What IS a smart home? A frequent question. Usually followed by ‘why should I want one’? And sometimes throwing in The Internet of Things for good measure.
Simply, a smart home is a home in which systems talk to you, and each other.I find this is best illustrated by examples:
- My father is not as young as he was, so I will be alerted if he stops moving around for a while, or if he doesn’t turn on the lights after dark. His smoke alarms will send me a text if they go off – that is, he’s burnt the toast again.
- I can manage my heating from my phone. This one tool has saved me money as well as keeping me warm.
- My partner didn’t want to use more than one remote to manage the home cinema system (or TV, as she calls it). So her phone controls that too. And the lighting. One button does it all
- Keep a tag on your most prized possessions. Car keys, passport, whatever you keep misplacing.
So, in summary, why should you want one? First and foremost, to increase the security and safety of your loved ones. Secondly, to save money. And thirdly, to reduce remote clutter. Sussex Smarts has a smart home, and is going to be using it as a demonstration suite. Would you be interested in seeing it in action? Let us know…
All pictures form part of Sussex Smart’s live demonstration.
Sussex Smarts 