Smart home additions are incredibly popular nowadays. They give us a glimpse into the future of home technology, giving us the ability to control the appliances in our home with our voice or even automatically by learning our habits. However, is smart home technology really all that it’s hyped up to be? Is it something that we can rely on, or is it just a passing fad?
Smart homes offer a lot of creature comforts
Photo by Jonathan Borba on UnsplashIf there’s one thing to be sure of, it’s that smart homes can offer a lot of creature comforts that we typically wouldn’t have with a regular home. For example, being able to automatically adjust heating zones in the house so that it’s always the right temperature in each room, or being able to control the lights with a convenient mobile app instead of going over to a light switch. These are fantastic little creature comforts that make us feel like we’re in the future already.
But they can also help you save money in the long run
Many of these creature comforts can actually help us save money as well. For instance, we can use smart air conditioner systems such as EcoSense to monitor the temperature of our home and deliver air conditioning only to rooms that need it. This is a great solution for saving money because it drastically reduces the amount of money we spend on home cooling and it’s automatic, meaning we won’t find ourselves in a situation where we accidentally leave the heating or cooling on and thus waste money.
They’re not as difficult as you think to install
Installing smart home features is also quite easy. In most cases, you can install smart home appliances by yourself without the need for professional assistance. For example, smart lighting is as easy as replacing a light bulb and then connecting to it from your mobile device. There are really clear instructions that will tell you how to pair your mobile device to the smart light, and there are plenty of features to help you control its settings.
But they can be fairly expensive right now
Photo by Dan LeFebvre on UnsplashSadly, one of the downsides to buying into the smart home ecosystem right now is that it can be rather expensive. While individual devices aren’t that expensive, it does take quite a few purchases to make the most of your money. Buying one of the Amazon smart home hubs is a great example of this. These hubs are always on sale and they’re incredibly cheap for what they’re capable of. However, you only add functionality by pairing it with other devices in the home. For example, if you have smart lights then the hub can control them by listening to your voice. However, you’ll need to replace each light in your home with a smart bulb if you want it to be controllable with your voice.
They can also be a security risk
There’s no doubt that there are some security risks that come with smart home appliances. They’re essentially always connected to your local network to some degree and it’s not impossible for someone to hack into your network or the device itself and take over it. Sadly, this is just one of the risks of using new technology and there’s always a slight chance that it can happen. Fortunately, it’s not that common and you can generally protect yourself by investing in quality products. However, if you buy cheaper smart home equipment, then there’s always a possibility that it can be taken over by hackers. This is just one of the potential security risks that you’ll need to come to terms with.
Is a smart home the future we’ve always wanted?
Smart homes have given us a glimpse into the future. It offers a lot of conveniences and there are a lot of automatic features that can help us save money and live a more comfortable life. With that said, there’s still some time to go before we can embrace a fully automatic home that adjusts to our needs and listens to our every command. It’s going to be expensive and there are going to be software bugs and security risks, so we should give it a couple of years to mature. As with many kinds of technology, we generally see it go down in price as its performance increases. In a few year’s time (or even next year at this rate) we’re going to see smart devices come down in price and have more features than ever before.
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© Copyright 2021 Antonia, All rights Reserved. Written For: Tidylife
