A Smart Home is one that provides its home owners comfort, security, energy efficiency (low operating costs) and convenience at all times, regardless of whether anyone is home.
“Smart Home” is the term commonly used to define a residence that has appliances, lighting, heating, air conditioning, TVs, computers, entertainment audio & video systems, security, and camera systems that are capable of communicating with one another and can be controlled remotely by a time schedule, from any room in the home, as well as remotely from any location in the world by phone or internet.
Installation of smart products give the home and its occupants various benefits — the same benefits that technology and personal computing have brought to us over the past 30 years — convenience and savings of time, money and energy.
Most homes do not have these appliances and systems built into them, therefore the most common and affordable approach is for the home owner to retrofit smart products into their own finished home.
Most products are available in one of four protocols (the means of communication between themselves) and all of these are compatible with the internet, phone, and cell phones. These are the names for the four: X10, Z-Wave, UPB and EnOcean. Products that use the same protocol offer the ability to add products and hardware at the homeowners own pace and budget. The system can grow to meet the needs of a changing family as time goes on. All of these products can be selected from various manufacturers, preventing an expensive obsolescence or non-competitive pricing.
