How Centralized Should Your Smart Home Be?
Smart home technology makes it easy for you to connect a wide range of devices to create a highly centralized system. This leads to questions about how centralized a smart home needs to be. You are the one who will decide, but here are four things to think about when it comes to smart home centralization.
Cost
Generally, highly centralized smart homes tend to be more expensive. Much of the cost comes in the form of installation. If an installer has to connect everything from the ice maker to the security system, they also have to make sure it all will work. Consequently, a technician will have to connect more devices and perform more tests.
There is nothing wrong with going all-in on centralization. However, if you're concerned about cost or wish to invest the money in other improvements, using a less centralized setup will likely save some money.
Quasi-Centralized Options
Notably, many smart devices can serve as hubs for quasi-centralized systems. Typically, people prefer to centralize everything on their smartphones, anyhow.
However, you'll need to be selective. Foremost, this approach requires a phone that can handle the job. Suppose you're going to have your phone constantly pinging a security system, lighting setup, home theater room, nursery monitor, and sound system. It needs to have sufficient processing capacity and wireless connectivity to handle that along with your usual phone activities.
Compatibility becomes a big issue with quasi-centralized smart home technology. You have to plan around the connectivity standards of every device. While Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have made this easier, you don't want to centralize everything with a tablet that uses an old version of Android, for example, only to find out the lighting system requires the latest version of the OS.
Necessity
The necessity of centralization varies from customer to customer. If you have a lot of unrelated smart systems in a house, such as lighting and HVAC controls, you may not need a central hub. Conversely, if you want to have access to security cameras so you can check who's at the door while you're watching TV, that may call for a centralized configuration.
Convenience
Combining everything into a single setup is almost certain to be more convenient. If you already hate living in a world where TVs need three controllers just to turn on, centralization is probably the right choice. While you have to make a bigger investment upfront to centralize your smart home technology, it can make your whole setup much easier to operate.
For more information, contact a company that provides smart home technology.