Are you planning your own Smart Home? Earlier this week on Instagram we shared a post of the Echo from Amazon, but that is just one of the home automation system options out there. You are also probably familiar with Google and Apple HomeKit.
In a home renovation or new home build, you can have the electricians wire in certain power points with home automation in mind, but generally, you will only need to get your main control room (usually the study or kitchen – as long as it’s central) wired up for ethernet to the outside world. We did the same for the entertainment areas in the Dream Home like the lounge and rumpus room. Mostly this is for managing large data streams like videos and music. Everything else can be controlled over WiFi as the data needs are minimal. We added a mesh WiFi system by Amplifi to ensure better coverage throughout the house. With every member of the family using three or four devices each, plus lights and switches – you can easily run out of capacity otherwise.
If you had the budget then you can certainly go with LCD windows that can occlude themselves at the touch of a button, but you are going to be investing a lot of money.
As for the smart home items that you might want to implement right away, lighting is the most popular and easiest to install – usually just a matter of changing light bulbs, we used the Australian designed LIFX lights which are the brightest and most colourful on the market – they also work just with your home WiFi, without requiring any additional equipment. We will also be using a combination of Ring and Arlo smart doorbell and security cameras.
We will be going into more details about the smart home features of our Dream Home in a later blog post so stay tuned.