The Heart of a Smart Home

By Sam Schoutko, Personal Lines Underwriter

The last blog post I wrote detailed what a smart home is, how you can implement it into your home, and how you really don’t need to be intimidated by it.  Most of it was broad strokes though and I would like to give more specifics in a series of future posts.  I want to start with the most essential piece of any smart home: your router.

Most people don’t have a clue about the internet setup in their home – the people from your internet service provider come and set it up then tell you the Wi-fi password and you are good to go.  90% of the time this suffices for your basic needs as far as connecting your laptop, cell phone, and maybe a smart TV.  When you add more and more devices though it can tax the basic router* they provide you and sometimes you need to upgrade that portion of your home network in order to improve performance and range.

*Quick disclaimer: there are two main parts of any home internet network: the router and the modem.  The modem is what receives the signal from your internet service provider (ISP) and switches it to an ethernet cable you can plug directly into your computer.  Most people take that cable and instead plug it into a router which then broadcasts the internet via Wi-fi throughout your home.  A lot of ISP’s provide the modem and router in one unit.  You can bypass the wireless portion of the combo box and just use it as a modem while you purchase your own router (or you can purchase your own upgraded combo box).  That is the setup I advocate for and do myself.  There are many more details but I don’t want to get too technical.

In my home (just my wife and dog and I) we have 2 cell phones, 1 tablet, and 1 laptop.  This is normal and probably would be fine for even the most basic router.  On top of this I also have connected to the Wi-fi – a thermostat, 3 smart light bulbs, virtual dog walker, Xbox One, 2 smart TVs, Chromecast, dog cell phone, 2 Roku’s, a printer, Wi-fi dog kennel and an external hard drive (a few of those are jokes).  While all that isn’t used simultaneously it is still taxing on a basic router and as such I have upgraded to something that can handle that type of traffic.

It does not matter how new your neat smart home toy is if your router is not up to the task of supporting it.  If you have a sprinkler system and have a Wi-fi controller in your garage for it but you don’t get a signal in your garage you might need to get a new router that is strong enough to punch through the walls and reach it.  Maybe you have all new smart light bulbs in your home or smart outlets and the number of items connecting makes your video streaming lag a great deal.  There are a myriad of problems that can be fixed by simply just investing in a good router.

There are way more technical details about your home network that vary from situation to situation and the point of this blog post isn’t to fix everything or get into the nitty gritty of home networking – it’s to get you thinking about it.  Keep in mind that a good reliable router is the most important part to the start of any smart home and most likely the first thing you need to invest in.  Think of it as a cornerstone to everything you need to build on – with poor speed and range from your router you won’t be able to utilize all the neat items you purchase to make your home more convenient.

In future posts I would like to detail different examples of smart home products but I started with this one because I feel it is the most important.  I hope it helps you on your path to a smarter home!

SamAbout Sam

Sam enjoys spending time with his wife Krista and their Siberian Husky, Ecko, while not at work.  Krista is a wonderful cook and baker so their relationship works well as he is a wonderful eater of the food she cooks and bakes.  They enjoy keeping up to date on the latest movies and traveling to see family.  As new homeowners, there is always a project to tackle around the house as well.

Photo by Sean MacEntee

What is a Smart Home?

By Sam Schoutko, Personal Lines Underwriter

The term “smart home” is bandied around nowadays and most people don’t have a good idea what it actually means or how their home can become a smart home.  If you aren’t familiar with technology it sounds daunting, complicated, and expensive.  It is somewhat expensive and it can be complicated but it doesn’t need to be daunting.  Hopefully I can help explain a little about smart homes to the average person that makes them easier to understand and implement in your own home.

Let’s start with a common myth about “smart homes” and that is in order to be called a “smart home” every element/system/appliance of a home needs be controlled via your phone or a computer.  While this is partly true it definitely isn’t the whole story.  Did you know that when you enter Bill Gates home you can set a climate profile for yourself and the home tracks which room you are in and automatically adjusts the temperature in that room to whatever you set?  As you walk from room to room it changes the temp based on who is in the room.  Would we all love to have a home that does that?  Of course!  Is it practical for anyone but the 1% of the 1%?  Of course not.

The point of a smart home is to make common features of a home more accessible and easier to manage remotely.  Remotely can mean from another part of the country to just not wanting to get off the couch to turn the lights on.  There are many elements to a smart home – security, climate control, doors, lights, appliances, voice commands, etc.  Could you upgrade everything in your home at the same time?  Yes, but that would cost thousands of dollars and probably isn’t even necessary.  All you need to do is identify which of these features matter to you.  You don’t have to upgrade them all like Mr. Gates.

When I bought my first house I decided that I wanted a thermostat that connects to the internet and I can monitor from my phone.  It knows where I am at any time, it automatically learns my schedule and adjusts the temperature in my house for when I’m gone to conserve energy.  This has helped me save money and made my life more convenient and it was just a small part of my home that was upgraded – I didn’t need to retrofit everything.

It is important to identify what matters to you.  Do you have kids that get home from school while you are at work?  Maybe a remote webcam that sends a notification to your phone when there is motion in front of it so you can see they made it home safely is what you need.  Do you need to let guests into your home while you are gone?  A Wi-fi garage door opener works for that.  Do you work long hours but want to come home to nice meal already made?  You can actually buy a Wi-fi crockpot that you can control from your phone.  Do you go out of town for long stretches of time?  Get smart lights that will turn on every evening for a period time to make it seem like you are home and deter would be burglars.

The possibilities go on and on and the list of items you can add to your home grows every day as more products are developed.

You know the saying “there’s an app for that”?  Today that applies to your home as well as your phone – there’s a Wi-fi connected smart device for that.  Not quite as catchy of a phrase but it gets the point across.  Don’t allow it to overwhelm you – you don’t need to upgrade everything at once.  You just need to figure out what meets your current needs the best and you can slowly develop your own smart home piece by piece over time.

SamAbout Sam

Sam enjoys spending time with his wife Krista and their Siberian Husky, Ecko, while not at work.  Krista is a wonderful cook and baker so their relationship works well as he is a wonderful eater of the food she cooks and bakes.  They enjoy keeping up to date on the latest movies and traveling to see family.  As new homeowners, there is always a project to tackle around the house as well.