Smart Home

Smart homes automate and connect your household appliances, giving you more control than ever before. Enjoy the convenience of securing, operating, and monitoring your house even from another side of the world.

The first and foremost reason to buy a home automation system is for comfort and security. Other benefits include convenience, remote access, savings, and peace of mind.

There are a variety of devices and appliances that can be connected and controlled in a smart home setup. The most common ones fall into four categories, and they are lighting, climate control, entertainment, and security.

Making your whole house smart is NOT necessary. You first have to prioritize all your options and then decide whether to invest in a full-scale home automation network or in separate smart gadgets.

No matter how you plan to buy the home automation systems or devices, always make sure that you choose your devices carefully because not all devices are compatible. You need to verify that the devices or systems you want to buy actually work together.

A smart home automation system lets technology take care of your home and business. In just a few clicks, life is made easy and every device connected to the home automation system can be controlled through a remote or an app installed onto your smartphone or tablet.

Begin by looking around your home and noticing the little annoyances that you wish could be automated. If you’re constantly adjusting the thermostat, you probably need a smart thermostat. If you accidentally leave the lights on, then check out smart light bulbs. Concerned about securing your home from a break-in? Smart security cameras are the way to go.

This is an important question to ask when looking to purchase a specific device. Some smart home technology has offline functionality, but others will offer app controls without Internet. For example, the Arlo Q cameras have an SD card, so they can continue recording footage even if the Internet isn’t working. There are also devices with battery backup in case your power is out.

Internet and power outages are often rare, but it’s important to point this out as a potential drawback for using devices connected to the Internet.

This is (understandably) a big concern for many customers. The most important step for securing your smart home is the same thing you do for a router or printer: set up strong, unique passwords. Some devices come with default usernames and passwords installed; it typically has a username of admin and a password of something like password123. We recommend avoiding these devices altogether, because if anything it shows that the gadget is not that concerned with cybersecurity. But if you end up with one of these, at the very least change the password immediately.

No. But it is listening for a command, also called a wake word, like "Hey Google..". Only when it hears its particular prompt, will it spring in to life.

What a smart speaker may record are your interactions with it. That's how it learns and adapts to your voice and preferences.

If you are concerned, smart speakers usually have a mute button, so you can control when the microphone is active. And you can always access and delete your voice history from Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri.

Smart home hubs are small and plug into your router. They don’t look like much, but they can function as the brains behind your smart home. Two popular hubs Nexus Home Plus and Nexus Ultimate. These hubs communicate with the devices around your home, connecting them to each other and the Internet. The big advantage to hubs is that it allows you to automate more smart home gadgets together. Hubs allow you to control all compatible devices within one app.

If you're looking to invest in your comfort and convenience, smart homes are worth the investment. They also serve other advantages, such as enhancing the homeowner's level of safety, as you can easily see if any electricals have been left switched on and they also boost your home's value and marketability.

Like all internet-connected devices, smart homes are unlikely to, but could be hacked. To keep your smart home secure, you should ensure all passwords are strong, invest in a good quality system, enable multi-factor authentication, reguarly update your devices, install security software and make sure you secure your network.

Smart homes allow homeowners to remotely control items throughout their house such as appliances, lights, cameras, locks and more, using an internet-connected device like a smartphone or computer. This provides the homeowner with added comfort, convenience and cost savings.

Since things like sensors, processors and controls all consume power, smart homes do have the potential to consume more electricity which can add up over time. In saying this, some smart devices such as thermostats and smart plug strips actually work as ways to reduce electricity usage.