What is a smart home and what makes it "smart"

While home automation professionals have been toiling away for decades, IT's emerging IT giants like Google, Amazon, and Apple that are really driving the smart home market. Although "Home Energy Systems," "Home Automation Systems," or "Home Management. Terms like Systems are familiar to many professionals, but it's the influx of consumer technology that has given rise to a new industry term, the Smart Home, and a wider focus on the industry.

Just a few years ago, smart homes were rarely on the radar of Australian homeowners. The Australian home Internet of Things (IoT@Home) market is expected to reach $5.3 billion by 2023, according to research conducted by Telsyte, an Australian emerging technology analysis company.

Telsyte's research found that at the end of 2018, more than 50 percent of Australian households -- about 4 million households -- had installed at least one home iot device, a 30 percent increase from 2017. The average home is expected to have 37 "smart" devices by 2023, about half of which will be home iot devices.

What makes a house smart?

In a smart home, it's enough to have devices that can "turn on" or off lights? But actually, do you still use the switch?

Most people would agree that a smart home should be able to adapt to the user's needs. So is the first step in building a smart home to use motion sensors that are already ubiquitous?

Or does it require a complete system, such as the Kelns Collins Smart Home, more applications to make the house smart or a higher level of automation?

These are all legitimate questions. The real answer is that these devices or systems must be as smart as their users and installers. Improper installation may lead to smart home "disaster", not only can not let the user experience intelligence, but also bring a lot of trouble. For example, due to the frequent movement of children in sleep, the sensor frequently detects the movement, so that the light in children's bedroom cannot be turned off; Smoke sensors in the kitchen can set off alarms if you're cooking a little too smoky; Or air conditioning system due to the temperature sensor by television and other electrical thermal radiation will automatically adjust the temperature of the room too low and so on.

These machines and devices are not intelligent in themselves, they just work according to established procedures. The same is true for smart home solutions. In order to answer the question "what makes a house 'smart'", we need to answer the following questions:

Can the house respond to demand on its own?

Does it improve the overall health of the family?

Are precautions taken so that no one can easily change the installation?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then installing a smart home solution may not be a "smart" decision.

How to make true "intelligent" intelligent household?

When we look at a room and its applications, there's a lot of information that might immediately come to mind. Such as:

Storage room → motion sensor

Gym → Air conditioning + air quality

Laundry room → Water alarm

Sunroom → shading, ventilation, temperature control

...

However, going back to our quote at the beginning of the article, we need to understand that it's not the devices we use, but how we use them that matters. The main purpose of the smart home is to meet the personalized needs of the homeowner, which requires full consideration, planning and design, and direct and open communication between the homeowner and the solution provider.

Many homeowners may be influenced by ads from manufacturers of voice-activated devices such as smart speakers, convincing them that buying a single device will automate their homes. For example just say "Hey! XXX, turn on the corridor light "such advertising, make users think smart home is very easy. However, when users buy the product, they find that there is a small line of suggestions on the beautiful promotional page that needs to be used with other products in order to achieve the so-and-so function.

It may seem easy to automate your home by buying and installing equipment from well-known brands, but a real smart home is only true when the homeowner's needs are fully met. To realize a real smart home, not only install one or two smart devices, but also need a complete set of smart home solutions, and need to fully communicate with the homeowners to customize personalized solutions.

Houses need to be as smart as the solutions they install and the people who live in them. The number of solutions, apps, or list of features on your device does not represent "smart." Technology can never achieve intelligence, only with the right planning and the ability to realize the full potential of the house, whether automatically, manually or remotely, can truly achieve "intelligence".