The prevalence of smart devices becoming more and more common these days it’s more than just your smart-phone or your smart-watch, there are so many common household devices that are smart as well now. So much that you can actually design your whole house to be a fully-functional integrated smart residence and here we are going to look at how to achieve this.
source: Precondo
New Build Or Conversion?
The first question you need to be asking is are you building a house from scratch or are you going to be converting an old one? There are very different challenges between these two methods of doing things as with a new build you can custom design the layout, for example, a security front door entrance can be set up with sensors and cameras in mind, with an older property you’re going to have to work around what’s there. With all the power sockets, you may want them all to be timed and controllable remotely as with the light switches and heating and as you are installing these things anyway it’s only a little more expense and effort to do so.
What Features Do You Need?
Are you looking for the whole house to be controllable in every single way? Or are you going to want to just have some of the basics covered such as heating, lighting, door-bell, etc? If you go all out then you can have doors and windows that can be opened, locked and unlocked remotely, self-cleaning house and even anti-allergy homes. If you are looking to go this extensive then it probably makes sense to hire in a smart-home specialist.
Co-ordinate With Your Contractors
It’s important to coordinate all of this with regular contractors doing work on other parts of the house. If you are getting a firm to do the doors and windows such as Brennan Enterprises then it’s best to ask their advice about which products are best to go with certain features, for example, if you are looking to have smart blinds installed are there some window frames that are better shaped for this than others?
How Will It All Be Controlled?
You will need to know what the best method of controlling your smart home will be? If you have pieced it together with lots of different smart devices from many different suppliers you may end up with numerous controllers or apps which can be a pain and very confusing. There are ways of making various devices work with a single app though and although a bit of work goes into setting this up it’s well worth it, a good guide on it can be found here.
Figure Out How Long The Work Will Take
As with any home renovation or improvement work you are going to want to know how long it’s all going to take as no-one wants contractors in their home for extended periods of time if it can be avoided. Get an estimate of length of the project as well as prices when you hire anyone, asking questions like this helps a lot in the long run.
