What got me thinking.

Having lived with a smart home in some form or another for over a decade, it’s often hard to imagine how life was without it. However, when other teens come to visit our daughter for the first time the reaction is usually one of wonder.

I recently had one kid in their late teens ask how much it cost to make our home so smart. It made me ponder for a moment, and then I told him a more condensed version of what is to follow.

While a smart home ecosystem can easily cost thousands, if you follow the always be improving mantra and start small with continual improvements the cost can be spread out over time. This approach gives you a project while improving your life as you go.

How it started.

We started with just a projector instead of a traditional television in our living room, then added a program that could read email alerts as they came in, which was useful but limited in scope. From there we curated a digital library of our DVDs, photos, and digital audio. This allowed us to stream to any compatible devices in any room of our home.

The build-up.

Fast forward a couple of years and we had a streaming device on each television and a centralized server for our content fully tuned and set up to record as a DVR. Then finally we introduce the next biggest thing, a hub. This smart device hub enabled us to set up routines, be a security system, control a thermostat, and even lights.

But first, we had to actually get some compatible devices.  We bought a few sensors, a smart thermostat, and a few light bulbs. We thought we were something! Then after creating custom settings based upon our lives and a few months passed it was clear, we had saved money on our electric bill! Saving money became a driving force and we replaced as many things as possible with smart items little by little, sale by sale. Within two years the majority of the house was smart and would auto change the thermostat based on if we were home, away, or within a geofence that set the thermostat back to normal.

Today I speak, and everything listens.

My home now has smart lights in every room except the bathroom, smart speakers in every room, and auto locks the doors each night before arming the alarm. If no activity is detected during the day the system will automatically run the robotic vacuums on both floors of the home. I can check my home inside and out remotely over my camera system, and let the mail person know to just sit the package on the front steps if I’m busy. 

All of this is made possible by following the principle of making sure that everything I do is always an improvement over the last iteration.

The massive amount of devices on our network has necessitated that we have a small business class network, which I will write about in another post.