Starting A Smart Home

When I was growing up, I always pictured living in a nice house with a big yard, fancy appliances – the whole package. When I eventually did become a homeowner, I began to realize that while it’s been great, it’s also been a lot of work to maintain it in the way that I’d like.

I’ve been an IT professional for many years now, integrating systems and developing solutions for all kinds of technology. Some time ago, I thought, “Maybe I could do this at home too”.
For several years now, I’ve been working on trying to build a truly smart home. I started this channel to help demystify smart home tech and teach others what I’ve learned by applying IT principles and sometimes a little magic, to help you build your ideal smart home.

So to kick things off, let’s talk about what a smart home actually is. What makes it smart? Well, from an engineering perspective, most homes are composed of several systems working together to provide for the needs and comfort of the occupants.

A typical home will have electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems. More commonly, there will also be systems for lighting, security, and any number of others.

Generally, all these systems function independent of one another, and for the most part, they are manually controlled. In a smart home, devices within these systems can communicate, and we can use automations to control these devices and assist with the operation of the home.

Why make your home smart? The general idea is to make life easier. By implementing smart controls and automation, you can reduce and even eliminate some of the mundane or tedious tasks on your list of chores.

In addition, many people build out their smart home setups with the intention of saving money, particularly with energy and water usage, as well as heating and cooling costs.

Smart devices can provide detailed analytics of their usage. This is great because just like we do in the IT world, we can make data-driven decisions that will contribute to achieving our goals.

Since devices in a smart home can communicate, we can build automations to monitor our systems and notify us if there is a problem.

For example, say you’re out of town one weekend. The kitchen sink begins to leak, and you come back a couple of days later to find an inch of water all over your floor. This could cost thousands of dollars to repair.

In our smart home, we’re prepared for that. A sensor under the sink sends a notification to your phone that it has detected a leak. You remotely turn off the water and fix it when you get back home. Crisis averted! By spending a little money and some time, you can prevent a costly fix.

Another example could be that you notice your electric bill is higher than normal. You look at the meter and sure enough, the usage is abnormally high. Maybe it’s a few extra loads of laundry, or the kids leaving the lights on. Do you suck it up and pay the higher bill? Not in a smart home.

Since we can have detailed analytics from our smart devices, we can utilize energy monitors to help track down high-consuming appliances. Maybe you notice that the hot water heater is using more power than normal. Upon investigation, it turns out the heating elements are corroded and need to be replaced. Because you were able to track down a repair that needed to be made before it really got out of hand, you potentially saved hundreds of dollars a year on your electric costs.

You may be thinking, “That sounds great, but how do I start building my smart home?” Before we dive into that, there are a few decisions that need to be made. 

1. Assess your needs
   Identify what your goals are. What do you want to automate and why? Do you have any pain points in your current home that automation would make easier? These are the ones to focus on first.
   
2. Consider usability. How do you want to control your smart home? Do you want to do everything from your phone, a series of remotes, a fancy touch panel, or voice control? Keep in mind that different tasks tend to be easier to perform on different types of controls. If you have a spouse or kids, how easy would your potential control system be for them to use? If it’s complicated or confusing for the family, you’re going to have a bad time.
   
3. Think about the types of devices you currently have, and ones you may want. The amount of smart devices available today can be very overwhelming. I strongly recommend spending a decent amount of time with the design of your setup before building out anything. Do your research and determine if you want to stick within a particular ecosystem of compatible devices, such as Amazon, Google, Apple, or Samsung. In my experience, having an ecosystem of compatible devices tends to make for the easiest experience, with the tradeoff being a limitation on what your smart home can do.
   
4. Since we’re good IT professionals here, we can’t forget about security. This is a whole topic in itself, but it’s an important one. Do you want your data in the cloud where some company can access it, or would you rather keep it local? Personally, if I get up in the middle of the night to let the dog out, I don’t need a video of me in my underwear from my backyard camera in the cloud somewhere, but maybe that’s just me. Another thing to think about is that some devices may have control over the security of your home. Smart locks, cameras, and door and window sensors could all give a malicious person an edge in accessing your home.

Finally, the last major thing to consider is budget. While most devices are not prohibitively expensive, it can really add up if you get too carried away. My recommendation is that you start small and build things out incrementally. Get a few smart bulbs or plugs and go from there.

It can be very tempting to go out and get shiny new gadgets, and I’m guilty of this myself. But first ask yourself:

“Does this fit in my design? Will it help accomplish my goal?”

Hopefully I’ve given you some things to think about and you’re excited to get started. So where do we go from here? We’ll save that for the next video, where we’ll cover smart home ecosystems and determine whether you need a smart home hub and which is the right one for you. Remember to like this video and subscribe to my channel for updates, and please consider becoming a member at my fourthwall site, where you can get access to exclusive content, guides, and merchandise that will help you become an IT Alchemist.