From the emergence of the do-it-all Amazon Alexa to the quick and easy iOS smart home apps, home automation has been on an upward climb in direct correlation with the rapid rise of the technology industry, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication. The main goal of making homes smarter with technology integration has always been to provide homeowners with efficiency, comfort, security, and convenience, regardless of who is or isn’t home.
As of 2013, the smart home market had a global value of $4.4 billion, with a projected $21 billion growth by 2020. However, despite the projections, many homeowners don’t seem to be convinced that smart-ifying their homes should be a priority or is something worth investing in. But how come?
Barriers to Entry
It seems that many of the available products aren’t convincing consumers that they’ll be secure, efficient, or convenient. According to CNBC, The trouble so far has been the technology itself: Consumers aren’t sure how to integrate it into existing home systems. Plain and simple, they don’t know how to use it. A 2016 Deloitte UK study found that 48% of consumers are concerned about price, 26% aren’t convinced the technology is where it’s supposed to be, and 70% said they do not plan to buy a connected device in the next year.
The data also tells us that people are much quicker to buy into connected entertainment devices: 28% of the Deloitte study respondents have smart TVs, 26% have game consoles, 11% have a video streaming device, and 10% have wireless speakers. On the flipside, only 3% have invested in a surveillance security system or smart thermostat, 2% in a smart home appliance or smart lighting, with 48% investing in none of these.
This investment gap arguably points to an anxiety over larger systems that seem more complex and difficult to install, integrate, and manage. Hooking up an Apple TV must be much easier on the brain and the wallet as a security system or thermostat, right? Not necessarily.
Start Here
Smart home gadgets don’t quite fit the essentials category just yet, but there are products headed in that direction because of their ability to bring ease to necessary daily activities that buyers say they can no longer live without.
Systems that seem cheaper and easier to integrate doesn’t make them the better investment, and it may also be the case that you haven’t discovered the right products yet. There are a number of companies that have made it their design philosophy to be user-friendly, fit your home’s current technological ecosystem, and achieve those aforementioned goals ” comfort, convenience, security, efficiency ” of the smart home industry.
But how are you supposed to find them? Don’t worry; we put our Goldilocks hat on for you and curated a list of the top smart home products worth investing in and that won’t send you into a headache of User Manual hell. To keep your venture into smart home devices simple, here are a few worth starting with.
A Comprehensive Security System
Security systems aren’t just for wealthy homeowners (an old stigma that needs to change). Advances in technology have made security systems more seamless than ever, and according to Business Insider, security devices are helping to drive smart home market growth, despite the less-than-impressive Deloitte numbers mentioned earlier. In 2014, 41 million systems were sold compared to 400 million in 2017. The options, however, can be overwhelming.
What will make your investment worth it is finding one with comprehensive, customizable coverage, wireless / mobile integration and monitoring, and one that’s proven its user-friendliness and legitimacy with high Better Business bureau (BBB) ratings and reputable awards, an example being SimpliSafe’s home security system. According to their Crunchbase profile, they’re a winner of CNET’s Editors’ Choice Award and have an A+ BBB rating. Reviewers and verified buyers also sing SimpliSafe’s praises, often noting plug and play set up, more than fair pricing, and most importantly, performance, which was given a 10/10 on CNET.
Good Lighting
First, there were Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) bulbs, and now there are smart light bulbs which are ready to re-revolutionize energy-efficient lighting, and making your home smarter doesn’t get much simpler than screwing in a lightbulb. The leader of the pack so far is Philips Hue thanks to its Alexa integration, user-friendly setup, price, and usefulness (as noted by happy Amazon customers). While smart light bulbs cost more upfront, they’re said to last 40,000 hours compared to an incandescent’s 1,000, and still have the same energy-saving benefits as LEDs, which can lead to $250 billion in energy costs over 20 years if more people used them.
An Energy-Efficient Thermostat
Sticking with energy efficiency, another essential product for the modern, eco-friendly individual is a smart thermostat. According to Nest, their thermostat can save people 10 to 12% on heating and 15% on cooling, and based on average costs, those percentages equal out to about $131-$145 a year. They’re starting to get some worthy competition, however, with players like Ecobee entering the game.
Stronger WiFi
Most consumers are unhappy with their internet providers, and until WiFi is as readily available as air, there are smart routers to the rescue. Eero, for example, is known for being simple to customize to your space and comes equipped with its own mobile app. Their competitive strength comes from what they call TrueMeshâ„¢ software, developed via big data collected from countless homes and machine learning, which works to make sure their routing algorithms can integrate within any kind of home layout and with any connectable device.
A Trustworthy Assistant
As Datafloq author Audrey Willis points out, ubiquity doesn’t automatically make something overrated, and Amazon Echo’s Alexa is a worthwhile investment not because she’s new, but because she is beginning to gain integration with other smart home devices. Virtual assistants are undoubtedly going to become a smart home essential, and they don’t have to be complicated or scary. Alexa can control other smart devices from lights to thermostats.
But what about Google Home, Alexa’s top competitor? No matter how much you compare, the best hub is the one that’s right for your specific product needs. Decide which products you find essential (hopefully this list helped!), and then see which system will seamlessly integrate with them.
In the end, you don’t need to be connected to everything, but smart home technology is becoming not only more integrated with other technology, but within our daily lives. The more integrated it becomes, the more essential it’s likely to be. Focus on what’s most important to you and you’re sure to find a solution within a user-friendly, new wave product designed with you in mind.
Think of this list as your Smart Home Starter Kit, and please share any products that you’ve tried, tested, and loved in the comments! Our favorites often come with some kind of mobile app or mobile integration, so you can use those factors to guide you when shopping around.
