Setting Up Your Smart Home: A Basic Guide

Won’t it be awesome to transform your home into a smart one? That way you get to enjoy the amazing benefits of home automation. So you ask, how do I even get started? We have taken the time to gather all that you need to know about starting a smart home. Talking about the smart devices, different smart platforms, and their technologies. It is better to be well informed before venturing into this extraordinary world of automation that makes things a lot easier.

The outlook of a smart home is superb! The ease and power of control it brings is outstanding. For instance, you can lock or unlock your smart door lock with your mobile phone. When you walk into your house, the lights come on automatically.

In your absence, a robot vacuum takes up the job of cleaning your house, the smart thermostat lowers the heat emission to maintain lower costs. Also, you can keep an eye on everything with your phone via the indoor and outdoor security cameras.

According to a recent study, it showed that 53% of Americans currently have a smart home device. But the reality is not as magical as some commercials make it seem. Till now, no singular home automation system (at least not yet) can absolutely automate your whole house. It goes without saying that things are a lot better now than before.

There was a time when automating a home required scripting, DIY skills, and networking which were all complex things. But now there are simple smart devices now that make setting up a smart home achievable by anyone. When you get some few smart products, you gain control of many gadgetry in your house with your smartphone. Maybe even with something cooler- a simple voice command.

But you need to know what to get and what not to bother about, at least for starters. So what’s the starting point?

Setting up the foundation of your smart home

The first thing you need to consider carefully is the compatibility of the smart devices. There are some smart home devices that wouldn’t work on any generic platforms. The fact being that they have their apps such as products from Ring, Nest and some similar companies. You can only control their basic functions from the app. But other smart devices are rather generic, they use popular standards like Z-Wave and Zigbee.

The generic ones use Bluetooth-Esque wireless protocols that help the smart devices to communicate with a smart hub like Samsung SmartThings or Wink. The hub app is where you control the devices.

Hence, that makes two categories of smart devices products: those that only use their apps and the wider smart home platform like a hub. But, there are some platforms that limit you than the rest, being selective on which devices you can connect, such as Apple’s Homekit and Insteon.

Now there are thousands of products out there for home automation. And this might make it feel overwhelming when you need to pick the best choice for your home. It doesn’t have to be that way, just like any other complex task, all you need to do is break it down to simpler tasks. My recommendation is to start with one or two devices and build your smart home from there. It is good to first be familiar with how some of the products work before going for more.

Probably, your first priority or desire is the convenience and thrill of turning on the lights with your voice. Or maybe locking your door from your smartphone is your first — you should choose one. It is expected that you choose based on the features that you find appealing to you. One thing you should really check out for is the compatibility of the specific device with other smart platforms.

Most people usually begin their home automation foundation with a smart home security device or many of such. Then they move up to more sophisticated smart systems. The benefit of a smart home security system is astounding. You can monitor what’s happening in your home just with your phone and an app. The smart home security system has to be connected to your Wi-Fi network.

It depends on the home automation systems you choose but usually entry level systems do have window and door sensors, a motion detector, and a hub that is responsible for communication with these devices. The hub uses one or more wireless protocols such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wifi, or any proprietary mesh network. There is space for additional motion, window, and door sensors to give full coverage over your entire house. You can set up a complete smart system that includes smoke/CO detectors, water sensors, lights, sirens, door locks, garage for openers, indoor and outdoor surveillance cameras, and many more.

Some smart devices to start with..

When you want to start getting your first few smart devices, like I said before, go for devices that have the widest compatibility. It helps in the long run for setting up a complete smart home without getting worried about future conflicts. Let’s dive deeper into the full rundown of the major players in the smart home ecosystem.

For your first few devices overall, try to shoot for products with the widest compatibility you can find, so you can build up your smart home without worrying about future conflicts. Here’s a rundown of the key players in the major smart home categories:

Lights: if you need smart control over your lighting system, then you should go for the best. Smart bulbs like the Phillips Hue grants you control over individual lights or combination of lights with your smartphone. It also has special features to set up varying “scenes” with some specific color temperatures and brightness levels. This feature ensures that you are not flooding your eyes with excess light or a blue light at the end of the day. The bulbs even have automatic turn on and off depending on a number of specific triggers. There is another alternative to bulbs, which is the use of smart switches for controlling the lights that you have already in your house.

Thermostats: are you interested in going smart with your thermostat system? The Ecobee or Nest line of thermostats are exceptional. The Nest thermostats helps you with adjusting your heating or A/C depending on the time you get back home or general time of the day. The Ecobee also uses many sensors that you put around the house for to be able to check the temperature in other rooms as well.

Locks: there are different types of smart locks depending on their functions or options they offer. Some locks can grant you the lock control from your phone, and others have the capacity to grant a family member or friend temporary access to a given period of time. Smart locks such as the Kwikset Kevo have unique options that allow you to unlock your door by just a finger touch.

Doorbells and cameras: one cool feature about smart doorbells is that they have cameras that helps you see whoever is at the door, thereby ignoring any unwanted visitors. You can even integrate some doorbells with cameras that are from the same parent companies like Best and Ring. This feature helps you to create a complete system that can detect close motion, send you alerts when you are not at home. Also, it saves video recordings for you in the cloud that you can access later.

Security systems: the security system is not just about cameras for complete home security. If you need a complete system that has indoor motion sensors, a siren, kits and door sensors from companies like SimpliSafe. It cost about $229.00, and you can use it in monitoring your home against break-ins. There are some systems that even allow you to self monitor, such as Abode. It also gives you the link to emergency services for you to watch over your home without any monthly charges.

TVs and remotes: do you know that your home theater is also a part of having a smart home? Well, now you know.

For instance, with the connection of a smart remote like the Logitech Harmony Elite, you can control many devices all at once. You gain control of the lightings, shades, and many other smart devices, also integrating with Alexa grants you easy, hands-free control that means you use voice control.

All kinds of other stuff: you have only seen just a small part of the whole ecosystem. You can dive deeper in your search and discover that there are window shades that close with just one touch of its control button. There are also smart sprinkler systems that are automated to work based on the weather, and what about robot vacuums that instantly goes to work once you’re out of the house. You can even make your kitchen smart by using appliances that can be operated remotely, and smart outlets that has control over anything you plug into a wall.

How to Control Everything As a Whole

Setting up a smart home is a process, but as you put these devices together it will be great to consider getting a hub. Getting hub helps you with integrating your smart devices with each other or even in just one control interface. Some of the most popular options that are very easy to find are the Samsung SmartThings Hub and Wink Hub 2. Wink Hub 2 gives you a simple and easy-to-use interface whereas Samsung SmartThings proves to be much more powerful if you are interested in tinkering. However, they both work perfectly with Android and iOS, being platform-agnostic.

The two hubs also provide wide compatibility with various smart home devices, that doesn’t mean they are all-encompassing-nothing proves to be. Hence, it is best to check out their compatibility pages before buying i.e Wink or SmartThings hub. Generally, our recommendation is to avoid single-protocol hubs like the one built into the Amazon Echo Plus, it only supports Zigbee. The more protocols a hub supports, the more room for you to grow your smart devices.

Another smart device to buy early is the voice assistants, it’s a great choice for your smart home system. From my point of view, it’s really a cool thing to control your tv, air conditioner, and lights with your voice. It’s extraordinary!

The Google Home and Amazon Echo both feature a vast compatibility with many smart home devices which you can check out first before you buy any of them. Google shows high level of intelligence when it has to do with answering questions and knowing about your schedules. However, Alexa has greater compatibility with many more smart home devices.

There is no need for unnecessary assumptions or urge to buy all the devices at once. You can start with the most important that you find really useful. Then take your time to learn which integrations you need the most and you can work with. Consider what your pain points are, instead of just buying every device you find appealing.

Another enticing feature with these devices is how most of them integrate with voice assistants which gives you control over them without touching your phone at all. They can even integrate with another smart device, for instance, your smart lock alert the lightings that you’re home so they switch on. Hence, your attention is rather focused on more important things-such as what movies should you binge on that night.

The crux of the whole matter is that smart devices or setting up a smart home should make your life a lot easier not harder. That means you shouldn’t become obsessed with setting up a seamless, integrated smart system that will work forever — you will be shocked. But the goal is rather to aim at satisfying your most pressing needs at the moment and use what you can get. You don’t necessarily need to set up a smart home like The Jetsons, but something that makes your life really convenient is good enough. Enjoy your smart home!