What is a Smart Home?

A smart home can make your life so much easier.

Fit your home with smart technology and you’ll be able to control it all from your phone or tablet. Whether you’re at home or not. That means no more worrying if you left the heating on or the doors unlocked.

Let’s see how we can make your home smarter.

What is a smart home?

In a smart home, you can use a phone or tablet to control lots of smart technology around your home.

• Smart thermostat
• Cameras
• Door locks
• Lights
• Blinds
• Kettles
• Cooking appliances

The list goes on.

Whether it’s to turn the thermostat up or down, flick the lights on or see who’s at the door. You can do it all from the comfort of your sofa using a smart device.

How can I make my home smart?

You could either ease your way in by fitting a smart thermostat. Or, you can go all in and get a smart replacement for as many gadgets around your home as possible.

All you’ll need to do is buy ‘smart’ replacements for your current appliances.

Living in a smart home: Pros & Cons

Investing in smart technology can feel like bringing your home into the future. And that can bring many advantages as well as some important considerations.

Pros

A smart home can make your life a lot easier.

You’ll be able to control all of your smart technology from the same device. That can mean turning the heating up and down, switching the lights on locking the door from a smartphone or tablet. Even when you’re not home.

That level of control can give you great peace of mind

Cons

Smart technology isn’t without its issues.

It can play up, not work if the internet goes down and could potentially be hacked. Be sure to set strong passwords to avoid the last one.

Then there’s the learning curve. We’re not all familiar with smart technology so it can take a bit of time to get used to your new way of living. And your smartphone or tablet will soon be full of apps to control all of your devices.

All of that and you could easily invest thousands of pounds to make your home smarter.

How much does smart technology cost?

At first, the cost of smart technology can be fairly affordable. But the costs can soon shoot up.

Which smart tech should I get first?

Before you can get any smart devices installed, your home will need an internet connection. So this should be your priority.

After that, making your heating system smarter could be the best place to start.

Having more control of your heating could see your heating bills come down. And there aren’t many things that would be nicer than lower heating bills.

Smart home heating

Before looking to make your home heating system smarter, think about whether you need a new boiler.

If you have an old boiler (was installed more than 10 years ago) then smart heating controls will only help so much. You’ll get more control but the boiler won’t be running as efficiently as it once did. To get your heating bills as low as possible, you’ll need a new boiler.

Take a look at our Boiler Buying Guide for some tips on getting a new boiler.

If you have a new efficient boiler then there are a few ways to make your heating system smarter.

Smart thermostats

Thermostats have come a long way in recent years.

The thermostats we’re used to, allow us to turn the heating up and down as well as set a simple schedule. Smart thermostats also have this feature but the schedule can be far more flexible. Plus, you can do it all from your phone which is more comfortable than standing at a thermostat that’s stuck to the wall.

Additional features include:

• Learning your heating habits and temperatures you like
• Knowing when you’re out and turning the heating off if you left it on
• Detecting when a window is left open
• Working to prevent pipes from freezing during the winter

Compare the Best Smart Thermostats.

Smart radiator valves

Most homes have manual or thermostatic radiator valves. Thermostatic radiator valves give you more control than manual ones but you’ll get even more control with smart valves.

Smart radiator valves connect to the internet. You can then control them from your smart device using an app.

You’ll be able to control the heating room-by-room which will make it easier to lower your heating bills.

Smart meters

Smart meters don’t give you more control over your home like other smart technology. Instead they make you more aware of your energy usage. Which, in turn, will make you want to take more control of your heating.

A smart meter shows you how much energy you’re using at any given time on the in-home display (IHD). This makes it easy to see how much you’re spending on gas and electricity in near real-time.

That way, you will become more aware of how much energy you’re using. And awareness leads to action which could save you money.

Plus, meter readings will be automatically sent to your supplier. Which will make your bills more accurate and save you paying more than you should.

Can I get a smart boiler?

Boilers themselves aren’t smart. Not in the smart technology sense anyway. But they’re still pretty smart pieces of kit.

You can make them smarter though by pairing them with a smart thermostat and smart radiator valves.

This will give you greater control over the heating which will help to lower your heating bills. What’s not to like about that?

If your boiler is over 10 years old then it might not work with certain smart thermostats. So you’ll want to consider a replacement. 10 years is when you’d want to start thinking about replacing your boiler anyway.

A new boiler would be far more efficient, reliable and safer which makes them well worth the investment.

You can get free quotes from up to 3 boiler installers in your area today with Boiler Guide. To get your quotes, all you’ll need to do is answer a few quick questions.