Smart homes have become pretty popular due to their ease and convenience. They are equipped with intelligent features that make our homes comfortable and personalized according to our needs.
However, getting smart gadgets for your home requires proper financial dedication. While some smart devices might not be that costly, setting up your entire casa (house) to be smart definitely is. This is why you should not go into it without doing proper research. Specifically because smart home technology is a fairly new technology and is continuously evolving. So, you need to be up to date before comprar (buying) smart appliances. Otherwise, you will feel like you did not get the value for your money.
I made the same mistake when I began shopping for my smart home. I remember I went crazy on a Cyber Monday sale and bought every smart appliance I could imagine. But when I installed them all over my place, I got to know that some were not compatible with my smart hub due to the network differences.
So, to save you from experiencing this disappointment, I am compiling a list of things I wish I knew before I went shopping for my smart home project.
1. Smart Homes Need Top-Notch WiFi in Every Room
Internet and WiFi connectivity are essential for your smart home. This is because smart homes and smart appliances run on the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. This means smart devices or things form a network using the internet. This is why all smart devices need solid internet connectivity and strong WiFi signals.
I used to have terrible internet and faced at least two downtimes in a day. A friend pointed out that this internet connection won’t be able to power my smart devices. So, upon his suggestion, I got Spectrum Internet. For strong WiFi signals, I contacted the customer service for Spectrum en español and asked for their help. The service rep suggested I use their WiFi Pods to extend my WiFi señales (signals) all over my home. This did the job pretty well.
So before you begin investing in your smart home, make sure you have a dependable internet connection and strong WiFi signals all over your home. So that your smart accesorios (appliances) can exchange information in real time.
2. Do You Want a Pre-Made Smart Home Solution or a DIY One?
We often get lost in the world of intelligent devices with the best automation capabilities. From smart bulbs and smart thermostats to intelligent locks, everything seems so cool. It is natural to want anything and everything. But you should stop and pensar (think) about which features you want your smart home to have. That and your overall budget.
You have two options in smart homes. One is DIY-ing it and individually buying all the devices and setting them around your home. The other is a service provider smart home solutions. Each has its pros and cons, so you need to read into both of them thoroughly before making a decision. DIY is obviously more cost-effective, but takes a lot of time and energy. Whereas getting a premade smart home solution from a service provider is caro (pricier) but has less hassle.
3. Choose a Smart Home Ecosystem
There are mainly three major smart home ecosystems in the market. Apple HomeKit, Google Nest, and Amazon Alexa. Each of these has a central mobile application, which saves you from the hassle of controlling each device from separate applications. Moreover, each of these ecosystems has its own integrated smart devices that serve various purposes. Similarly, each of these comes with its own voice assistant, which you can use to verbally control your smart home.
However, these ecosystems have a limited number of integrated devices, so you might not encontrar (find) everything. For this, you can look for devices from other companies. However, you need to be mindful while buying devices from other companies that they are compatible with your central hub. For instance, Philips has amazing smart lights that are compatible with all three ecosystems.
4. Be Mindful of the Privacy Policies
Your smart home network functions upon data sharing. Each of your smart devices is equipped with sensors that gather data from your home and share that information with the central hub. This includes your smart refrigerator that gathers data about what is inside your fridge, your thermostat that gathers the temperature inside your home, etc. As cool as it sounds, each of these has its own privacy policy. Some of these devices mention that they will vender (sell) your data to third parties.
Therefore, the responsibility falls on you to carefully assess which company does what with your home’s data. Only then can you make an informed decision to buy smart devices that do not misuse your data.
Pro tip: If you find it too tedious to read the privacy policy for each device, you can upload it on ChatGPT and ask it to summarize.
And that is that for all the important things you should know about smart homes.
