What you need to make your home a Smart Home

Why should you have a Smart Home?

With a Smart Home from Smart Living you will be saving energy, increasing your comfort at home and away, get better security and surveilliance and best of all - It is a lot of fun and everyone can do this. See more benefits and usages at the bottom of this page.

Recommendations

We all have our preferences, but for a beginner I would recommend to focus on using Zigbee based devices due to the very low consumption and good range reducing the need of cables as many device runs 1-2 years on a coin cell battery. If you use an Iphone, it may be tempting to go with the Apple products, but to reduce costs and increase optional devices, I would recommend SmartThings (most devices and flexibility) or at least eWelink. Both apps are free and works with all Sonoff and most Zigbee devices (for eWelink you would need a bridge/gateway but more about this later). Sonoff is recognized as a quality brand with good stability at reasonable costs. For voice control, I would recommend Google Home or Amazon Alexa also here as they offer the most flexibility at the lowest costs.

How to build a Smart Home

Step 1

You need a controller (brain of the system). This could be a Zigbee gateway like ZBBridge, ZBBridge Pro, or or the Aeotec Hub. Personally. If you want a really low budget, you can even start with your just Smart Phone and apps like SmartThings (Samsung) or eWelink. If you want voice control try adding Google Assistant, Samsung Bixby or Apple's Siri to your Smart Phone (Free apps).

It is recommended to add a home assistant like Google Home, Alexa or Apple Home Kit (Apple devices only), if you plan to add more intelligent devices to your Smart Home later.

First you need to make your lights intelligent. You can use either intelligent light bulbs like SONOFF B05-BL-A60 or ( for build in LED's or other lights that are not yet available for WiFi) make your wall switches intelligent by adding a Smart Switch. Smart Switches can either be installed by automating your existing wall switches with DualR3 or Mini or just replacing the old wall switches with new intelligent switches (most, but not all, need both live and neutral lines). Then finally add motion and door sensors to control your lights according to motion, schedules, temperature etc. to ensure lights are only turned on when needed in order to save electricity.

ll is quite simple to install, but if you need advice or help do not hesitate to contact us on WhatsApp or Messanger. Tell us what you want and we design your system for you. If you purchase the devices from Smart Living, we will even make the design free of charge.

Step 2

Now you are ready for the more advanced automations of your home.
If you want to add several Smart Things, you should have a dedicated HUB, like Aeotec Smart Hub, Google Home or Alexa. You will then be able to add appliances like vacum cleaner, fridge, TV/audio and almost all other smart devices. With the DualR3 Smart Switch you could also remote control or automate your blinds or aywnings, or with the iFan04 if you want to automate your (old) fan. A Sensibo Sky A/C Controller can save you a lot of money on the consumption of your heatpump or aircondition, by controlling the runtime and operation of the A/C.

You can also add thermostats for heating and hot water, camera surveiliance, a smart door bell with camera and audio, smart locks or basically whatever you want. If a device runs on electricity, you can connect it to your Smart Home. 

To make it easy for everyone to operate the Smart Home, you can connect Smart scene switches like the SwitchMan R5, allowing anyone in you home to benefit from the comfort of a Smart Home. The ultimate step automation is perhaps a control panel in every room like the NSPanel Pro from Sonoff or a wall mounted Android tablet with a virtual control panel like Home Assistant or SmartTiles.

The possibilities are endless and every day a new Smart device is launced. A Smart Home gives you great comfort and an energy saving home.

 

How can a Smart Home help me?

• By managing your heating systems, air condition, and lights to be turned on and off at certain conditions (movemement, access, temperature, time, etc.) you can reduce your energy bills considerably
• A Smart Home is an incredible daily help if you have a physical disability. With your voice or a remote control you can turn on and off your home appliances like lights, cameras, heating, A/C, access control (unlocking/locking doors) etc. without moving around.
• If you own a holiday home or multiple apartments used for renting, you can easily monitor energy consumption and access control from anywhere. For your own comfort, you can turn on the A/C or heating in advance, so you arrive in a welcomming, warm home.
• Energy savings to benefit the environment and your finances, by automating electrical appliances like lights and heating to when it is needed
• Security by monitoring your home while away and automate lights and curtains makes your home look inhabited
• Make your home even more comfortable by turning all lights on when you arrive home after dark and turn all off when leaving.
• Create zones in your home to control each room independantly
• Manage all electrical appliances by your voice, your Smart phone, a control panel or even with gestures.
• Avoid exessive electricity bills (by rentals!) by turning off the air condition, if windows and doors are left open
• Forgot to turn off the keddle, oven or iron? No problem! You can check and if needed turn it off with your Smart phone while away
• Use Smart Home for audio and video distribution throughout your home. Turn on relaxing music in the bathrooms or listen to the news in the bedroom in the morning.

Only your creativity decides the possibilities. Basically everything with an electrical wire can be automated. If you have a special request for automation, do not hessitate to contact Smart Living - We love challenges and will assist you finding the best solution.