Smart home, smart living, intelligent home - all of these describe interconnected devices in the house and garden that can be controlled by an app or control center. They make your life more comfortable, make your home safer and protect the environment. In this article, you will learn what defines as a smart home and what advantages it offers you – as tenant, home owner and landlord.
What is a Smart Home?
The smart home can include everything from wireless sockets and window sensors to water detectors, LED lights and intelligent locking systems. The basis for a smart home is formed by intelligent devices and sensors networked with each other via Wifi or Bluetooth, which are usually coordinated from a control center. This is now usually an app installed on a smartphone or tablet and, if necessary, connected to a voice assistant. Behind it is powerful software that also enables time-based control or individual programming.
Comfort, energy saving, security – the advantages of a smart home
Whether intelligent lighting, monitoring your home against burglary and fire or heating control – through a smart home you not only benefit from comfort and security, but also contribute to climate protection by saving energy. The smart home takes work off your hands and saves you time and nerves that you can use for things that are close to your heart.
What is part of a smart home?
Smart home, smart living, intelligent home – all of these describe interconnected devices in the house and garden that can be controlled by an app or control center. They make your life more comfortable, make your home safer and protect the environment. In this article, you will learn what makes a smart home and what advantages it offers you – also as a landlord.
This includes smart lights whose hue and brightness you can adjust individually. In addition, you can program your lighting system to times to match the time of day and your daily routine. For example, let yourself be gently awakened by slowly dimming up the light in your bedroom. Intelligent lighting not only gives you added convenience – programming means you don’t have to be home to turn the lights on/off. The effect of making your home look occupied even without you being home can protect against burglars.
In addition to presence simulation through intelligent lighting, smart locks and surveillance cameras also protect against burglars. With smart locks, you grant yourself and your guests access to your home by manual control via an app – even if you are not even at home. Video doorbells also make sense for your protection. In addition to video surveillance, they send you a message to your phone. Of course, this is especially convenient if you want to instruct the parcel carrier to drop off your package when you are not at home.
If you want to keep a permanent eye on your home or keep checking to see if your dog or cat is behaving well, it’s worth buying smart indoor or outdoor cameras. Smart surveillance systems not only send you a message to your terminal in the event of uninvited guests, you also have the option of having pictures sent to you or communicating via the systems using an intercom function. Door or window sensors provide the necessary security that all windows or the balcony door are really closed. These can also be networked with a smart smoke detector, for example, which not only sounds the alarm on site when unusual movements are registered at the sensors or smoke appears, but also sends a message to your cell phone so that you can react quickly.
Thanks to the connection to your smartphone, you can find out about the power consumption of all your devices at any time and from anywhere. If necessary, you can also switch them off while on the move.
With a smart heating system, you control the temperature in each room so that it’s your desired temperature at all times. By programming to times or location-based control – the so-called geofencing – you already come home to a warm home without having to heat through during the day or can start the day in the pre-heated bathroom. This saves you energy and heating costs while protecting the environment.
The best-known smart household helpers are probably robotic vacuums and mowers, as well as watering systems for the garden. These can be set manually or programmed for specific times (and also locations). Smart plug-ins help turn on electrical devices at the touch of a button or on a schedule. For example, you can enjoy your first coffee right after getting up.
Ensure data protection through encryption & regular testing
In Germany in particular, data security and data protection are writ large. Many manufacturers of smart home devices have responded to this desire for security: When sensitive data leaves the house via the Internet to be stored online, it is usually encrypted in a complex way. In some cases, manufacturers even encrypt at the standard of Internet banking. Many companies use their own servers in Germany or regularly test their data security. Nevertheless, a residual risk cannot be avoided, of course. Therefore, always find out how your chosen provider handles (extremely rare!) scenarios such as hacker attacks.
Smart living is worthwhile in any case, because it increases your living comfort, your security and protects the environment. The costs for a networked and automatically controllable home start at €1000. Starter kits, on the other hand, can be purchased for as little as €200. Of course, a smart home is especially useful for renting out furnished apartments on a temporary basis. At Hope Apartments, we have been working with Nuki’s smart locks for several years now. This makes our apartments more attractive to tenants, as check-in and check-out can take place at or repairs at all times of the day. By introducing smart thermostats from Fritz! for heating, we have seen lower utility costs. This keeps our apartment rents at a competitive level. But smart homes are not only attractive for tenants – we think that even if it is only a small contribution to the protection of the environment that you and we can contribute, it is a very efficient and comfortable one.
