Homes now turns into smarter more through smarter devices, you can control and manage even save your energy by using smart system, a someone with little knowledge about smart home automation can get confuse due to too many system available in the market, in addition all these devices are not cheap, therefore better to choose the one with the best to make it worthwhile for you in the long run.
What appliances do turn in to smart devices at home?
- Bed Room
- Kitchen
- Bathroom
- Lounge
- Dining Room
- Guest Room
- Security and Camera
- Exterior Automation
- Climate Control
First you need to make a plan from where you wants to start.
Questions you need to ask from yourself?
- How much money can you spend initially?
- How many rooms you want to embed with smart devices?
- What devices you can buy within your budget?
Question you need to ask from yourself about what type of smart system you want?
- Smart led lamp with dimming option only to a specific place.
- A combination of hue lights, spot light bulb to make a room or desired area more ambient and relax
- Wired or wireless system
- A complete smart home system
All these question must be clear in your mind before taking a step toward getting started with home automation.
Suggestions For Getting Started with Home Automation:
- Normally not everyone familiar with the smart home systems which led them to a wrong decision, anyone who wants to install these devices must make sure that only buy those devices that can be add on later with the pre-installed ones and integrate with the upcoming technology.
- All these systems as preferred are portable and can be move and re-install to other place as per your requirement.
- All these system are developed purely to make home smarter, durable, safer and easy to understand.
Where to start?
- People tend to start with low price devices to be able to understand it, I would suggest not to do that, only purchase the recommended best smart home devices to be able to enjoy the smart system longer, and in case a person wants to smart other homes appliances in future then these system have a capability to integrate each other easily.
- These system also support other devices such as Alexa, Google Home, Nest and so on as certified/support with the system.
For example!
- A single room switch/dimmer can be purchased alone from Lutron, Fibaro, Control 4 and Futronix, all these system can be add on with pre-installed system efficiently.
- In addition these system support all other third party devices such as Amazon Alexa, google home and so on for voice controlling.
Smart lighting Proposed projects for the beginners:
All these project are from Lutron, however you can buy from these (Control 4, Futronix and Fibaro) under the same budget and features offered by Lutron.
Proposed Project 1:
| Lutron single room to save energy
Rania Wireless RF switch = £ 143 Radio Power Saver – Occupancy/Vacancy Sensor = £ 80 Total cost = £ 223
|
Proposed Project 2:
| Lutron single room with keypad to make room more ambient and elegant. Lyneo Slide dimmer = £ 73 Touch keypads = £ 205 Total Cost = £ 278
|
Proposed Project 3:
Caseta Lutron wireless smart home system Starter Kit
|
Others Non-dedicated proposed smart home devices:
Google home KitGoogle home kit include hub/ Tab to control and manage all your connected devices remotely. However google home only work with supported devices such as Lutron, fibaro and so on, and if don’t have these devices then a separate lights (Philips Hue, Lifx, Osram TP Link) and other separate wireless switches has to be install to be able to integrate and work with google home. You can set the brightness and other mood of light as per your wish from those Leds who has a technology similar to Philips hue. Google home Hub = £ 139 Philips starter kit = £ 136 Add on Samsung Starter kit = £ 170 Total Cost = £ 445 |
Samsung starter kit:Samsung kit includes One Samsung SmartThings hub, two Samsung SmartThings multipurpose sensors, one Samsung SmartThings motion sensor and one Samsung SmartThings outlet, you need to buy the bulbs separately to work with them, similarly if you want to control your lights and other connected devices via from voice or from tab wirelessly then a supported google home, Lenovo and other certified devices required for this purpose. Samsung starter kit = £ 170 Philips hue dimmer = £ 12 per/piece Total cost = £ 182 |
Philips starter kit· 3 Hue white and color ambiance bulbs · Dimmer switch · Bridge · Fitting · Alexa and google home compatible · 10 watt Price = £ 136 |
What kinds of bulbs required for smart lighting?
- There are two types of technology in the market, either you can purchase a separate bulb which has an ability to dim and high with color changing ability.
- Second technology is the dimmer modules, in this scenario you don’t need to change the led bulbs, only need to replace the old switch panel to these ones, it can be able to control lights to turn on/off, dim and high according to your mood, and it also allows you to control your lights from IPad, iPhone and tab.
- More preferable to go with the dimmer modules/keypads which help you to understand and allow you to embed and integrate each other to other locations at your home for installation of smart system in future.
Recommended smart lighting system for home automation can be check from Home automation smart lighting control system.
