ᐅ What exactly is a smart home, and is it possible to retrofit one?

Hello,

I am currently in the process of building a house and have come across the topic of smart homes.

Smart home technology is quite a complex subject, and I am asking for help because I can’t figure it out on my own.

What exactly can a proper smart home do?

I think I only need a very basic smart home or simply remote control for my house.

What I want to have:

Control of roller shutters with rule creation, for example, always open them 30 minutes after sunrise but not before 7 a.m.
Lighting control via smartphone or voice (Philips Hue lamps will be installed in the living room for ambient lighting)
Window sensor for the sliding patio door so my roller shutter doesn’t accidentally lock me out
Video doorbell that notifies me on my phone when I’m at home
Smart sound system in the living and dining area, for example, for internet radio

Maybe later, control of underfloor heating

I definitely want to be able to create rules or scenarios (for example, cinema mode = lower the living room shutters to x % and dim the lights in the living and dining area and activate the ambient lighting)

What I don’t need:
Motion sensors (since I have a dog, they would be triggered all the time anyway)

I’m sure there are many other features I haven’t listed.
I don’t actually need an overly intelligent house.
I just want a few nice quality-of-life improvements.

For now, I want to find out what a proper smart home can actually do to see if I’m missing any functions that might be interesting for me.

What makes a smart home, you have basically already outlined yourself. Motion and presence play a very important role. In general, sensors of all kinds are the most important component. A “real” smart home ultimately relies on automation that you may not want—which is perfectly fine.

The term “smart home” is not clearly defined. Most people associate it with voice and app control because that is how manufacturers market it as “smart.”

However, if you take the term literally, “smart” means clever, intelligent, or wise. Such a thing doesn’t really exist. An intelligent house does not exist today. At best, a house is designed to appear smart because it reacts to certain situations as desired without input from the occupants, mainly due to many different sensors. And that brings us back to automation.

My advice is to move away from the term “smart home,” as it only creates misunderstandings. Instead, think about what you want and look for a system that can achieve that.

Smart or not.

Pacc666 schrieb:

I just want a few nice quality of life improvements.

That’s exactly the point. For something like this, you need a well-developed concept as well as the appropriate hardware and software. If you want one thing, you have to accept the other as well.

A bit of this and a bit of that leads nowhere and ultimately results in a dumb home controlled by a remote.

In that case, it’s better to not do it at all.

If not, you should carefully consider exactly what you want and need, and a major mistake is to limit yourself to specific brands from the start. For example, planning to use Philips Hue right away. The bulbs are the last link in the chain.

Mycraft schrieb:

Yes, exactly. For something like this, you need a well-developed plan and the necessary hardware and software. If you want one, you have to be willing to accept the other as well.

A bit of this here and a bit of that there leads nowhere and ultimately ends up as a dumb home with a remote control.

In that case, you might as well not bother.

If not, then you should carefully consider what exactly you want and need. A major mistake is to limit yourself to specific brands from the start, like planning for Philips Hue right away. The lamps are just the last link.

Maybe he mentioned these because he already has them in use?! I can imagine that at least. In my opinion, everything else the original poster listed can be easily added later if, for example, electric roller shutters are planned anyway. For the doorbell, it definitely makes sense to lay the appropriate cables just in case. Otherwise, I think tarnari described it quite well. You simply have to know what you want, how you want it, and to what extent you want to implement it.

What one person calls smart is just a modern timer switch for another 😀

SamSamSam schrieb:

What one person calls smart is just a modern timer switch for someone else.

Exactly. That’s why I’m saying this. If you want a smart home, committing now to proprietary systems is already counterproductive. Thousands of others have done that before and ended up failing. If it’s really going to become “smarter” in the future, why keep repeating the same mistakes over and over?

I don’t like the term smart home at all – it implies something modern and truly functional, but in reality it’s usually just Alexa and similar devices with a few dimmers and roller shutters on timers. :-(

Mycraft schrieb:

I really don’t like the term Smart Home at all. It suggests something modern and truly functional, but in reality, it’s usually just Alexa and similar devices with a few dimmers and roller shutters on timers. :-(

... which satisfies 95% of users completely because a) their expectations are not higher and b) the budget is allocated to more important things.

Smart Home remains more of a (nice) gimmick than anything else, no matter how simple or complex the installation is.