Connected devices and home automation can help to improve those mundane daily tasks, but it can be confusing if you don’t know where to start. Getting great results doesn’t require you to be an expert!

Although the modern smart home may look high-tech, it is now easier than ever for anyone to develop their own smart home. Let me give you my top 3 tips for starting your smart home.

Build On Good Foundations

If there is one tip I could give anyone looking to begin automating their home, it’s to make sure your foundation is strong and stable.

When I refer to “the foundations” I’m talking about the network that will carry the data from your new smart devices. If there are WiFi dead spots in the house or Netflix struggles to stream, then that’s a sign that you may need to upgrade.

Creating a stable home network is one of the keys to long-term success when creating a smart home. IoT technology is the underlying technology of the smart home, and as a result, you can expect dozens of devices to be connected to your network at once when you have finished building your smart home.

Issues like a weak signal or network congestion (as a result of having lots of devices online) can ruin the joys of a smart home. A mesh network router will provide a strong, broad network signal throughout your home, so the devices will always be connected.

Decide What Device You Want To Automate & Plan For The Future

It’s a crucial step that can save you tons of cash upfront. Do you want a full smart home, with as many devices connected as possible? Or are you just looking to automate something basic like switches or lights?

If you want to automate lamps and other switches within your home, you can easily do so by using smart plugs which will connect to an app on your phone. Giving you control over the switch with your voice.

If you wanted the “full-smart-home” then you will likely need a hub of some kind, to make controlling all the devices easier. You can read more about what is a smart home hub in our guide – I would recommend taking the time to research any potential devices you are looking to integrate, look at the protocols that are using and if they will integrate with the hub you will use to control them?

In my smart home, I use Home Assistant as the main hub to control things. Currently Home Assistant supports over 1700+ devices and it grows every month.

Start Small And Build Over Time

I know starting a smart home can be a daunting task at first, but if you start with one device and built on it over time. It won’t take long before everything is automated, but take it one step at a time.

I would recommend starting with things like lighting or switches, why?
Because the majority of the time, if your buying reputable brands like Philips Hue, Lifx or TP-Link, they will come with an app you can easily install on your smartphone. This app will allow you to control your devices with ease directly from the phone or even with your voice.

Top 3 Tips Summary

So there you have it, my three top tips to get your smart home started. I had a lot of problems with WiFi when I started automating my home, but those difficulties were solved after I upgraded my wireless access point.

If you plan correctly and choose the right devices, you can create the smart house of your dreams without having to spend a fortune.

You may also find our Home Automation Beginner’s Guide to be another valuable resource if you are just starting your smart home. It contains several useful hints and tips that anyone starting a smart home will benefit from.

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