The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a great little buzz word for Internet-controlled home automation equipment as well as offices. Sensors and chips to control electronics have gotten so small and cheap that they can now be put into most electronics around the house. And apps on phones and tablets have gotten so smart that they can now sense those devices without special hardware. This convergence has led to more options for home automation than ever before.
Working with stallion vision has taught me alot about automation systems and I’m alread considering it for my home. I’m not entirely sure if this makes me insane or not, but I can’t help but think about how much the home automation industry as a whole has changed since the first few years of this century. The first time I experienced home automation, the focus was on home entertainment systems and walkway lights. The systems were terribly complex and took forever to get the basics setup. There are way more options today, but home entertainment like cinemas, lights and blinds etc are still the the most common items you see automated, with a much larger emphasis put on HVAC these days than originally.
Along the path of insanity that has led to me begging Peniel my daughter to please, please just turn the bathroom light off upstairs so I don’t have to walk up there and do it myself, I’ve learned a few tips or tricks that might just help others looking to automate a home or office. If you’re thinking of getting started with home automation, new to automation, or in the midst of upgrading a system, the list below is best for you.
25 smart home best tips that should help you along the path to home automation enlightenment
- You can probably do this yourself. Yes. There are elements of setting up home automation doodads that might be a bit complicated, but if you do it right, the complication will be in logistics, not technology. For example, you can choose to screw in a lightbulb and be able to control that device. Or you can choose to replace a light switch with a dimmer that you can control. Replacing a dimmer is a bit more of a challenge to those who don’t know their way a traveler or a circuit breaker. You can also choose to replace a door lock or you can choose to just install a device onto an existing lock without touching a screwdriver. You can also choose to install a simple, do-it-yourself solution, such as a Wink, or you can go much more professional-grade and use a stallion vision type of solution. Either way, these days there are so many options; don’t be intimidated!
- The biggest money saver for many is likely to be a smart thermostat. Controlling lights with an app is awesome. But for most, especially in areas where the temperature can get extra cold or extra hot, you can actually save a pretty big chunk of change by simply replacing a thermostat.
- There are so many thermostats in homes. If you have an older analog thermostat, make sure your thermostat has a power cable before you install a smart thermostat. Otherwise, you might go through a pair of AA batteries every other hour. You can always pull a new wire through the wall by tying it to the old wire. But fishing wires through walls for the first time can be intimidating. Especially when there are weird twists and turns that can knock the tied wire off. If you need to call someone for this kind of task, speak a specialist. But chances are you won’t have to, except in older houses.
- Installing smart light switches is usually better than installing smart light bulbs. The most notable reason for this is that if you install a smart light bulb (e.g. Philips Hue, LIFX, Ilumi, etc) then the light switch needs to be on for the bulb to work. If there’s no power flowing to a bulb, the bulb cannot be turned on. Having said this, I’ve had situations where various smart switches and dimmers won’t power a light fixture or work with older wiring in my homes. In these cases, it’s much less expensive to replace a light bulb than to buy a new fixture, new dimmer, and pull new wiring. But if you use bulbs instead of switches, just make sure to tell your company you have to turn the switch off and on again if they don’t use the app or voice control. Saves for getting woken up in the middle of the night by frightened parents who think your house has been possessed (it has, just by Alexa).
- IFTTT is your friend. Before you buy a system, check that it’s compatible with the site IFTTT. IFTTT (short for If This, Then That) links together a number of different cloud systems. You can use IFTTT to run workflows on files when they’re dropped into a folder on Box, and other business tasks. Or you can trigger workflows on home automation systems that aren’t supported by one another. Harmony, Alexa, Belkin, Nest, Honeywell, Hunter Douglas, Lightwave, Withings, D-Link, Philips, GE, HomeSeer, Lutron, and even BMW support IFTTT workflows. You can link all these things together to push the limits of your home beyond the boundaries of the imagination of the vendors of the devices.
- Don’t be afraid to string workflows together. Let’s say you tried using Belkin WeMo but switched to a Wink, and still have some devices on an older Vera. Now you can have IFTTT link them all together. But keep things simple. For example, don’t daisy chain workflows together. Instead, try to link them all directly to the one place where you want to control them. For me, that’s become my Amazon Echo. Before I got there, though, I had a bunch of workflows that would call other workflows, just so I could try and use one app. Then when the workflows failed I lost trust in them and went back to doing things manually around the house. Keeping everything simple allows the workflows to complete with a higher rate of accuracy as there are fewer moving parts.
- Make sure you can return things if they don’t work together or trust it in the hands of a professional – speak to someone from stallion vision now. Buying these things retail can mean paying a good 20% more than if you purchased them online. And buying them on eBay can mean paying almost nothing. But almost nothing is still too much if the items don’t work for you. Not all of the systems can work with one another.
- The virtual can talk to the physical world. When most people think of Smart Homes, they think of controlling electrical things. But sensors, controls, and robotics are helping us to bridge the virtual to the physical world. You can activate a Samsung Vacuum, sense physical movement, open and close blinds with Lutron mechanized blinds, open and close deadbolts, and even sense the water in your plants using a Parrot Flower Power. Yes, changing the channel or turning off your lights using a voice command is cool, but when suddenly little robots are running around the house doing your bidding, you start feeling like you have an army of minions doing your chores! And you can automate scenes that can help you wake up more gracefully and have a better overall quality of life.
- Your physical pet can set off your virtual workflows. The sensors are great. They can turn lights on when I enter a room and turn them off if I haven’t been in the room for a while. I have four HVAC zones, so if no one is in a part of the house, I turn the HVAC off. But when the dog or cat went back there, the lights would come on. Poltergeists. A friend had a motion sensor above his computer that emailed him every time something moved. He had a leak one night and got about 1,000 emails by morning.
- Automated lights are not much of a money saver. Remember when your parents used to tell you to turn off the lights because you were running up the electricity bill? An LED light costs less than2 per year to operate under normal usage. Save the world a little natural gas and some real electricity and replace that old thermostat with a smart one first.
- Secure your network and accounts. Finally, keep in mind that movies like Eagle Eye could actually become a little bit of a reality if you aren’t careful. All these devices, all these accounts, video, locks, lights. Use good passwords, practice solid network security, and keep the firmware updated on your devices, so they have the latest security patches on them. And never give your password to anyone.
Have fun with this stuff. When I hit my target weight on my Fitbit scale, my stereo played “We Are The Champions.” A friend rigged up a speaker in a skull that glowed and said the name of the person who entered their code into his locks. Most of the home automation world should net you a nice little return on your investment. But it doesn’t have to. Sometimes, it just makes life a little bit better.
