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Smart home: a smart home. Everything you need to know

Intelligent installations used to be only the domain of office and public buildings. For several years, this trend has been successfully functioning in construction on a much larger scale, also in the field of frame houses. Are you thinking about implementing a smart home? Check out the information about smart home in a nutshell!

Table of contents

What is a smart home?

A smart home is a system that allows you to operate home appliances remotely and automatically. We are talking m.in about lighting, heating and alarms, but also various devices such as blinds and gates. In fact, it is up to us what our smart home system will include. The use of such a system affects the efficient management of the house and translates into comfort, safety and savings. The key to smart home is that the devices communicate with each other and adapt their operation to the current conditions.

Smart home – examples of solutions

Before we decide to implement a smart home – it is worth learning more about the possibilities of such an installation. Below are examples of solutions that can be included in the system:
– Lighting control: Automating your home’s lighting allows you to turn lights on and off (as well as control light intensity) without touching the switch on the wall.

– Heating: we can remotely change the heating settings and adjust the temperature to our return home.

– Gas and smoke detectors: sensors connected to other devices that, when a danger is detected, alert the household members to a possible danger and activate ventilation.

– Roller shutter automation: a very convenient solution that allows you to remotely control external roller shutters.

– Door and window sensors: any attempt to open a door or window will be recorded in the system, which will be notified by the control device.

– Monitoring with a motion sensor: we can observe what is happening in the house and the surroundings (also when we are outside it), and motion sensors will cause that we will be informed when someone appears on our property.

Smart-home

Closed and open systems of the smart home

Installations can differ not only in the degree of development and capabilities, but also in the concept of its implementation and the way the devices communicate.

There are two main types of systems that allow us to use a smart home – closed systems and open systems. In the case of a closed system, we are dealing with devices from the same manufacturer – it is not possible to connect devices of different brands with each other. This is possible thanks to an open system that ensures the compatibility of the software used.

Types of connections used

In addition, the currently used smart home systems can be classified in terms of types of connections: wireless (m.in. Zigbee, Z-Wave) and wired (m.in. xDSL, PLCBUS, Universal powerline bus, X10). Which one is the best? There is no clear answer. However, it is certainly worth noting that although a wired system involves wiring, it guarantees greater stability and smoother information flow. You can also find mixed connections (m.in. KNX, Insteon).

What is the cost of a smart home?

Taking into account the above information, it is easy to guess that the cost of a smart home depends on the investor’s expectations in terms of available solutions and selected technologies and specific devices connected to the system. We can get the functions we are interested in for as little as a few thousand zlotys. Nowadays, automatic home control is not a complicated technical novelty for which you have to pay dearly. Certainly, the cost may turn out to be lower if we plan to implement a smart home at the stage of building the house (also check how long it takes to build a house).