Developing a Personal Roadmap

In December 2020, Residential Tech Today magazine ran an article “The 5 Worst Home Network Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them”
  1. Incomplete planning (or none at all)
  2. Unidentified requirements
  3. Choosing the wrong gear
  4. Over-complicating configuration
  5. Failing to prepare for on-going use after installation
Spending some time up front thinking through what’s important to you, reduces the likelihood of problems and may highlight areas that might otherwise be overlooked.

The following set of questions should help to get you thinking about what’s important for you.

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Requirements Survey

In December 2020, Residential Tech Today magazine ran an article The 5 Worst Home Network Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. They were:

  1. Incomplete planning (or no plan at all)
  2. Unidentified requirements
  3. Choosing the wrong gear
  4. Overcomplicating configuration
  5. Failing to prepare for on-going use after installation.

Spending some time upfront thinking through what's important to you, can reduce the likelihood of running into these problems and will often highlight additional opportunities that may otherwise not be thought about until much later.

The following set of questions should help to get you thinking about what's important for you. Please keep in mind that what's possible is limited mostly only by your needs and imagination, so please think of this as just a tasting plate not a menu of available options.

Not ImportantMostly unimportantNeutralSomewhat ImportantVery Important

Section 1: Smart Tech Motivations

Why are you interested in Home Automation? Often, this question is never explicitly answered. Taking some time on this can be the difference between a rewarding installation and an expensive white elephant.

Specific problem / opportunity

The list of specific problems is potentially endless. Here are a few examples of specific problems home automation can help to address.

  • Need to track down what appliances are using water, or electricity, or network bandwidth or anything else you might need to measure.
  • Need to keep an eye on deliveries, people arriving at the property.
  • Tracking how much noise your dogs are making, bugging the neighbours when you’re not home.
  • Monitoring soil moisture and turning on irrigation when it’s required.
  • Keeping an eye of tank water levels
  • Reassigning which switches turn on which lights without having to rewire the house.
  • Being able to let people into the house remotely without giving them a key.
  • Turning on heating/cooling before you arrive home.
  • Keeping track of salt levels in pool systems or water softeners and being reminded ahead of them running out.

Efficiency

Efficiency can mean different things, for our purposes we're thinking of :

  • Tracking, reporting and creating notifications and automation for scarce resources including
  • Solar Power
  • Water Tanks
  • Water Softener
  • Swimming Pool Chlorinator
  • Soil Moisture (Irrigation)
  • Keeping an eye on household costs either overall or by appliance
    • Water
    • Electricity
    • Internet
  • Managing your household carbon footprint

Convenience

When implemented poorly, many smart tech products can be incredibly annoying. For me, examples include:</summary >

  • Light switches with tape over them so they don't get turned off and instead need to be controlled by a phone app Grrr!!!
  • Smoke alarm that requires internet access, a phone app and multiple layers of warnings/menus to turn it off when toast get burnt.
  • Anything that requires an app when a simple button would do.
  • Integrations that rely on the internet and sometimes take ages (well, a couple of seconds) to execute.
  • Automations that only work some of the time so you can never really rely on them.
  • Voice commands that seem to work for some members of the household but not others for no apparent reason.

When things are set up and tested correctly, they can collectively make a major difference to your life. Exactly what these are will differ from person to person and family to family. Here are some that I find especially convenient:

  • An automated vacuum cleaner that waits until everybody is out of the house before it does it's thing.
  • I love being able to turn lights on and off at the switch, through a voice assistant or through an app. I especially like not having to get out of bed to turn off the outside garage light when it's accidental been left on.
  • Some of our light switches are in inconvenient places. With smart light switches, I've been able to change which switches are assigned to which lights without having to rewire the house.
  • It's nice to have the house switch on the heating or cooling before I arrive based on time or our proximity to home.
  • We have a long driveway. I really appreciate receiving a notification when mail is delivered so I don't have to stop and get out of the car in the rain to check the mailbox when it's empty.

Renovation / Building

While it's true that most things can be retrofitted it's always cheapest and easiest when you're building or renovating. This gives you options for the future and provides additional value to future owners when it comes time to sell. The things to consider will depend on the property and may include:

Fun / Hobby / Education

Implementing smart home technology can be wonderfully rewarding both individually and as an opportunity to learn and teach new skills with the kids. It can also cover a wide range of topics that might include electronics, crafting, modelling, coding and any number of others. There are many smart technology projects that start with enthusiasm, move into annoying, then head-banging and frustration, to ultimately being push as far as possible under the nearest convenient rug.

Smart Technology does make for a fantastic and rewarding hobby, especially if you start with a strong understanding of your motivations, areas of interest and design principles. Together these can provide a framework starting small and scaling to whatever level of ambition and complexity that's right for you.

I'm alergic to technologyI prefer that things just workProbably notSo long as it's not too involvedLet me at the toys

Section 2: Areas of Interest

There are lots of ways you can employ smart technology in your home. Depending on our lifestyle and interests, some will also certainly be of more interest to you than others. For example, I don't have toddlers in the house or a swimming pool and so don't really have a use for sensors telling me when my toddler is tossing and turning or getting out of bed in the middle of the night or have a need to have a robot keeping my pool clean. I do however have a long driveway and hate vacuuming so like receiving notifications when mail has been delivered and like having the vacuuming done each day when the house is empty.

This section outlines some of the common areas in which smart technology is commonly used to gain an understanding of what areas of interest you have for smart technology and which are less interesting to help build a preliminary plan that modelled on your preferences.

As with all the sections in this quiz, this doesn't claim to be a complete list of what's possible. You're encouraged to call out any areas you're interested in that we haven't covered.

A note about Smart Phone Apps

While we at AdaptingSmart love our Smart Phones and use them all the time, we don’t feel that they're generally our preferred way of interacting with our homes where we already have much better things in place like light switches, door handles, TV remote controls and all the other things that just feel natural. For example, while there are times when it's convenient to be able to turn light on and off using a phone, mostly it makes more sense to use a light switch. In this situation (and many others), being forced to use a phone app would be frustrating, unnatural and likely take more effort.

Generally, our approach to Smart Technology is that using phone apps is generally an either secondary or tertiary and in general people will want to continue to be able to do most things without being forced to use their phones. If you enjoy using phone apps, that can be accommodated, but it's not a core assumption.

As you work through this section, think in terms of adding functionality, not removing functionality you already enjoy and rely upon.

Lighting

Lighting is one of those areas that touches just about every area and until you stop to think about it, it's easy to either take it for granted or overlook the possibilities. 

What type of lighting are you interested in incorporating into your smart tech system? (select all that apply)

Climate Control

Curtains, Blinds

Most types of curtains and blinds can be catered for "out of the box". If you've got something a little special then there are various custom options.

Security

Presence detection (coming up) is also very useful as part of a security solution as it can be used to automatically arm or disarm security features.

Household Appliances

There is a seemingly endless list of "smart" appliances, not all of which are necessarily very smart or useful. How useful they is often dependent on your specific requirements. Often, it's cheaper and easier to make existing "dumb" appliances smart. For example:

  • Use power monitoring and vibration sensors to receive a notification when the washing is complete.
  • Use a temperature monitor to see if the beer in the fridge is cold yet.
  • Use a window sensor to get a notification if the door to the fridge in the garage has been left open

Fountains, Ponds and Irrigation

  • top up fountains automatically as water levels drop.
  • keep an eye of soil moisture levels and the weather and water the garden as required.
  • Turn lights and pumps on an off based on light level and time of year.

Tanks and other storage systems

Be informed when tanks, chlorine systems or water softeners drop below a certain level, so you know when you're running low rather than just when you run out

Entertainment

Entertainment is an entire area unto itself and in many cases will deserve it's own plan. For the purpose of this questionnaire it's useful to note that it's very easy for entertainment to take on a life of it's own and it's worth some effort to ensure that any consideration of either the smart home or entertainment systems should be done in consideration with each other. Typical components include:

Music

Are you an audiophile? If so, the detail from this quiz will likely be useful in your audio planning but this quiz will not be sufficient to scratch the surface of your audio needs

If you're not an audiophile, area to consider include

  • What parts of the house/property do you consume music?
  • Do you have different needs in those different "zones"?
  • Where does your music come from? Do you mainly listen to music from a streaming service or do you have a personal library?
  • Do you want to be able to access the same content from outside the house? (Car, Boat, Holiday Home, etc)
  • Are you okay to listen to music on smart speakers with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or similar

Movies

Some of the same points apply as for Music

  • Are you an audiophile?
  • Where do you watch movies (living room, bedroom, media room, outside areas?)
  • Where does your content come from? (Streaming service, personal library, etc)
  • What equipment do you already have?
  • Do you have any specific plans for future upgrades?
  • Do you want to be able to access the same content from outside the house? (Car, Boat, Holiday Home, etc)

Lighting - mostly the same considerations as for lighting above

Solar Power

Solar Power is becoming increasingly popular for efficiency and because it offers a genuine contribution we can make towards sustainable energy and reducing climate change.

  • Measure and Graph power generation, capacity and use through the year
  • Track energy use overall or by appliance
  • Report real-time power remaining at current/normal usage

Presence Monitoring

Many of the most interesting and useful home automations can be created based on where members of the household are. Examples include:

  • Turning heating/cooling as you approach home.
  • Turning lights and other devices off when nobody is home.
  • Automatically deploying security features when family members are away from home.
  • Turning lights and devices off when a room or area of the property is not in use (or turning them on when it is)

To get the most out of smart technology and provide you with the most options for the future we recommend that a robust presence monitoring component but included in your planning.

A note on data sharing and security

An important consideration with presence monitoring is who has access to the data. In some ways this question is moot because if you carry a mobile phone, you're already sharing your location information with your carrier who very likely are selling it along in some form. People like Google, Facebook and Amazon are also quite proficient in gaining your permission to track and onsell this sort of information. That said, considerations of your phone carrier aside, there's no good (and plenty or bad) reasons to share your location data further afield than you must.

As a general principle, Adapting Smart recommends as much as possible, presence data (and most other data) should be available only to you and people to specifically authorise (e.g. family members. While it's entirely possible to share data with 3rd party providers and we might even help you to do so if that's what you need, this would only ever happen at your express direction.

Problem Detection

Many unexpected and unplanned home ownership costs are the result of not detecting and addressing problems early enough. Use of various sensors can detect problems and bring them to your attention before you might otherwise find them. Examples include:

  • Using water detectors to detect overflows and leaks.
  • Using water flow meters to detect potential leaks.
  • Power monitoring to detect unexpected changes in electricity usage.
  • Internet bandwidth monitoring
  • Vibration detection

Often, you'll find that some degree of problem detection naturally drops into your smart home through devices you install for other reasons. For example:

  • Some climate monitoring sensors used primarily for temperature may also report on UV levels
  • Power monitoring devices will often report over current issues when the devices connected to them malfunction
  • Failure of a smart tech device sometimes functions as an early warning of problems.
  • Bandwidth monitoring can warn you when capacity drops or normal usage changes

While this "by-and-by" problem monitoring can be useful it's generally not likely to provide the coverage you'd want so including provision for "problem detection" upfront it worth it for peace of mind and reduced likelihood of unexpected surprises.

Section 3: Locations

The media and advertisers often refer to "Smart Home" technology. This is okay but suggests that Smart Technology is limited to the home which isn't true. In addition to doing all sorts of useful things when you're around, Smart Technology is also good at monitoring, adjusting things and reporting status when you're not around. 

Review the following list and check the boxes for each area Smart Tech is potentially relevant to you. If there are any areas we’ve missed, call them out in the additional details box at the bottom of the page.

Section 4: Existing Smart Technology

Almost all of us have at least some existing “Smart Technology” in our lives already and it makes sense to include this in our planning, ideally so we can incorporate it into our design, or, at worst, to identify any equipment that can’t be integrated so options can be explored upfront and there is less opportunity for unpleasant surprises as you proceed.

The detail below covers only very high-level detail. Please don’t hesitate to use the additional information box at the bottom of the page to provide more detail if required.

Smart Phones

What type of mobile phones does your household use / prefer? (Select all that apply)

Voice Assistants

Do you have any voice assistants in your home.

Lots of products come with Alexa or Google Assistant (or something else) built in, don't count them here unless you actually use them.

Smart Home Hubs

Do you have any Smart Devices that are advertised as being compatible with one or more Smart Home Hubs? If so, which Hubs are they compatible with?

Note: There’s no need to capture every device you own here, at this point, the intent is just to get a high-level feeling for what you already have.

Transport/Protocols

Getting more technical (it’s okay to skip this if you like), Do you have any devices that use any of the following technologies?

Existing Computers

Do you have any computers that run 24/7? If so, what do you use them for? This question provides a little insight into you and how you interact with technology in your home. It potential helps us to tailor detail that’s likely to be more relevant to you based on what you’re already doing.

Section 5: Preferred Interfaces

How you prefer to interact with technology?

There are generally multiple ways you can interact with Smart Home services and some the way in which you chose to interact with them can change depending on what you you’re doing. For example, I generally prefer to use the wall switch to turn most of my lights on and off as I enter and leave rooms because that’s what I got used to for most of my life. But for the deck lights off the living room I generally turn those on for ambience when I’m sitting on the coach so I generally ask my Google voice assistant to turn those lights on an off. Similarly, when we go to bed at night I often just ask Google to turn off all the upstairs lights. Finally, my phone tells me exactly what lights are on around the house and sometimes I turn lights (and other devices) on or off that way.

If I wanted to, I could also turn things on and off using LCD panels around the house, or through a TV interface. But I don’t because I personally don’t like using those interfaces and mostly just find them annoying. I know other people who love using LCD panels mounted next to light switches or by using an app on a phone and can’t abide talking to a voice assistant so clearly there’s no one “correct” way to interact with Smart technology.

Understanding that your preferences may change as you become more familiar and comfortable with the various options, select which options best describe your preferences for interacting with Smart technology in your home.

Section 6: Design Principles

Following is a list of default design principles we favour. Please take a look through and uncheck any that aren’t relevant to you and use the additional comments box to call out any additional principles that are important to you.

At least basic functionality (e.g. ability to open doors, turn lights on and off, etc) should be useable by everybody likely to use the house including

House Requirements

When nobody is home

Stress