4 things to consider when designing your smart home
I’ve been building out my smart home over the last couple of years. One question that I seem to be getting more and more recently is where to begin. It can be confusing starting out, so here’s 4 things to consider.
Purpose
Have a think about what it is that you’re trying to control or automate. Consider something that you do repetitively on a regular basis, or is a point of friction in your home. My journey started with automating lights in an unoccupied part of the house. These would often be left on for hours at a time (sometimes over night), so I invested in some LightwaveRF switches and a motion sensor to control them.
Platform & Ecosystem
I’ve personally opted to invest in the HomeKit platform for two reasons:
- Security; protecting my devices (and crucially their usage)
- Devices; I already own a lot of Apple kit
There’s not a huge amount of native HomeKit devices out currently (this is probably down to Apple’s stringent standards), but for everything non HomeKit, there’s HomeBridge.
Take a moment to consider which platform and protocol to back (i.e Z Wave, HomeKit, Smart Things, Google Home). Most devices work either by sending HTTP commands or by propriety radio signals. Some manufacturers will support multiple platforms (such as Philips Hue) via a bridge that translates these signals, whilst other systems are more closed. Do some research into the kinds of devices you need and how well they will ‘talk’ to each other. I believe a smart home can really be smart when all of the ‘things’ can talk to one another. One of the promises of HomeKit is not only that you can control all devices from a single app, but each device can communicate with one another so that an action or input from one device (camera) can trigger another (lights).
Cost
The current model for smart home tech sees a large up-front cost and then, depending on the device and platform, ongoing costs for things such as cloud video recording and playback (such as the Ring Video Doorbell). Factor all of this in when you’re considering the purchase. I recently opted for a D-Link Omna camera. At £199, it’s more than other camera’s, but with no ongoing subscription balances out (plus, I’m using it as a baby monitor so didn’t want that footage in the cloud).
Control
This is probably the most important thing to think about. To be really smart, you shouldn’t have to place too much thought into interacting with devices to control them. Consider things such as physical switches, sensors and automations as ways to control devices. I personally tend to steer away from devices such as Lifx bulbs that don’t offer any other native control apart from a mobile app.
Whilst Philips Hue is great for floor or desk lamps, I don’t feel it works well with mains lighting as when the power is cut, the bulbs are dumb. You’re much better opting for a retro fit option (such as LightwaveRF) to provide full control.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you’d like to pick my brains on my setup.
