuable professional development opportunities to your staff by training your employees to adapt their practice to the unique needs of the smart home. These competencies will become more and more applicable as smart homes become more mainstream. Gaining them is a choice that can be taken out in isolation or together with a partner. Again, we offer such training. As with partnerships, it is worth shopping around to find the right training provider for you. If you wish to consider Baker Stone, you can find out more here and book a call with us here.
First thing in the morning, your blinds open to wake you with healthy, natural sunlight. Moments later one of your favourite energising songs fades up on the room’s speakers. Taking your first comfortable steps on a floor that’s pre-warmed to your ideal temperature, you’re drawn to the kitchen by the smell of coffee where your morning latte stands ready for you, made just the way you like it.
You enjoy it and listen to the upbeat music that followed you into the kitchen on shrewdly hidden speakers, getting ready for the day.
This, and a thousand other experiences like it, is what a smart home feels like. It is these experiences that make the investment worthwhile. Once you recognise that, the processes of planning, purchasing and designing a smart home take on different meanings.
Whether you’re a professional working with a client or an individual thinking of investing in your own smart home design or upgrade, you need to begin at the end. Start with the end result that you or the user wants to experience and work your way backward, designing everything based on this.
The key question is, ‘What do you want to happen in your smart home?’
Dig deep enough into this and you should be able to start creating a pretty good plan or brief.
Other important questions to explore include:
These questions require a bit of breaking down, research and consideration to answer, but they are essential to planning a smart home project. Another essential factor is knowing what is possible with smart technology. This may require a professional Smart Systems Integrator or Smart Home Designer. These professionals will help you answer the questions above and more besides. They’ll support you in creating and executing a complete brief for your home or your client’s
Whoever is involved though, it’s good to have some idea of what you want from the start, not least because it will help you pick the right professionals.
Because the ideal smart home is a very subjective thing, it’s important to be clear of what you want and to work with people who will enable and empower your needs and desires, or those of the end user. Some guesswork may be required if the end user isn’t definite, as with commercially built homes for sale. There’s one factor that everyone appreciates in their smart homes though … simplicity.
For more on what to expect from a good, experience-focused smart home, take a look at our page on the subject.
We could write for months on creating an outstanding smart home experience, and it’s a process that is different for every individual.
Among all this complexity, you can begin with one big, easy takeaway though:
With tech, a great experience is often a simple experience.
Tech can involve a lot of fiddling and wasted time for the end user if it is poorly executed. I’m sure we’ve all experienced the irritation of adding plugging something into our TV system, PC or Stereo (delete as age and preference dictates).
One of the main advantages of smart tech is that it provides all the benefits of cutting-edge technology with none of the common irritations. However, it can only do that when it’s correctly installed with a focus on keeping the user’s life as simple as possible.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
Leonardo Da Vinci
In practice, this means planning out a complete smart home as a single, experience-focussed project, not a piecemeal series of add-ons.
Those add-ons usually come in the form of the latest bit of shiny “smart” tech.
Type the words ‘Smart home’ into Amazon and you will get over 50,000 products running from light bulbs to kettles to picture frames. Adding all these things to a home may provide a few buzzes of novelty, but it won’t improve your long-term homelife anywhere near as much as a well-planned smart home designed around your experience though. In fact, a home full of smart gadgets bought without any integration can often make life more complex and fiddly, rather than more enjoyable.
The takeaway here is plan and purchase an integrated smart home solution, rather than a group of gadgets. There are some good off-the-shelf solutions out there, but if these won’t cut it, or they don’t feel personal enough, consider hiring a professional to select and integrate the technologies seamlessly. No need to worry about losing control, a good smart systems integrator or designer will always work around your desires.
Ultimately, designing a truly enjoyable smart home means creating experiences and solutions that cater for the user. It doesn’t necessarily mean adding functions, but it does mean synchronising them shrewdly.
Take a look at some of the things smart tech can do in a home, then build a picture in your mind of what yours might do for you, and how different systems can come together to give you a particular great experience. If you’re a professional; a designer or architect; consider this when discussing smart tech with your client.
The great thing about truly smart homes is that they learn and adapt to you. This starts with a bespoke installation and continues as your home learns your routines and preferences. The right start can make all the difference here so think carefully on what you want from the start.
At Baker Stone we know how to create the perfect smart home experience. If you’re planning a smart home for yourself or your clients, get in touch today to ensure it feels just right.
