Living style has changed greatly in India, and many people wish to live in a space with great facilities. That’s why modern people’s thinking has changed when they build a home for themselves. Owing home is a dream for everyone, and now people are willing to invest the maximum budget to build the home they want.
A smart home is an idea that started in European and North American countries years ago, but it’s now emerging in India. When building a house, it’s essential to buy some smart home gadgets that make your home extraordinary. Technology has tremendously grown to make life wealthy and simple.
Top companies like Amazon and Google have their smart home assistant and many third-party devices are compatible with those platforms. Almost many devices that include in the smart devices category like bulbs, LEDs, fans, switches, etc. They come compatible with the well-known smart home assistance services.
A simple command can do anything at your home with these smart devices.
Choose home assistance devices
The first step in building a smart home is by choosing a smart home assistance. As of now, there are two providers and they are the top in the world. You may heard about them.
- Amazon Alexa
- Google Home
Alexa
Alexa by Amazon is my recommended AI assistance platform for building any type of smart home. Now many smart devices are compatible with Alexa and easy to configure. Alexa was introduced with the pure intention of getting answers from its smart speaker connected to an Amazon server by simple voice commands. When you ask something in the form of a command with a specific wake word AAlexa, it’ll return the appropriate answer for your query.
For example, Alexa, what is the time now
When you command like this, it’ll answer so that you need not get up and walk to see the clock on the wall.
But as technology grows fast, engineers make it compatible with other devices so that when you command what you need to perform, it’ll do.
Alexa is an AI-based home assistant and there is a smart speaker in connection with it. You should connect the smart speaker to the WiFi network so that the device can establish a connection with the server. It’s essential to connect with the server because when you ask Alexa, the command is processed and the answer is generated from the server.
Now many smart devices are compatible with Alexa.
For example, smart bulbs.
You can set up and configure the smart bulb with Alexa, and you can simply turn it ON, turn it OFF, adjust brightness, etc with simple Alexa commands.
For example, Alexa, please reduce the brightness up to 30%, it’ll reduce your smart bulb’s brightness to that much percentage.
Google Home
Google Home, powered by Google Assistant, is a powerful platform for creating a smart, interconnected home. Google has made this awesome smart home assistance platform and it can be integrated into various smart devices to control them with voice commands. Can be used as automation, or just use your smartphone to control various devices at your home.
Its functionalities are similar to Alexa, but a small difference is there.
Whether you’re looking to control the lighting at home, secure your home, or manage your entertainment systems, Google Home provides the tools to enhance convenience, comfort, and efficiency in your daily life. It makes your home completely smart.
So, what would you choose?
It’s up to your choice. If you are already using Alexa mobile application on your mobile phone, you may know more about it. Both of them have huge compatibility features and work with almost any smart device in the market.
What you can do with smart home assistance?
Lighting control
One of the superpower features of smart home assistance people use is lighting control. people are too lazy to switch ON or off the light by waking up from their seats or the bed. So, with a smart bulb or smart light connected with the home assistance, you can simply switch ON/Off the light.
Philips Hue is the smart bulb that I am using which has great compatibility with the both smart assistance. Now I can simply adjust the brightness and change the color. I can adjust it to my mood.
If I need a dim light and want to enjoy the music, I always prefer dimmed light in some bluish or reddish color and fall in the mood. I can do this either on my mobile with an installed application or with a simple voice command.
Temperature control
With the help of thermostats like Nest and Ecobee, we can control the temperature in our homes. But in India, it’s not very popular the thermostats since major places are not too obsessed with the weather. But in up hills where the weather condition is too conditional like too much cold, we can use temperature control thermostats. But I think you have to import the products that are compatible with the home assistance.
Entertainment control for TVs and music systems
It is an era of smart TVs, smart speakers, and streaming services for both music and movies like Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Netflix, Spotify, etc, all of them are compatible with smart features so that the users can simply control them with simple voice commands.
We know that smart TVs are now used everywhere, and they are compatible with Alexa as well as Google Home. If you make it connected with Alexa, you can simply change the channels, watch movies, volume control, brightness/contrast control, etc with a voice command.
Smart security at your home
There are home security systems available that are compatible with smart features. They can be connected to smart home assistance and you can monitor them and check the visitors at your home with your mobile from anywhere in the world.
Is it found interesting?
I know it is.
Now doorbells and home security systems are available you can keep your households safe and secure. Smart home assistants like Alexa, and Google Home make it easier for you to control all of them.
You can connect to the home security system with the mobile phone application, and with the help of Alexa, simply check the camera angles, videos, etc with the phone.
Smart universal remotes & control hub
Universal remotes are a type of remote control that can be compatible with multiple types of devices at the same time. We all may use a universal remote for our TV, that is any remote which is simple and only used to work with any branded TVs.
But there are some advanced smart universal remotes available like Sofabaton U1 (A Chinese brand), but used well in North America, is an advanced smart universal remote with an OLED display. This universal remote can be used to control more than 15 devices at the same time. You need to pair it with the devices so that this universal remote can be used to control them.
Voice assistance is included in it. One another feature is ACTIVITY.
You can simply set an activity when you choose, it performs that particular action.
For example, when you set Movie time, it’ll turn on your favorite movie streaming platform like Netflix, Hotstar, or another that you have set.
This smart universal remote is compatible with both Alexa and Google Home to make it better in your living space.
What about the Remote hub?
The universal remote comes with an advanced remote hub. You can use or cannot use and it is up to you. When you install the remote control hub, you can simply control the device located at another portion or another room at home.
To switch ON the iron box, you can perform it by being in your room with the help of the smart switches. The hub acts as a center point where it co-operates with all other devices. Controlling the different gone through this hub.
The remote control has three communication options. If you have Bluetooth, Infrared, and WiFi connectivity devices, you can control all those devices using the advanced smart universal remotes.
Smart plugs and switches
These are smart automation devices to automate different devices in your home. They can convert your non-smart devices to smart ones. These can remotely control non-smart devices Via voice commands.
A smart plug is an ordinary plug that can connect to your electric outlet and this plug acts as a control system for the devices that are connected to the other devices.
I can explain with an example,
A smart switch or plug can be controlled with your mobile device with the help of an application. Once you connect your fan to the smart plug, now you can simply control the fan too. Because the plug is a device that is used to switch ON/Off a device. So, when you control both of these operations, the connected device will affect and thus control it. But the fan is not a smart device. So, what we have done? With the help of a smart plug, we remotely controlled the fan. Additionally, we can regulate it too with the mobile application platform.
If we have connected the smart plug with any of the smart assistants like Amazon Alexa, just a simple voice command is enough to control it.
I am using this method to regulate the fan speed in my room.
When I get into the bed, there may be huge humidity, so, I need to set the fan speed at full speed. But when time goes on, the full speed becomes very cold, so no needed fast running fan. So, with the help of voice commands, not getting up from the bed, I can simply reduce the fan speed. Is it awesome?
Additionally, you can save energy by scheduling mechanisms. Schedule the time to turn off the devices so that at that time the device will be automatically turned off even if you are not at home. Saves energy for you.
WiFi is essential for setting up your smart home
There is a common thing that you need to set up smart living. That is a strong WiFi network. All the smart devices are working through a WiFi network and it acts as a major medium for communication. For smart assistance like Alexa and Google Home, it must be connected to the server to perform various activities.
Do not compromise getting a good internet connection from the best service provider. I have written about the best internet service provider in one of my posts in the blog section.
If your WiFi is poor, you can’t explore the full potential of the smart home devices and the associated services. There are many unlimited plans available from various service providers, and you should invest in a good internet service provider to get smart living at your home. The Internet is such an important factor.
Pro Tip:- If your home is big enough to get the WiFi throughout the rooms, you can use a WiFi extender device and install it to reach the signal all over the home. It will have signal boost features that allow running your smart devices efficiently.
Conclusion
Keep updated with my blog because I’ll share the setting up of various smart devices that I have already set in my home. It’s a bitter truth that technology is almost 6 years far behind in India when compared to European and North American countries, but if you have passion, you can simply follow them and make a smart home that is trending in those countries. Because we can not import the devices from there from various E-commerce platforms.
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