Making a Smart Home

One of the top trends of 2023 is how to make your home more “smart.” “Smart Home” is a term used for home automation devices that have access to the internet. This gives homeowners control over their appliances even when they are not in. This is great for helping you save money and being able to prepare your home for when you get in E.G turning your heating on to warm your house up. In this article we will look at appliances you can use to turn your home “smart.”

History 

Home automation can be dated back to the early 1900s when products such as washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators were being introduced into homes. Although not being full smart as we have today, home automation created a lot of freedom for households and helped reduce time for basic day to day tasks.

Smart plugs

A great place to start in setting up your smart home, is by using smart plugs. Smart plugs allow you to control your lighting from your phone while you are at home or while you are out. It’s a great way to make sure that no lights have been left on once you have left the house to help you save on your energy bills. When buying a smart plug, we recommend you use the same branded plugs as it will keep all your lighting on the same app, meaning you won’t have to swap between multiple apps. 

Lighting

In addition to smart plugs, you may want to control your lighting more than just turning it on and off, this is when you use smart lighting. Having smart bulbs will allow you to control the brightness, the colour temperature, and the actual colour of the bulb (depending on the bulb). Smart bulbs are great for allowing you to set the mood for your home. We stock Link2Home’s smart bulb you can find here. 

Room thermostats

A room thermostat will efficiently control the temperature of your home. It does this by monitoring the air temperature in a room and communicating back to your central heating system to adjust it accordingly. A smart thermostat can help to reduce energy bills as your heating will only be turned on when the room is below the desired temperature and will turn off once that temperature has been met. Some smart thermostats like the Google Nest can be voice controlled, creating a hands-free experience to the users. We stock Link2Home and Nest’s room thermostats to help you control your room temperature.

Doorbells

A smart doorbell replaces your traditional doorbell and connects to your homes Wi-Fi network. When your doorbell has been rung it will notify you via your smartphone, and depending on your doorbell, it will allow you to see and speak to the person at the door in real-time. Most smart doorbells will come with a camera and motion sensors, this way, you will still receive notifications when someone is near your property which can also help deter trespassers. We have a variety of smart doorbells available, suitable for domestic and commercial use. You can browse the range here. 

Fire, Heat & CO Alarms

Like most smart devices, fire, heat & CO alarms will notify you when the alarm has been triggered. If your home is fully integrated with smart technology, then there are features that become available to you. One of the big features is the integration with smart lighting, when an alarm is triggered, you can set your lighting to flash or change colour, clearly highlighting to you and people outside your home, where the fire is coming from. Other features can show you what the problem is (this is only really relevant if you have a smoke and CO alarm) and can even tell you the severity of the smoke. It is important to not that not all alarms will have these features. We stock Nest’s 2nd generation smoke and CO detector and will help you protect your home from fire risks even while you are away.

Creating a smart home helps you to control what is happening around your home and in the long term, helps you save money. 

We stock a variety of product ranges and brands, suitable for converting your home into a smart system. Link2Home offers a range of products perfect for this conversion.