Can home automation and making your home “smart” save you money? Though it was only a pipe dream when we were children, making your home smart and respond to your voice or presence is now a reality. Thanks to smart lights, audio, voice assistants, and other appliances, you can automate your home in so many novel and useful ways. Here are some ways to convert your home into a smart home suited for different budgets – as well as how to finance your smart home conversions.
Why go smart?
Having a smart home is almost like pitching the case for having a smart phone – why wouldn’t you want an entire home that can make life easier for you? However, a smart home has many more benefits than simply having voice activated lights or music. Many smart appliances are more energy efficient; smart lights are LEDs, which use a fraction of the wattage of incandescent or even CFL lights. Since one can automate their appliances, there’s less power wasted overall as algorithms and AI can make automatic adjustments, optimising power consumption. It can also improve the value of your home if you decide to sell.
Quick ways to a smart home
The quickest ways to enhance your home is to install smart lights or smart appliances. This may range from switching out your traditional Edison screw or bayonet lights with LED smart lights which can be controlled via smartphone or voice controls. These LED lights can be programmed to switch on or off depending on the time of day. You can also turn existing appliances into “smart” ones by connecting them to smart switches, which can turn anything plugged into mains on and off depending on ambient temperature, time of day, or whether you are at home or not. Adding a voice assistant such as Google Home or Amazon Echo can also help you connect all these appliances together.
Total smart home conversions and renovations
Smart homes can be built from the ground up or older homes can be converted into them with some renovations. This may start with installing smart air conditioners or split systems for monitoring air quality. Other renovations may be installing smart Hi-Fi systems, smart fridges, smart vacuum cleaners, smart security systems, and even smart charging systems for EVs (if you have one.) You can make even more savings by installing computer controlled solar power or solar hot water systems.
Financing a complete smart home
Before investing in a smart home, you’ll likely need to finance some of the bigger items – especially if you are making structural changes such as switching to LED downlights. Though you can pay for these using credit cards or home equity, it may end up costing you far more in interest. A personal loan is usually more cost-effective. You need to learn what to expect in terms of getting a personal loan by using a borrowing power calculator to see how much you’ll be paying back each month. Even if it does seem like a lot, remember you’ll be saving money long-term – and reaping all the benefits of living in a comfortable and smart home!
