Manage lighting, appliances and protect the house: we tell you what else smart home systems can do and which one is better to choose!
A smart home can take on many routine tasks and free up enough time for more enjoyable activities. The system itself will start cleaning, prepare the apartment for the return of the owners, and even turn on your favorite music. In this article, we have collected the best smart home systems with brief descriptions by category.
Many manufacturers offer basic ready-made kits for acquaintance. They include a small set of sensors, integrate with appliances or control the lighting in the house. Usually this is enough to start with, to decide whether it is convenient to use the interface and whether you need this system.
Already have a smart home – how to improve? In the future, you can additionally purchase new devices and sensors to expand the functionality. For example, when buying a humidifier, connect a temperature sensor – then the device will change modes on its own without your participation.
Ecosystem selection. Although every year new appliances appear on the market that we could not even think of before, we should not exclude that it will not appear in your home either.
Therefore, select popular smart ecosystems in advance so that they can work properly with a large number of manufacturers. The most popular ones are Mi Home from Xiaomi, Apple Home Kit, Google Home, Yandex, etc. Some devices from different “families” are remarkably friendly with each other. Please refer to product specifications for exact compatibility information.
It’s definitely not worth saving on the latter – as we wrote above, it’s easier to pick up additions to well-known brands in the future. Simpler systems can be installed independently, and for complex installation and connection, you will have to turn to specialists.
Wired and wireless. It is better to provide for the installation of the first option at the stage of rough work in order to hide all cables in the walls or in the corrugation under the self-leveling floor. Wireless – the most popular, the connection takes place via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. They can be connected already in the finished interior, without compromising aesthetics.
What tasks are solved by different systems
Let’s figure out what a smart home includes and what functions it performs.
Home security from burglars. For these purposes, sensors and surveillance cameras are used that respond to movements in a certain area. If the door is opened by someone else, an alarm is triggered and a message is sent to the owner’s phone. Advanced users complete this set with smart locks. For the first floors, it is also recommended to use glass break sensors.
Safety. Many owners install gas and smoke detectors. They work on the same principle – as soon as a reaction occurs, the owner will be immediately notified and will have time to take action.
Lighting control. Such systems allow you to adjust the brightness of the light and turn it on without any effort. You just tell the voice assistant to dim the lights, and it sends a signal to the smart bulbs. Thanks to this, you can abandon the dimmer, which takes up space on the wall.
Disable sockets. The dream of many anxious and forgetful has come true: you no longer have to carefully check whether all appliances are unplugged before leaving the house. Using the application, you can turn off the power of entire zones or individual devices, leaving only what should work without your presence.
Weather in the house. With the help of temperature, air humidity and pressure sensors, a healthy microclimate can be monitored and maintained. For example, if it gets hot, the air conditioner will automatically turn on or a window will open for ventilation.
Voice assistants. Thanks to smart speakers, appliances, lights and everything else can be controlled by simply saying the right command aloud. And the smart speaker immediately performs it, addressing the signal to the desired device. In addition, she can turn on music, make a to-do list, and even be an easy conversationalist.
Which smart home is better to choose: top 12 systems
Philips Hue Starter Kit. One of the best sets that is “friendly” with many ecosystems, including Yandex and Apple. You can control both using the native application and voice commands for Alice.
The set is produced with classic white and colored lamps. But the last option is the most popular. With it, you can not only regulate warm and cold lighting temperatures, but also create many unusual scenarios. The application has 50 thousand shades of light for the lamp, you can choose a specific one or turn on one of the ready-made programs – up to an imitation of a stormy sky. For each individual source, a color or mode setting is available.
Many users shared that they managed to synchronize this backlight with the image on the computer like Ambilight. Another plus of this system is that the life of the lamps during continuous operation is approximately 3 years.
PS Link Lighting. The basic set includes touch switches that are mounted into the wall instead of a conventional socket, as well as a Ps-Link ZGW01 remote control and gateway. In the future, if desired, it can be supplemented with sensors supporting the ZigBee protocol.
There are modifications with a different number of appliances designed for standard apartments: one-room, two-room and studio. Their cost depends on the configuration. This is a great solution for those who connect smart lighting for the first time.
The PS-Link kit is part of the Toya Smart ecosystem. You can control the light by touching the touch switch, using the remote control and using the TUYA app on your smartphone from anywhere via WI-FI. It is also convenient to set up automatic switching on / off of certain light sources according to a schedule. For example,