Smart homes are all about convenience and lifestyle. But often there’s a misconception smart technology can be tricky to use or over-complicate otherwise simple procedures around the home.
The truth is if your smart home is not offering you convenience and ease of use, it hasn’t been installed correctly. Or in other words, if it’s not simple, it’s not smart.
Here’s an insight into how simplicity is achieved in the smart home.
Installation
A true smart home is one part installation and one part the use of smart products, and don’t underestimate the value of good installation.
Properly installed smart home technology will allow you to automate tasks about the home. It will enable the homeowner to employ scenes where a number of things happen at once and utilise voice control so the home can be set into action via voice command.
It will simplify mundane, everyday tasks by having smart products interact with each other. So, for example you might establish a coming ‘home routine’ where you use your mobile phone app to tell your house you’ll soon be arriving.
A true smart home will then use geofencing to sense how far that mobile phone is from the house and begin rolling out pre-programmed functions, like the lights turning on, the climate control activating, the front gate and/or garage door opening, and the front door unlocking.
All these tasks involve a proper installation where your smart home technician has employed products that can communicate with a hub, and then set protocols so they work together in a pre-designed sequence.
That’s why at Lera we often explain to our clients there’s a vast different between having smart products and having a truly smart home.
In a properly installed smart home, products and functions interact and work seamlessly together to improve your home environment.
And when installed properly, a smart home will not only be simple to use, it will also improve your lifestyle in ways you may never have imagined, offering you extra time with your family and a better understanding of your energy use.
Product selection
The smart home industry is jam packed with products all promising to simplify life. But we believe the sum is always greater than the parts.
If products do not interact and communicate effectively using the right language, the home will be clunky to use, requiring multiple apps to control multiple devices. And no that’s not smart. That’s not user friendly, and it is indeed complicated.
That’s also why it’s very important to select products that integrate with each other in an ecosystem. For example, our preferred networking tool is Z-Wave – a language which allows all compatible smart home products to communicate with each other and work together.
Basically Z-Wave offers the assurance that if it bears the Z-Wave symbol, it will work with any other product brandishing the logo.
This network forms the backbone of a smart home ecosystem, and is then controlled using one simple hub and one simple app to set scenes, establish routines and control a home, even from afar.
Lifestyle understanding
For a smart home to simplify your lifestyle, your installer should take the time to gain a proper understanding of how you currently use and intend to use your home.
Smart homes can be set up to meet a range of needs. They can help simplify family life, allow a home to be managed remotely, offer greater security and monitoring when you’re away, and cater to special needs for people with mobility issues or disabilities.
But for a smart home to truly serve your individual needs best and simplify your lifestyle, it should be designed and programmed accordingly.
That’s why we sit down with our clients at the outset, walking them through the features available, understanding what matters to them and designing the ecosystem to suit.
Then we employ the most effective products, networking and programming available to meet their needs and simplify their life.
Training
Using a smart home shouldn’t be hard, but to get the most out of their investment, homeowners should be trained by their installer in its functions and use.
We spend extensive time with our smart homeowners, explaining how the system operates, how to use it, and how to change it to suit their needs.
At Lera, that’s part of our commitment to ensuring our smart homes are intuitive and simple, but it also offers the further benefit of future-proofing our homes for users.
We believe if your smart home is set up properly and if you’re trained in how it operates, you are better positioned to make the changes you wish to in the future, adding products when you want and modifying the home as your needs change.
Ease of use
Smart products do not make a smart home. Rather it’s about utilising the potential of these products within a smart ecosystem to simplify your lifestyle and best suit your needs.
Far from complicated, a smart home should be intuitive, simple and automated and if that’s not the experience you achieve, your home simply isn’t smart.
At Lera, we specialise in designing, installing and creating beautiful, affordable smart homes that are tailored to our client’s needs, and we’re always available to assist.
About Lera Smart Home Solutions
Lera Smart Home Solutions is a leading installer of smart home technology in the greater Sydney region. Our team boasts over 20 years’ experience in IT networking, programming and the electrical industry.
We have sourced the most reliable and cost efficient solutions from around the world to provide the very best in smart home solutions, and work with our clients to understand their needs.
You can learn more about transforming your house into a smart home here, access our smart home calculators here or contact us directly for further advice.
