A smart home is more than just a collection of smart devices and appliances; it is a network that can be controlled remotely.

A master home automation controller, also known as a smart home hub, controls all devices, including lights, thermostats, security systems, and appliances. This hub is a hardware device that serves as the center point of the smart home system, sensing, processing data, and communicating wirelessly. It unifies all of the various apps into a single smart home app that users can manage remotely. Smart home hubs include the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Wink Hub. Many smart home items connect to the smart home network via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, while others employ wireless protocols like Zigbee or Z-Wave.

Smart home gadgets can be designed to follow certain schedules or commands, or to respond to voice requests via home assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. For example, a smart thermostat may learn the homeowner’s behaviors and change the temperature based on their schedule.

What Are Examples of Smart Home Technologies?

Almost every facet of life where technology has infiltrated the domestic realm, including lightbulbs, dishwashers, and other appliances, has seen the emergence of a smart home equivalent.

• Smart TVs. These TVs connect to the internet to access content through applications, such as on-demand video and music. Some smart TVs also include voice or gesture recognition.
• Smart lighting systems. In addition to being able to be controlled remotely and customized, smart lighting systems can detect when occupants are in the room and adjust lighting as needed. Smart lightbulbs can also regulate themselves based on daylight availability.
• Smart thermostats. Smart thermostats, such as Google Nest, come with integrated Wi-Fi, letting users schedule, monitor and remotely control home temperatures. These devices also learn homeowners’ behaviors and automatically modify settings to provide them with maximum comfort and efficiency. Smart thermostats can also report energy use and remind users to change filters.
• Smart door locks and garage door openers. Homeowners can use smart locks and garage-door openers to grant or deny access to visitors. Smart locks can also detect when residents are near and unlock the doors for them.
• Smart security cameras and systems. With smart security cameras and doorbells, such as Ring, residents can monitor their homes when they’re away. Smart motion sensors can identify the difference between residents, visitors, pets and burglars and can send notifications to authorities if suspicious behavior is detected.
• Smart pet and lawn care. Pet care can be automated with connected feeders. Houseplants and lawns can be watered using connected timers.
• Smart kitchen appliances. Brands such as LG, GE and Samsung offer smart kitchen appliances of all sorts. These appliances include smart coffee makers that can brew a fresh cup automatically at a programmed time; smart refrigerators that keep track of expiration dates, make shopping lists or even create recipes based on ingredients currently on hand; slow cookers and toasters; and, in the laundry room, washing machines and dryers.
• Smart household monitors. Household system monitors can, for example, sense a power surge and turn off appliances, sense water failures or freezing pipes and turn off the water so the home doesn’t flood.
• Smart plugs. These connect to wall sockets to transform simple home devices, such as lamps and ceiling fans, so they can be controlled remotely via mobile apps and voice assistants such as Alexa.

Smart Home Technologies Pros and Cons

Smart technology provides several benefits, ranging from the ease of running household appliances like the washing machine while at work to the comfort of remotely changing the temperature on a cold winter day.

Pros

Common pros of a smart house include the following:

• Provides assurance. Homeowners can monitor their homes remotely, countering dangers such as a forgotten coffee maker left on or a front door left unlocked.
• Accommodates user preferences for convenience. For example, users can program their garage door to open, the lights to go on, the fireplace to turn on and their favorite music to play once they arrive home.
• Offers peace of mind. IoT devices enable family members or caregivers to remotely monitor the health and well-being of seniors, allowing them to safely remain at home longer, rather than moving to an assisted residence.
• Improves efficiency. Instead of leaving the air conditioning on all day, a smart home system can learn homeowner behaviors to ensure the house is cooled down by the time they return home.
• Saves resources and money. With a smart irrigation system, the lawn is watered only when needed and with the exact amount of water necessary. With home automation devices and a smart system setup, energy, water and other resources are used more efficiently, which helps save both natural resources and money for the consumer.
• Manages tasks. Smart virtual assistants, such as Google Home or Amazon Echo, can accomplish tasks through speech recognition and voice commands. For example, homeowners can use voice commands to turn on music, search the web and control their household smart devices.

Cons

However, home automation systems have struggled to gain traction, owing in part to their technical complexity. Common cons of a smart home include the following:

• Requires a reliable internet connection. An unreliable internet connection or a network going down in the event of an outage can leave the devices and gadgets connected to a smart home inoperable.
• Perceived complexity. Some people have difficulties or a lack of patience with technology. Smart home manufacturers and alliances are working on reducing complexity and improving the user experience to make it enjoyable and beneficial for users of all technical levels.
• Lack of standards. For home automation systems to be truly effective, devices must be interoperable regardless of manufacturer and use the same protocol or, at least, complementary ones. As it’s a relatively new market, there’s no gold standard for home automation yet. However, standard alliances are partnering with manufacturers and protocols to ensure interoperability and a seamless user experience.
• Questionable security. IoT devices introduce security challenges because most of them lack built-in encryption. In addition, they can serve as access points for the broader network’s sensitive data, increasing the attack surface. According to a recent report from consumer IoT market research firm Parks Associates,55% of consumers areconcerned about the security of their smart home devices. If hackers can infiltrate a smart device, they could potentially turn off the lights and alarms and unlock the doors, leaving a home defenseless to a break-in.
• Lack of data privacy. Many smart homeowners also worry about data privacy. According to the Parks Associates’ research report, about 72% of consumers expressed worry or strong concern regarding the security of their personal data collected and transmitted by smart home devices. Likewise, they’re equally concerned about the potential unauthorized access or control of smart devices without their permission. While smart home device and platform manufacturers collect consumer data to better tailor their products or offer new and improved services to customers, trust and transparency are critical to manufacturers looking to gain new customers.
• Expense. Even though prices are coming down, many smart home devices are still expensive, and an entire house makeover could cost thousands of dollars.

What is in a Smart Home?

Typical smart home setups include lighting, thermostats and speakers, all connected by a dedicated smart hub or a smart speaker. But again, it’s really up to you. Your smart home should include components that you will use and enjoy.

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Here are some smart devices that you can consider adding to your home:

• Lights and light switches
• Outlets and electrical plugs
• Smart thermostats
• Speakers and sound systems
• Media streaming devices
• Door locks
• Video doorbells
• Security cameras
• Garage door openers
• Smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
• Coffee makers
• Washers and dryers

As previously established, a smart home is essentially a network of connected gadgets. These devices communicate with one another by sending information over a predefined radio frequency. Wi-Fi is one such frequency, accessible to everyone with internet access and a Wi-Fi router.

Other wireless network standards, such as ZigBee, Z-Wave, Thread, and WeMo, have emerged to facilitate the operation of smart homes. These standards are marketed as more efficient and less likely to interfere with your existing Wi-Fi connections. However, unless you have a complex configuration with numerous battery-powered gadgets, Wi-Fi should suffice for your smart home network. (Most smart devices can connect to Wi-Fi, but some cannot so check the specifications before making a purchase.)

An essential shopping tip: Before purchasing a smart gadget, make sure it is compatible with your smart hub.

Here’s one smart home difficulty you may encounter: Not every smart hub is compatible with all of these wireless standards. So, determine which standards your smart hub or smart speaker supports and then shop for components accordingly.

How to Set up a Smart Home

Newly built homes are often constructed with smart home infrastructure in place. Older homes, on the other hand, can be retrofitted with smart technologies.

Zigbee and Z-Wave are two of the most common home automation communications protocols in use today. Both use mesh network technologies and short-range, low-power radio signals to connect smart home systems. Though both target the same smart home applications, Z-Wave has a range of 30 meters versus Zigbee’s 10 meters, with Zigbee often perceived as the more complex of the two. Zigbee chips are available from multiple companies, while Z-Wave chips are only available from Sigma Designs.

Also, Matter — the newest smart home standard that was launched in November 2022 — is gaining momentum. Developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance — previously the Zigbee Alliance — Matter is supported by major smart home manufacturers including Amazon, Apple and Google. This IP-based protocol is specifically designed to solve the compatibility challenges of smart homes, providing a framework that facilitates seamless communication across devices, apps and cloud services.

Some smart home systems can be created from scratch, for example, using a Raspberry Pi or other prototyping board. Other systems can be purchased as a bundled smart home kit — also known as a smart home platform — that contains the pieces needed to start a home automation project.

While setting up a smart home can sometimes be complex, homeowners should consider the following general steps:

1. Invest in a strong, reliable internet connection. Because smart home connectivity relies heavily on an internet connection, it’s important to ensure the homeowner has reliable and fast internet service.
2. Select the hub. It’s important to decide which hub to use for a smart home. For example, if the homeowner wants a fully automated smart home, a hub that can centrally control every device is most likely required. However, in other cases, a virtual assistant that can link to other devices on the same network could suffice. Most average hubs might not include extra capabilities such as built-in voice control, even if they’re compatible with a wide range of devices. On the other hand, smart speaker hubs, such as Amazon Echo, let users provide voice commands and accomplish various tasks, such as inquiring about the weather or requesting a grocery list.
3. Start with the basics. Start with basic items such as smart plugs, smart bulbs and switches for the smart home, as they’re quick to set up and can easily automate many different things around the house. For example, smart plugs can automate fans, lights, lamps, slow cookers, curling irons and space heaters.
4. Secure the devices. Because most IoT and smart home devices don’t have in-built security or encryption, it’s important to set up strong passwords and multifactor authentication to prevent unauthorized access to these devices.
5. Add more devices. As the homeowner becomes more comfortable with creating a smart home, they can add more devices, such as security systems, cameras and video doorbells, to the mix.

In simple smart home scenarios, events can be timed or triggered. Timed events are based on a clock, for example, lowering the blinds at 6 p.m., while triggered events depend on actions in the automated system; for example, when the owner’s smartphone approaches the door, the smart lock unlocks and the smart lights go on.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly popular in smart home systems, enabling home automation applications to adapt to their environments. For example, voice-activated systems, such as Amazon Echo or Google Home, contain virtual assistants that learn and personalize the smart home to the residents’ preferences and patterns.

Future advancements in smart device technology will merge language models with virtual assistants, such as ChatGPT. Some companies are already employing this technology to create their own personal assistants, while Amazon is working on a huge language model to improve Alexa.