Internet of Things In Smart Home
Even though we still have no flying cars, some of the fantasies people used to have about life in the XXI century has already become a reality. One of the examples is smart homes that are full of devices automatizing our everyday routine. It is estimated that 10% of households all over the world will be smart by 2025 — all with the help of IoT.
In this blog post, we will overview the benefits of smart home IoT solutions and the opportunities they open for businesses. Make sure you read our blog post on 10 industries using IoT applications as well.
How IoT in Smart Home Works?
The home can be called smart when it has a range of smart devices that you can control remotely by setting them the way you like to automatize house maintenance. They can also be united into one network. For example, the lights can turn on at the moment you enter the home (lamps will know it from the sensors) or your vacuum cleaner can start cleaning every day at 11 AM.
But the true magic starts when IoT (Internet of Things) joins this team. It provides all the devices with internet access which broadens the possibilities of such a home network. For instance, now you can see what happens in your house watching security cameras through your smartphone or computer. IoT applications allow you connecting devices to each other and letting them communicate without your participation. Imagine this: the moment your car leaves the parking near the office, the conditioner starts cooling your house so that after a hot day you could enter a pleasantly cool home.
Benefits of IoT Smart Home Technologies
The cool house on a hot day — far not the only profit you get. Let’s now see the most significant benefits of the IoT smart home applications.
Control and Monitoring
The IoT significantly improves the way you can control and monitor all the processes taking place at your home. The fridge can notify you if your yogurt gets spoiled in two days or can add milk into the shopping list.
Every day the IoT application collects data about the way your household works, processes it and shows you the most significant insights.
Cost and Energy Savings
With detailed statistics about the work and energy consumption of each smart device, you can easily optimize their usage and adjust your smart home settings in a more cost-saving way. You can also allow your smart home system to do everything on its own. The system will shut down the devices which are not in use and reduce power consumption if there is no one at home.
Environment Impact
Except for cutting down your bills, energy savings help to reduce a negative impact on the environment and live a ‘greener’ life.
Better Security
The smart home security system is a great tool for protecting your property since it provides total control of everything inside and outside of your house. Security cameras, smart locks, as well as motion, smoke, and other sensors — all these gadgets work together and notify you if something goes wrong. You can check what is going on inside and around your house sitting in the office or lying on the beach halfway around the world.
Comfort
People always wanted to have everything in more comfort and convenient way, and IoT in smart homes, perhaps, is the greatest achievement in this direction. It perfectly copes with the task of simplifying and improving your life: a lot of processes in your home run autonomously, yet the overall control still remains in your hands. Is not it the future our ancestors dreamed of?
The Opportunities IoT has for Business
The Hi-Tech world is currently growing and can bring a lot of opportunities for businesses, and IoT for smart homes is no exception. Many world-famous companies have already created great products and solutions. August smart lock has the reputation of the most reliable one, just like Nest’s thermostat is considered to be the best solution for adjusting the climate of one’s home. Smart home assistants are also in high demand right now. For example, Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa helps to manage smart devices reacting to your voice commands.
Some experts believe that in case we continue to create stand-alone solutions, we will not be able to get a single smart ecosystem we actually want. So, it is a good idea to create products that will easily interact with the already existing ones.
One of the most perspective directions in IoT for smart homes is security. The truth is that only the systems created for home security are reliable. All the devices which have different purposes (smart appliances, sensors, cars) are quite vulnerable for hacker attacks since their processors are not powerful enough to run quality security programs. That is why the development of secure IoT platforms and lightweight security software will be in high demand in the near future.
One more business niche that will definitely benefit from IoT in smart homes is insurance. Installing smart devices and sensors can help to detect and prevent a problem before it causes significant damage. For example, special water sensors can signal about leaky pipes and suggest calling a plumber before the pipe bursts. And some insurance companies are already suggesting significant discounts for those clients who implement IoT sensors and devices.
Conclusion
One day we will find ourselves in a perfectly organized and thought-over ecosystem of smart devices that communicate with each other to improve and simplify our lives. The smart home is the first step to this smart life.
IoT solutions for smart homes still remain expensive and not everyone can afford them. But as the prevalence grows, the cost slowly reduces. The industry is predicted to reach its top popularity in a decade. It means that you still have time to get prepared and hit the market with an IoT smart home solution that will be used by a wide audience.
SCAND software development team already has experience in delivering high-quality IoT solutions. And we are ready to help you take all the advantages the industry has to offe