Your smart home doesn't need more devices, it needs better automation

A smart home is only as intelligent as the hardware and software used. If you’re not relying on the most robust backend and some versatile products, you’ll likely struggle to create one truly smart home. That is, until you consider bringing more devices into the fold. We’ve all been there, as have I countless times. "Do I really need to add a sensor here?" This is something I’ve asked myself when configuring each room with more data sources for Home Assistant to rely on.

The thing is, you don’t need more hardware to create a smarter home. Even with a couple of devices, you can create something that surpasses many other setups that attempt to take advantage of smart switches, appliances, assistants, sensors, and more. If you’re not using your smart home ... smartly, then you’re missing out on valuable resources. Without fully utilizing the power of automation, your voice commands will only achieve so much, as you will have to handle more manual routines.

It’s something that can easily be overlooked, especially if you’re just starting with a smart home. It can also be challenging to keep tabs on what does what with multiple ecosystems and proprietary hardware. If you’re struggling to feel like you reside within a smart home, the answer isn’t more devices, but useful automation.

Think ahead, not by product

A common mistake is purchasing devices for a smart home without adequately planning how they will be utilized. If you’re filling your smart home one product purchase at a time, you will run the risk of encountering an incoherent configuration with various devices not correctly communicating with one another and a lack of overarching logic. That’s where planning out your smart home with a goal in mind can transform how useful and versatile it can be.

Instead of shopping around for smart bulbs, specific sensors, or some other Internet of Things (IoT) device, consider precisely what you’d need for a robust lighting system. Think about various points, such as:

What do you plan to use the lighting system for?
Which rooms will be included and their individual requirements?
How you (and others) will interact with the lighting system.
Should it integrate with other services and/or devices?

For instance, I wanted to configure a light outside the bathroom to turn red should someone be present inside during a gathering with many people over. That’s where a bulb, door sensor, and motion detector all came in handy. All were connected via Zygbee, and Home Assistant carried out the automation, which would turn the light red should the door be closed and motion be detected within the bathroom. Using delays, you can even account for people remaining still on the loo for a while.

Instead of building out this setup from the ground up without a plan or goal in mind, I was able to target specific hardware I required, which could then be redeployed elsewhere in the home. The aim is to either purchase devices you actually need and can make use of, rather than simply buying one or two every so often to add to the smart home.

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Truly smarter automation

Much more than simple voice commands

Think you’ve mastered the smart home with an Amazon Echo device? Think again, as this assistant is relatively basic in what it can accomplish. Many view these as the centerpiece of a smart home and the foundation of what could become a versatile and useful setup, but I’m here to tell you that you should consider them otherwise. "OK Google, turn off the lights." Such a command can appear mystifying at first, but it’s actually not that smart.

Automation transforms how you can interact with your home by removing the requirement for human input altogether. With the right sensors, network backend, and time to configure automations, you can have the lighting toggle on and off depending on whether people are detected. Heating can be adjusted on the fly if people are present within a particular room. Sure, you can get away with more basic automation, such as turning on a light at a specific time of day, but it’s possible to take this further.

We can still start slow and small, which is precisely what I did with our own home setup, but think about all the potential that can be unlocked through automation. It’s best to use it to combine mundane tasks and ensure energy is not wasted. Lights can be toggled off when nobody is home, doors can be locked at a specific time each evening, and these layers can then be further built upon to create highly advanced solutions.

Planning and starting small ensures you only buy what you need, don’t have anything that quickly becomes obsolete, and allows for easier troubleshooting.

Create a central hub

Keep all your automations in one place

One thing I was most happy about when configuring Home Assistant to manage everything within the smart home was removing any reliance on proprietary hardware and software. With the right platform as the heart and brain of the operation, we can freely mix all kinds of brands and hardware, so long as they are supported by one of the networking protocols used and have an available integration to connect everything up.

Better still, using automations even allows me to combine different brands to create the ultimate smart home setup. This provides better reliability and options for replacing any parts that may fail along the way. A single app and web interface are all that’s required to access various controls, too, making it notably easier for those less tech-savvy to interact with. Then there’s the fact that everything is managed locally, including automations.

Using your existing hardware, automations can be set up for any devices added through Home Assistant. Another instance of this being invaluable for our smart home is heating. Being an older English cottage, we don’t have a boiler, nor do we have central heating. Everything is electric. Hot water, oil-filled radiators, and our vehicles. That’s a lot of power and plenty of opportunities for smart home devices to be automated.

We have our oil-filled radiators configured to activate at various times of the day. That’s a basic automation, but we took it a step further. Using motion detection, we allow the radiators to run longer should someone be present to maintain a comfortable room temperature. This is only activated if the sensor within the room reads a low enough temperature. Weather forecasting is even taken into account, which then transformed the automation into a script for easier management.

When it comes to kitting out your smart home, it’s easy to think more is more for devices, but automation can play a huge role and even save you money.

Don’t try and automate everything at once

It can be challenging to resist the urge to go out and purchase countless smart home devices and get everything online immediately, but this would also cause problems. Make a list of tasks you don’t wish to carry out anymore and see how you can best go about automating them.

It all starts with planning