Smart Home

Good evening, everyone. I believe many people are now following the news on Greece economy bailouts, the US Federal interest rates and even the Malaysia's 1MDB saga. From the news, we are also learning that there are many properties project that is being launched such as Green City, Iskandar, Nusajaya, etc. Well, from all these property development, are there any residential houses that are built smartly? So this is the topic that I would like to discuss about, Smart Home.

What is a Smart Home?

So what do we know about Smart Home? Is it a home building that has a mind of it own? Is it a home building that can think by itself? Well relatively, yes. A smart home is a building, usually a new one, that is equipped with special structured wiring to enable occupants to remotely control or program an array of automated home electronic devices by entering a single command. For example, a homeowner on vacation can use a Touchtone phone to arm a home security system, control temperature gauges, switch appliances on or off, control lighting, program a home theater or entertainment system, and perform many other tasks.

It incorporates advanced automation systems to provide the inhabitants with sophisticated monitoring and control over the building's functions. Smart homes use 'home automation' technologies to provide home owners with 'intelligent' feedback and information by monitoring many aspects of a home. For example, a smart home's refrigerator may be able to catalogue its contents, suggest menus, recommend healthy alternatives, and order replacements as food is used up. A smart home might even take care of feeding the pets and watering the plants.

Design

There are many ways on how a Smart Home can be designed but whatever the design comes out to be, the concept is still the same: protects your family and property, saves your money, and makes you feel like a superhero by giving you powers you’ve only dreamed of (Iron Man movie franchise).

Smart Lock - We think that doors should do more than just sit there on their dumb metal hinges. In a smart home, your door automatically unlocks when you approach, and locks behind you when you leave. (Feel free to put your keys in the same place where you put your VCR.) You also never have to wait around for service providers, leave keys under the mat, or hand out spares to your neighbors, because you can lock or unlock your door to let other people in with a simple tap of a button, wherever you are. Since all smartphones have GPS sensing built into them, all you need to do is to select your home location using the apps, install a smart lock, and that’s it. No need to fumble around for keys when you’re carrying groceries or kids, because your door will automatically unlock or lock whenever you come and go from the area you’ve defined as “home.”

Smart Lights - Do you know that lights account for more than 10% of a home’s energy consumption? Smart lights can save your money and secure your home by automatically reacting to your daily routines and preferences. You can set your lights to slowly brighten when you want to wake up , turn on when you’re away to make it look like someone is home, turn off automatically when you leave the house, and so much more.

Once you’ve plugged in your dumb lamp, screwed in your smart light bulb, or installed your in-wall switch, you can control one light or a bunch of lights with a simple tap of a button in the smartphone's app. But things get really cool when you set your lights to automatically turn on and off when different things happen. To do this, you can either set different rules or you can customize different actions to take place around your daily routines. All these can be done with the apps that are available, along with the hardware technologies.

Smart Air Conditioning - Never sweat your monthly energy bill again because by automatically turning down your thermostat, your A/C unit, or your portable heater when you’re away, you are not only help our planet by living green, but also help yourself by saving some serious green (money). You can set a smart thermostat or portable heating/cooling unit to adjust to a certain level whenever different events take place–such as when you leave home or to make sure that you always step back into a comfortable crib, you can also adjust your home’s temperature from your phone whenever you want or like, even when you’re leaving work to come home each day. After installing a smart thermostat, you can turn it on, off, or adjust it directly from the smartphone apps. If you have a window A/C unit or portable heater, you can turn that on or off directly from the apps as well, or set it to automatically adjust when different events take place.

Smart Security System - Do you know what isn’t smart? Paying for a traditional security system that will rob you blindly with monthly fees, closed contracts, and installation fees. With the smartphone apps, you can lock and unlock your doors from anywhere, control and automate your lights from wherever you are, trigger a blaring siren to ring if there’s unwanted motion or entry, and get immediate alerts if doors or windows open unexpectedly.By using the free SmartThings app, you can easily automate and control things like lights and locks to secure your home from anywhere. SmartThings lets you let you check in and see what’s happening at home when you’re on the go and to react to unexpected events. By placing a smart sensor on doors and windows, you can receive immediate alerts if they're opened when you’re away or asleep. By placing a smart motion sensor in your home, you can get immediate notifications if movement is detected in your home. And by pairing an alarm or a smart power outlet to your smart motion sensors, you can trigger lights to turn on or a loud siren to sound whenever unexpected entry or movement occurs.

Smart Leak Detector - Here’s a not-so-fun fact that I would like to share with you all: according to the HomeAdvisor.com the average cost to repair home water damage throughout the United States is about US$2,066 and that is not a small amount of money. We know that a minor leak can quickly escalate into devastating damage. In a smart home, you can get an immediate alert whenever excessive water is detected at where it doesn’t belong. And by notifying you of the problem, you can address the issue or call a neighbour or family member to prevent a headache from costing you a fortune. This can be done by simply place a moisture sensor in an area of your home that’s prone to leaking or flooding (such as under an old pipe, in a basement, or near a washing machine), and you’ll receive an instant alert on your smartphone as soon as water is detected. If you happen to have a siren or smart lights, you can also trigger lights to flash or change color, or a siren to sound if a leak is detected.

Smart Family Connection - In the old days, maybe the only thing more annoying than sending a text message to your kids to ask where they are, is by asking your kids to teach you how to send a text message. Checking in with those who matters the most should be easier. Now with the technology out there, it is. Just as you use your smartphone to check in with friends and followers on social media, now you can use your smartphone to easily and effortlessly check in on family members and pets. You get to know when the kids have came home from school each day, when cars arrive in the driveway, or when pets unexpectedly leave the house. Since all smartphones have GPS sensing, you can use the smartphone apps to receive a notification whenever family members arrive in the area you set as your “home.” You may ask that some people like young children, parents or pets do not carry a smartphone, so how do we do it? Simple. Place a SmartSense Presence sensor in their backpack, purse or around their collar to know when they come and go, and in the case of pets, if they plan a daring unexpected escape!

Smart Protection - This is totally different from Smart Security System which I'd mentioned earlier. This smart protection is for the kids at home. While you’d love to be there to watch your children’s every move, chances are you don’t have eyes in the back of your head. That’s where a smart home comes in. Since home security should extend inside your home too, it also allows you to protect your family by monitoring and securing dangerous and off-limit areas. You can get immediate alerts if children open things like cleaning supply cabinets, medicine drawers, or worst, gun cases. By placing a Smartsense multi sensor on a door, window, drawer, or cabinet of an off-limit area, you’ll be able to receive an immediate notification if these things are opened unexpectedly. And if you have smart lights or an alarm, you can even choose to trigger your lights to flash or change color, or your alarm to sound when off-limit areas are accessed.

Availability & Sustainability

So with all the benefits that we had seen for a Smart Home user's perspective, we would ask if it's readily available in the market? And how far can it go to produce the same comfort? After years of hype, home control and automation products are gaining speed, enabling these types of scenarios in what marketers call the smart home. Technology professionals say hardware prices have decreased dramatically over the past few years, making home control goods far more affordable. Retailers are eager to be a sales channel for these products and related services, rather than technology companies.

We should be doing more with less and, wherever possible, we should aim for self-sufficient, off-grid homes, as this benefits our environment and us. But technology also brings a certain amount of extra clutter - gadgets, remote controls and wiring, therefore designers need to make furniture that conceals things better. Nobody wants to see power points and cables lying aroud the house. Designers need to think about where to hide them without making them difficult to access. It takes a lot of effort to make something look effortless.

Pros & Cons

For those who enjoy the convenience of home automation, smart home devices fit the bill. Smart home technology can control everyday tasks such as starting the coffeemaker just before the user’s alarm goes off so that the coffee will be hot and ready by the time the user walks into the kitchen. Other devices control various features of automated home security, such as the ability to remotely monitor motion sensing cameras or activate the security system automatically at the time you normally go to bed.

The smart thermostat, for example, learns the behaviors of its users, such as when they go to work and come home, so the thermostat adjust the temperature of the home to an energy-efficient temperature until just before the user arrives. This saves money on the monthly electricity bill as well as maintains the proper temperature for its users so they don’t have to.

However, smart home technology can be expensive. It can also require expensive add-ons that will replace existing fixtures eg. light switches and controls may need to be changed out from basic light switches to "smart" controls that are able to accept input from the programs that you have in place to run the software that keeps your smart home together. Many of these devices do not yet communicate with each other or even on the same network. Smart home tech companies use different proprietary systems of communication, and users must have an app for each individual device rather than one app that controls them all.

The wireless signals for smart home technology can often be interrupted by complex electronic devices such as televisions and computers, and this can lead to phantom signals, weak signals and unreliable operation. Any additional electronic device added to a smart home can potentially cause problems with the existing wireless smart home technology.

Ultimately, a smart home is one that makes everyday tasks easier for homeowners - everything from switching lights on and off, to setting a security alarm when you leave the house, to managing the home heating and cooling. Life will be much more convenient if all the devices and appliances within the home are connected, allowing them to synchronise and communicate with each other to anticipate a homeowner's actions and habits. Homes are smart only when they enhance the quality of life for those living in them.