Using Smart Home Technology — Smartly!

When it comes to smart home technology, there are an endless amount of possibilities if you have an unlimited budget. The first decision you need to make is what are your priorities and how much they weigh against each other. Some want their home to automate various household duties so they get more time for other tasks in our life. Many of us look at smart home technology as a way to increase the value of our home investment. Some look for security enhancements, especially as the world becomes more crazy. Other considerations are the “wow” factor. The ability to say, I have this and it is great! Most of us have multiple priorities, but they are not all of equal value.

Make a list of your wants. I want to automate some maintenance tasks. I want help with the efficiency of tasks like laundry, cooking, etc… Your concern may be energy consumption without having to negatively impact your day-to-day life. Once you have that list, break each item down into how that happens. Do you want to upgrade your lawn watering from the garden hose sprinkler setup to a permanently installed irrigation system with soil water sensors and computer controls? Now you need to work with the right specialists to see how you are going to accomplish your wants and what will it costs. Another consideration is the complexity of the solution. If you are not technically inclined, you do not want a solution that requires constant human supervision/input to ensure optimal performance.

Now you need to look at the various solutions and see which is the priority. It may be that you really want to install solar panels with a whole house battery option, but considering you have a new roof and the cost of installation, it may not be as good of an investment as upgrading various household appliances. Both would give you productivity/efficiency improvements but with completely different household impacts and budgets.

This is where someone like myself who is familiar with a very wide range of technologies can be really helpful. I can help you make this decision with informed knowledge. Coordinate the solution with various installers to minimize the installation disruption to your life and household. Make sure you are left with the appropriate knowledge to use and maintain the new technology.

For example, you decide that you want to improve energy efficiency to minimize AC needs. So upon reviewing your current setup, we tackle this problem with multiple solutions. First we review your AC equipment to see if it should be upgrade or replaced. Let’s assume that your unit is not new but fully functional and not horrible on energy usage. Next we look at your home. Maybe we think about windows. Something simple like upgrading to double pane windows with blinds built inside between the glass panes could be a major enhancement. We might also consider your home insulation. Insulating everything probably doesn’t make sense but enhancing the attic insulation and maybe just doing the west/south facing exterior walls could give us significant enhancements to your ability to control the interior temperatures without needing extensive AC usage. Let’s say when you recently did that roof upgrade you installed some skylights that have the ability to open and close using a manual hand crank. Now we have an opportunity to really think about smart technologies. Using a local contractor we could install a motor to open and close the skylights via the manual hand cracks. The motor could be installed on a “smart switch”. Now that switch can be controlled wirelessly via an app on your phone. Lets assuming you install a whole house fan that you also can control via a smart switch. You would probably set up another switch/controller on your AC system. Now you can use your phone to turn on/off the AC, open/close the skylights, turn on/off the whole house fan, etc…. Depending on the app involved, you could have all of that tied directly to some temperature settings. So if temperature is above X use AC and close everything up. If it is between X and Y; turn off AC, open skylights, and turn on whole house fan (assuming the rain sensor says it is dry). If it is below X, close everything up and turn heater on.

Someone like myself can help you see the effective solutions for today and the long term plan so as equipment is replaced over time you have technology that can work together. There are even AI systems that can monitor, control, and optimize these technologies assuming you make informed decisions about compatibility.