A smart home is a residence that uses internet-connected devices to enable the remote monitoring and management of appliances and systems, such as lighting and heating.
Smart home technology — also often referred to as home automation or domotics from the Latin word domus, meaning home — provides homeowners security, comfort, convenience and energy efficiency by letting them control smart devices, often using a smart home app on their smartphone or another networked device.
A part of the internet of things (IoT), smart home systems and devices often operate together, sharing consumer usage data among themselves and automating actions based on the homeowners’ preferences.
A smart home isn’t a collection of disparate smart devices and appliances, but rather ones that work together to create a remotely controllable network.
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All devices — such as lights, thermostats, security systems and appliances — are controlled by a master home automation controller, often called a smart home hub. This hub is a hardware device that acts as the central point of the smart home system and can sense, process data and communicate wirelessly. It combines all the disparate apps into a single smart home app that homeowners can control remotely. Examples of smart home hubs include Amazon Echo, Google Home and Wink Hub. While many smart home products use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect to the smart home network, others depend on wireless protocols such as Zigbee or Z-Wave.
Smart home devices can be either programmed to follow specific schedules or commands or they can be set to respond to voice commands through home assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. For example, a smart thermostat can learn the homeowner’s habits and automatically adjust the temperature based on their specific schedule.
Nearly every aspect of life where technology has entered the domestic space — including lightbulbs, dishwashers and other appliances — has seen the introduction of a smart home alternative:
Smart technology offers numerous advantages, ranging from the convenience of running household appliances such as the washing machine while at work, to the comfort of remotely adjusting the thermostat on a chilly winter day.
Common advantages of a smart home include the following:
However, home automation systems have struggled to become mainstream, in part due to their technical nature. Common disadvantages of a smart home include the following:
Newly built homes are often constructed with smart home infrastructure in place. Older homes, on the other hand, can be retrofitted with smart technologies.
Zigbee and Z-Wave are two of the most common home automation communications protocols in use today. Both use mesh network technologies and short-range, low-power radio signals to connect smart home systems. Though both target the same smart home applications, Z-Wave has a range of 30 meters versus Zigbee’s 10 meters, with Zigbee often perceived as the more complex of the two. Zigbee chips are available from multiple companies, while Z-Wave chips are only available from Sigma Designs. Also, Matter — the newest smart home standard that was launched in November 2022 — is gaining momentum. Developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance — previously the Zigbee Alliance — Matter is supported by major smart home manufacturers including Amazon, Apple and Google. This IP-based protocol is specifically designed to solve the compatibility challenges of smart homes, providing a framework that facilitates seamless communication across devices, apps and cloud services.
Some smart home systems can be created from scratch, for example, using a Raspberry Pi or other prototyping board. Other systems can be purchased as a bundled smart home kit — also known as a smart home platform — that contains the pieces needed to start a home automation project.
While setting up a smart home can sometimes be complex, homeowners should consider the following general steps:
In simple smart home scenarios, events can be timed or triggered. Timed events are based on a clock, for example, lowering the blinds at 6 p.m., while triggered events depend on actions in the automated system; for example, when the owner’s smartphone approaches the door, the smart lock unlocks and the smart lights go on.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly popular in smart home systems, enabling home automation applications to adapt to their environments. For example, voice-activated systems, such as Amazon Echo or Google Home, contain virtual assistants that learn and personalize the smart home to the residents’ preferences and patterns.
While every smart home is a smart building, not every smart building is a smart home. Enterprise, commercial, industrial and residential buildings of all shapes and sizes — including offices, skyscrapers, apartment buildings and multi-tenant offices and residences — are deploying IoT technologies to improve building efficiency, reduce energy costs and environmental damage, ensure security and improve occupant satisfaction.
Many of the same smart technologies used in the smart home are also deployed in smart building technology, including lighting, energy, heating and air conditioning, and security and building access systems.
For example, a smart building can reduce energy costs using sensors that detect how many occupants are in a room. The temperature can automatically adjust, turning on cool air if sensors detect a full conference room, or turning the heat down if everyone in the office has gone home for the day.
Smart buildings can also connect to the smart grid. Here, smart building components and the electric grid can talk and listen to each other. This technology can manage energy distribution more efficiently, handle maintenance proactively and power outages can be responded to more quickly.
Beyond these benefits, smart buildings can provide building owners and managers with the benefit of predictive maintenance. Janitors, for example, can refill restroom supplies when usage sensors monitoring the soap or paper towel dispensers indicate they are low. Maintenance and failures also can be predicted in building refrigeration, elevators and lighting systems.
Smart home technology has come a long way in the past few decades. The following timeline shows significant events in the history of smart home technology:
Future developments in smart device technology will combine language models and virtual assistants, such as ChatGPT. Some companies are already using this technology to build their own personal assistants, while Amazon is currently working on a significant language model called large language model to improve Alexa.
When selecting the appropriate IoT communication protocol, it’s important to recognize that not all protocols fit every device or deployment. Explore the top 12 IoT protocols and standards to find the best one for your needs.
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