There’s no denying it, smart homes are cool, but are they worth the money? If you’re asking yourself, ‘how much does a smart home cost’ it really depends. The first question you need to answer is why you’re getting a smart home. The second question you need to ask is what features are non-negotiables. Everyone’s situation is going to be different so there’s no “one size fits all” solution. However, we can look at the different elements of a smart home and try and get a broad estimate. Some may think that they can get a few smart lights and controllers and they have a smart home.
But, that’s not really how it works. Setup takes some trial and error and figuring out which devices will provide the features you want will take research. Failing to properly plan your smart home can leave you with a bunch of devices you’ll never use.
Before you start planning your smart home, it’s probably a good idea to understand exactly why you’re planning on getting a smart home in the first place.
Why Do I Need a Smart Home?
Honestly, you probably don’t “need” a smart home, but there are plenty of reasons someone might want one. Right now, adding automation to your home can be a little expensive, but depending on why you are thinking of getting into it and what features you want to add, it might be worth the cost. Some reasons you might want a smart home:
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Saving Energy
I’m sure that by now you have heard of people saving tons of money on their energy bill by using smart thermostats. Well, this is actually one of the biggest reasons that people get in to smart homes. Not only can you set routines, but you can actually do things like have your thermostat turn on automatically when it sees that you are approaching your home. That’s just one of many examples of cool things you can do with smart thermostats. This technology has also been a huge help to the vacation home rental industry. Smart thermostats combined with smart locks make renting out a home almost fully automatic.
Best smart home devices for battling cold weather.
Advanced Lighting
I remember when I was a kid my mom used to turn on the lights to make me wake up for school faster. Well, with smart lighting you can combine your lights with a wake-up routine that will turn on the lights for you. Or a motion detector can turn on dim lights in the hallway when you’re walking to the bathroom at night. You can even connect your lights to an Alexa and have it do a fancy light show when you say something like “Alexa, it’s party time!” The point is that there are a ton of cool reasons you might want to get smart lighting in your home.
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Home Security
Home security is a big one. A smart home usually relies on a central hub. So it makes sense that you would have your entire smart home appliance setup attached to a security hub. Furthermore, you can utilize smart home features to give special access to guests or automatically arm your home when you are away. You can even connect your security cameras to your smart home setup and see who is at the door from your phone, talk to them, and unlock the door from across the globe.
Hobby
Of course with any new technology, there are going to be those who are excited about it for the sake of its cutting edge features. Smart homes are a great project for technology enthusiasts because there’s pretty much an endless amount of possibilities. You can even create your own smart home hub with something like a Raspberry Pi and open source platforms like Home Assistant or openHAB. This way you have complete control over the smart home features. And if you’re willing to do the extra work, you can probably cut down on the total cost as well.
Convenience
Obviously convenience is a huge reason people are interested in home automation. Controlling a playlist with your voice, or setting your garage door to open when return home are great features. You can set your lights on an automatic timer, having them turn on or off at a certain time to save electricity. Or, you can use the same feature to enhance home security when you are away from home.
Calculating Home Automation Costs
So now that you have a good idea of why you would want a smart home you can start to break down the different features you might want to add to your home. Adding something like a smart thermostat is pretty obvious; you spend a couple hundred now and save thousands over the course of ten years.
Security is another pretty obvious addition. You spend a couple hundred on advanced security, you can think of it as a type of insurance. Doorbell cameras may seem expensive, but they may be cheaper than having packages stolen from your porch. And of course, you can see if the person at your door is worth talking to, which, to me, is a feature worth paying for.
Door locks and garage door automation kind of depends on your situation. Having remote control of your locks is handy if you have guests frequently. Or maybe you have children that come home from school before you are off work. Many automated locks allow you to create temporary pass codes, which can be great for contractors or weekend visitors.
Then of course you have your voice assistants, smart lighting, and entertainment centers, which are really more for fun than they are practical. I mean sure you can save some money if your lights turn off when you’re not home, but with LED bulbs these days you likely not going to save much. So these features are going to be more for the hobbyist.
Why Smart Home Security
You can do a lot with a little with home security, so why go all in and integrate security with a smart home anyways? Well again, you don’t really ever need a smart home, but having smart home security can help out in a lot of little ways too. Keeping track of who comes and goes with door and windows sensors or detecting carbon monoxide are a few examples of data you would send to your smart security hub. I’ve read stories about people having smart security warn them of a carbon monoxide threat that they would have never known about otherwise.
If you’re interested in getting smart security you should consider getting a free quote online with Protect America.
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