Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

I’ve had a lot of fun putting together a smart home, so much so that I’ve been known to get ahead of myself as I put technology before practicality. This can trip up guests and visitors alike, and it’s a mistake you’re going to want to avoid making.

A smart home should be as usable as a dumb home

Creating a smart home should be an additive process, and by that I mean that you shouldn’t be taking away functionality that stops your home from functioning as it did in its “dumb” state.

One of the big problems with early smart home solutions was an over-reliance on fragmented mobile app ecosystems. A lot of people rushed out to get color-changing bulbs only to end up with lighting that could only be controlled using a smartphone app or a voice command.

Bulbs are particularly egregious examples of this, since they always need to be “on” in order to be reachable by your smart home controller. If you create an automation to turn on your porch light at sunset and someone turns off the light at the switch, your automation no longer works. Just as frustratingly, a light that’s in the “off” state on the smart side of things won’t come on regardless of how many times you flip the switch.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

A smart home designed around rules like “always leave the porch light in the on position” might work for you and maybe a few family members who are privy to your rules. Speaking from experience, my partner occasionally turns these lights off because 30-plus years of operating regular light switches isn’t a habit you outgrow overnight.

There are other examples of this. Video doorbells are one of the trendiest smart home devices you can buy, and they’re commonly purchased by people who don’t use a supporting smart home ecosystem. At the same time, many smart doorbells are never paired with chimes. Ring, arguably the world’s most popular smart doorbell brand, doesn’t include a chime with its doorbells by default (you need to buy the Ring Chime separately for $35).

Having a video doorbell that’s dependent on the internet and that only indicates that someone is at your door via a mobile notification (or a smart speaker alert, if you have one) doesn’t feel like a good trade to me.

Smart switches are central to this idea

There are some good reasons you should pick smart switches over smart bulbs, but there’s also an argument to be made for using both. Everyone knows how to use a wall switch, and a smart switch replicates that functionality with a few added bonuses.

With a smart switch, you can control regular dumb light bulbs or fancy color-changing ones. You can link a smart switch to a whole room full of devices, so you can use a single switch on the wall to turn on bedside lamps and a light in the corner. You can buy smart switches with multiple buttons, which you can link to specific bulbs or devices. You can bundle these switches with fan controllers and smart dimmers, too.

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Smart bulbs, though fun, are more expensive in the long run. While smart switches will cost a little more to set up initially, smart bulbs will cost more in the long run as they will routinely need to be replaced. There’s an argument to be made for some carefully-placed colored smart bulbs that you can use to create ambience around your home, but you might want to reconsider turning your kitchen into a disco.

You’re not alone if you’ve already gone ahead and made this mistake. Even seasoned How-To Geek smart home writers have had to correct course, realizing that smart switches are not only more practical and guest-friendly but that the novelty of color-changing bulbs everywhere quickly wears off and is rarely used outside of mood and feature lighting.

Practical tips for achieving an accessible smart home

Designing a smart home that isn’t reliant on the cloud is a great starting point. The problem with Amazon and Google smart home systems is that every command must be passed to a remote server, processed, and sent back to the target device. That’s why I use Home Assistant to run my smart home, but Apple Home is worth a shout-out here since it also functions offline.

I’m in the process of adding Zigbee smart switches to my house, and I’m looking to integrate a simple on-off lighting solution for guests, plus a smart fan controller so that I can automate airflow and control overhead fans with my voice or from bed.

Credit: Tim Brookes / How-To Geek

In the interim, I’m using cheap battery-powered remotes from IKEA to wallpaper over the cracks in my smart home setup. I added the Rodret ($10) to Home Assistant via Zigbee, and I built a simple automation to turn on the spare room lights with it. This is currently stuck to the wall via the included magnetic mounting plate, so guests can figure it out.

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On top of this, I’ve designed automations that “just work” in the background. I’ve got a simple sensor light that activates whenever it gets dark outside (using “sunset” as a trigger), so nobody needs to worry about turning a light on. You can do the same with cupboard or closet lighting using simple motion sensors.

Automation is what makes a home feel truly smart, after all.