How Technology is Helping Traditional Homes Become Smart Homes

What happens when a traditional home becomes smart? Heating and lighting devices come on at the perfect time. You can manage your entire home using your voice or an app on your smartphone- without lifting a finger. Your appliances such as the dishwasher and microwave send you text messages to advise you on what you need to do and when. In short, a smart home is like paradise! It is reassuring to know that you don’t necessarily have to build a new house from the ground up for it to be smart. A good architect can help you go around the thick stone walls of your traditional home and get a Wi-Fi signal to hard-to-reach corners or upgrade your old heating system.

Turning Your Traditional Home Smart: Is it worth it?

Yes, investing in a smart home is worth every penny. This is because it:

• Smart features increase your home’s resale value
• Enhances your home's safety and security
• Enhances lifestyle convenience
• Saves energy costs

Is It Possible To Transform An Older House Into A Smart Home?

Yes. All you need to do is install wireless technology in the house so that there’s a stable internet connection. If the home has thick stone walls that absorb Wi-Fi signals and prevents them from reaching certain corners/rooms, you will need something like a mesh-connected radio for optimal coverage.

Most traditional homes will require you to wire up as much as possible, so you may need to hire an architect to help you with the transition. Studio Forma is an example of how an architect can take your traditional home and turn it into a smart home in a heartbeat.  Architects bring to the table a vast technical knowledge for revolutionizing your home’s overall construction and electrical & HVAC design, all while ensuring that your initial aesthetic concept is upheld. 

How IoT Technology Can Turn Your Traditional Home Smart

Internet of Things (IoT) technology makes your household devices smart and interconnected. It allows you to, for example, connect your lighting or heating systems to an app on your phone, enabling you to command them (turn them on/off) from a remote location. IoT allows you to interconnect smart security sensors with smart surveillance cameras so that the two can communicate and collaborate to keep your home safe.

Here are other ways that this technology can turn your traditional home smart:

1.     Voice assistant

Voice-based home assistants in the market today include Amazon Eco, Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant. When you install any of these assistants in your home, they help you with literally everything. They can help you find the best hair salon, the most romantic restaurant, or the best spa in your neighborhood. You can even ask Siri or Alexa to find you the best recipes for your favorite meal and it will find all the answers you need within seconds. The assistants also hand you voice control over your home, allowing you to interact with other smart home devices using only your voice. That means you can talk to your lighting, heating, music, or security systems and they’ll “listen”.

2.     Install smart light bulbs

Smart LED bulbs and lighting can be operated using your home assistant, e.g. Alexa or Siri, or your smartphone via WiFi. You can adjust their color, intensity, or brightness all using voice commands. Installing these lights is a breeze because all you need to do is hire a structural engineer for residential houses to fix the lighting for you. You can take your interior décor a notch higher with well-hung, aesthetically appealing pendant smart lights, especially in your large living room. Pendant smart lights will make your living room not only functional but also cozier and more personal.

3.     Smart thermostats

This is easy: You only need to buy the smart thermostats that your home needs and fix them in place of your existing thermostats. It’s something you can do within a day. Smart thermostats are great because you can operate them using Alexa or Siri, they have the ability to monitor energy usage and can turn themselves off when no one is home. That helps you optimize your energy utilization.

Note: To make your home safer, you can integrate your thermostat with smart carbon monoxide and smoke detectors so that the thermostat turns off whenever smoke or carbon levels are elevated.

4.     Smart kitchens

Tech futurists are hopeful that smart kitchens will be able to cook dinner for you in the near future. That’s if strong artificial intelligence (AI) is actualized. For now, a smart kitchen makes it possible for you to connect your smart fridge to the internet and make it accessible via a smartphone app. That means you can check what’s in the fridge while doing your shopping in a grocery store. There also are smart slow cookers that you can regulate all the way from the office or while stuck in traffic. And if you want to monitor your calorie intake, your smart plates and forks will do that for you. Lastly, you can rely on a smart garbage can to create a shopping list for you by scanning and identifying the boxes you throw in it.

5.     Smart doorbells

Smart doorbells such as Google Nest Hello improve your home security by offering a live video feed of your front porch. Some smart doorbells also have two-way audio features that you can use to communicate with guests/intruders when they arrive at your doorstep. You can connect your smart doorbell to your smartphone for real-time updates of everything that happens at your front door while you’re not home.

6.     Smart sensors

You can install sensors on your front door and/or the windows so that you get notified every time they’re opened. There also are ambient sensors that will detect and notify you of harmful toxins in the house. And in case you live with a toddler or a senior citizen, you can install motion sensors for timely alerts in case the person trips and/or falls.

Final word

Smart technology is here, it is helpful, and it is not going anywhere any time soon. In fact, most new home constructions now integrate smart house features into their initial design. If you want to compete with them in the real estate market, your only option is to transform your home. What’s reassuring is that installing smart home technology is more affordable than you’d imagine.