Smart Living Concept: Smart Homes

What is a Smart Home living concept?

If you're thinking about moving or redesigning your own four walls, you’re sure to come across the term Smart Home these days. While some people have already implemented the concept of the intelligent home, others are still in the dark. Luckily, there’s an app to fix that: the light in your home can be switched on via a smartphone or timer. At the same time, the temperature in your bedroom can be adjusted with just a touch of a finger or a voice command. Once the heating switches on, the windows close automatically to prevent unnecessary heat loss. This illustrates the potential benefits offered by connectivity in your Smart Home. The building technology is networked in a uniform system and can be centrally controlled and coordinated. The various devices communicate with each other via WiFi, mobile radio or Bluetooth, and can then be programmed and remotely controlled using a control centre such as a PC, smartphone or tablet.

Living in a home that thinks for itself

Certainly it's convenient to open the door from the sofa using a smartphone app that shows you the visitors at the door. And who wouldn't want to close the blinds, dim the lights and turn on the TV at the touch of a button for a perfect home cinema evening? Increased living comfort therefore naturally plays a key role in the decision to opt for a Smart Home living concept. But there are other advantages as well. For example, you can save a fair amount of energy by simply switching off all appliances that don’t need to be on during the day when leaving the home. You can also access information about appliances’ power consumption on your smartphone, helping you rethink your habits. Furthermore, security features provided by a Smart Home can give you peace of mind. When you leave on vacation, you can also put your home on holiday mode: sophisticated lighting scenarios discourage potential burglars right from the start. And if you've forgotten to switch off the stove, you can do so using remote control, preventing a potential domestic fire.

The weak point is compatibility

However, the Smart Home living concept still needs some tweaking before it takes off in most residences. A major weakness is the compatibility of devices from different manufacturers. Right now, more often than not it’s necessary to equip your home with components from a single manufacturer in order to be able to make use of all functions. However, more and more companies are joining forces and trying to use uniform, radio-based solutions to improve compatibility in the future. Such solutions offer the great advantage that they can also be used in historic Altbaus without tearing down walls and laying meter-long cables.

The way of the future

A smart home living concept can make everyday life a lot easier. It can provide more security, help save energy costs (as well as the environment), and overall increase your quality of life. If manufacturers continue to work together in the future to make their devices more compatible, smart technologies will soon become an indispensable part of our lives. If you’re interested in Smart Homes, take a look at these apartments in Schöneberg which are set up to fully implement the latest technology in intelligent living:

Translated by Catherine Norris