Home automation—smart home technology—has revolutionized the way we live in our homes. Although not all households make use of smart home tech, it’s a steadily growing industry, with estimates placing the market’s value at a whopping $79.57 billion by 2022. This begs the question: Why is it so popular?
Conventional homes are our cozy sanctuaries from the stresses of work, school, and our professional lives. We eat in our homes, we sleep in our homes, and we take care of our homes, keeping them nice and tidy. What smart home technology does is attempt to make all of this simpler, more convenient, and easier to control.
Smart devices such as smart TVs, speakers, lights, and even doorbells, can all be integrated into a single system which makes using these devices a seamless experience. Doing so is easy and intuitive, adding an extra level of convenience to your home.
CONVENIENCE
That is the ultimate goal of home automation: convenience. Let’s look at smart speakers, for example, which we covered before in a handy guide. Smart speakers aren’t merely speakers designed for playing music, they’re convenient tools made to control your smart home with your voice alone.
Amazon's Echo series of smart speakers give you the power to adjust smart light fixtures, control thermostats, give weather updates, and of course play music or podcasts, among many other features.
No system exists in conventional homes which allows one to perform all these functions. The Amazon Echo (and its many competitors) lets you do all this, all from the comfort of your couch, bed, or wherever else in your home you may be, as long as you’re in range of the microphone.
CONTROL
What goes hand in hand with smart home convenience? Control! While smart speakers can facilitate this, many smart devices can give you a wide range of control on their own. For instance, let’s look at smart lighting, which we’ve also covered before.
Most conventional lights, even modern ones, are non-adjustable. Once installation is complete, they glow with the same color and at the same intensity until they’re turned off. This is where smart lights work differently.
The LIFX A19 is just one of the many dimmable, color-changing smart bulb systems with easy installation and WiFi connectivity. This LIFX system integrates with the Amazon Alexa virtual assistant, amongst others. It features 16 million (yes, million) different colors to choose from as well as programmable routines: an unmatched level of control.
FUNCTIONALITY
These smart bulbs alone demonstrate a degree of functionality which simply isn’t possible with conventional homes. Smart bulbs aren’t the only smart devices which demonstrate this, however.
Smart refrigerators, which, you may have guessed, we've covered before (looks like there might be a pattern here), are another class of smart devices which improve upon the functionality of their conventional cousins.
While all refrigerators work to keep your perishable food fresh, smart refrigerators take this a step further. Building upon this core functionality, they also introduce features such as customizable temperature for individual drawers, alerts to change the water filter, and interior cameras installed so you can keep track of your food without having to open the doors.
That’s not the end of it, though. Some smart refrigerators even allow you to create shopping lists (which show up on a built-in touchscreen), look up new recipes, and leave notes for your family. Samsung's Family Hub and LG's PFE28PBLTS are just two of the best smart refrigerators on the market, although you can find many more!
SECURITY
No home, conventional or not, is complete without the proper security protecting it, another area in which smart devices excel. And yes . . . here’s our guide.
Conventional homes rely on traditional security measures: door locks, perhaps alarm systems too. Smart security devices don’t replace these existing security measures, but instead augment them.
Smart indoor security cameras like the Amazon Cloud record 1080p live HD video, streaming any suspicious activity in your home to your phone.
Smart locks like the August Smart Lock Pro give you an additional level of security with your first line of defense: your front door.
Smart doorbells like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro let you see exactly who’s on the other side of the door without ever having to actually open it.
All of these devices and more combine to make your home as safe as it can be, as functional as it can be, and give you a level of control and convenience a conventional home simply can’t match, and that’s what makes smart home tech a viable option for your own home!
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