After years of experience building a smart home, I’ve identified three key goals for creating an ideal smart home:
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Invisibility: A smart home should work seamlessly in the background, without drawing attention to itself.
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Spouse Approval: A smart home should not annoy or inconvenience anyone living in the house or visiting.
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Long-term Reliability: A smart home should not break or become a time and money pit.
Controlling Your Smart Home
To achieve these goals, it’s essential to consider how you’ll control your smart home. While voice commands may seem convenient, they can be clunky and difficult to remember. Instead, consider using a dashboard that combines all your smart devices in one place. This allows for easy access and control, and is more family-friendly.
Sensors and Automation
Sensors are crucial for creating an ideal smart home. They enable your home to adjust to your daily activities, making it more convenient and efficient. Consider using a combination of contact and motion sensors, as well as other smart home devices, to create a seamless experience.
Your Smart Home System
A smart home system is the brain of your smart home, allowing you to combine devices, connect sensors, and control everything from one dashboard. When choosing a system, consider the level of customization you need, the types of devices you want to use, and the level of tinkering you’re willing to do.
Adding Devices
When adding devices to your smart home, consider the following:
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Matter: A new standard that promises to make all smart home devices work together.
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Cloud independence: Choose devices that don’t rely on the cloud to work.
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Wi-Fi: A good Wi-Fi system is essential for reliable connectivity.
Automating Your Home
Automations are the key to making your smart home work together seamlessly. Start simple, focus on one room or task at a time, and use conditions to prevent automations from running when they shouldn’t.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or need further assistance.
Smart Home FAQs
Before we wrap up, here are some rapid-fire questions and answers from Instagram:
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Best naming convention for automations and devices: Be descriptive and include the room or location.
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How to keep automations organized: Use descriptive names and search functionality.
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Homebridge or Home Assistant: Use Home Assistant for extra features and functionality.
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Best Zigbee repeaters: Use inexpensive Sonoff Zigbee outlets or Aara pet feeders as repeaters.
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Starting with smart switches: Yes, smart switches are a great starting point.
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Transitioning from SmartThings to Home Assistant: Use the SmartThings integration in Home Assistant to bring in devices and switch them over gradually.
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Sticking with one company like Casa: Yes, for uniformity and ease of use, but not necessary for all devices.
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Expensive or cheap systems: Google offers an easy-to-use and affordable system, and you can always upgrade later.
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Combining hubs: Apple HomeKit and Home Assistant complement each other well and run locally for reliability.
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Getting started with Home Assistant: Check out linked videos and consider a beginner-friendly video on the second channel.
Conclusion
Building the ideal smart home requires focusing on invisibility, spouse approval, and long-term reliability. By considering control methods, sensors, automation, and smart home systems, you can create a seamless and efficient smart home experience. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, and happy smart home building!