There are a few things I wish I had known before starting my smart home journey. If you are a new user, you likely will encounter similar challenges along the way. I am sharing my experience to motivate you to take the plunge and join thousands of others around the world and enjoy the excitement of living in a home that is not only connected, but smart.
The process will take time
Be patient. Unless you are working with a consultant and/or an installer to gather your requirements and configure devices on your smart home, you should expect the process to take time. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. You will have the opportunity to learn and implement automations overtime as you discover the need to automate. In my experience, the best home automations are based on the routines of a household overtime and not generalized automations that have been shared with you as inspirational codes.
As you install new devices and configure your own smart home automations, you will find the need to incorporate and combined different types of devices to make your automations more responsive. Because you will not know in advanced all of the automations you will need at the onset to make your home smart, you will therefore have to allow the process to evolve as you continue to develop expertise and build upon your existing automations .
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Automating a smart home does not have to be an expensive undertaking
A DIY smart home can be expensive but it does not have to be if you have access to the right resources to build your system. It is all about your approach and attitude. The following strategies should help you reduce cost:
- Install inexpensive sensors for non-security critical automations to get acclimated to smart home technology before buying more expensive devices and equipment.
- Strategically space out your purchases over a period of time to spread your expenses and minimize large upfront purchases.
- Consider buying certain devices used at this time and replace them later after you gain more experience with setting up a smart home.
- Purchase your smart home devices during holiday sales when you will be able to possibly snatch particularly good devices at lower cost.
Start with the right smart home technology platform
The smart home technology platform you adopt is important. It will be determinative of your success in the long run. Invest the time and do your personal research and select a smart home technology platform you are comfortable with. If you are a new user, you should be noncommittal to any platform at the beginning until you have tried several and find one that you understand and enjoy using. You should commit to adapting a specific IOT platform for your smart home Only after you have done your research and determined that the particular platform is the right system to help you automate your home.
Choose and stick with one voice assistant ecosystem at the beginning
You do not want to run your smart home on every voice assistant ecosystem out there. Your system will be just too difficult to maintain and for you to guard against compatibility issues overtime. Thus, to minimize future disruptions and compatibility issues, you should choose a voice assistant at the beginning and stick with it unless you develop compelling reasons to make a change down the road.
The popular voice assistant ecosystems are Google, Amazon, Apple, and Samsung. While some compatibility concerns will be addressed with the upcoming Matter standard at the end of 2022, it is still a good practice to commit to one voice assistant ecosystem as you configure your smart home. For me, as a personal choice, I run my smart home on Google Assistant in conjunction with Home Assistant and with SmartThings lurking in the background for certain tasks.