Whether Smart Home is Smart
Smart home refers to the use of systems, remote control devices, and automated processes in houses and apartments. The primary purpose of these sophisticated appliances in these apartments is to improve the quality of life and conveniences in the homes. Also, greater security would be enhanced when all these smart equipment is available in a home. The remote-controlled devices would, in a more significant way to help in making work more accessible and comfortable. It is always human nature to look for things that would make everyday struggles more comfortable and pleasant. Through the use of technology, different home appliances have speed up the processes, saving on time and work.
On the other hand, the smart home is sometimes considered to be a hindrance to the way of life. As much as we believe smart home being efficient in doing the daily work, smart appliances can also make people docile and fail to interact with one another. Smart homes can help save energy, enhance safety and security, help in reducing home insurance rates, and they can also be the contributing factors to a lack of learning and communication.
Energy saving is one of the significant reasons why smart homes were initiated. The best way in which the intelligent home helps in saving energy is through the management of home devices. One of the biggest energy chucks is taken through heating and cooling as compared to the rest of the appliances in a monthly energy bill basis. Therefore, a smart home can significantly help in reducing these costs by about 10% (Lobaccaro, Carlucci, and Löfström 348). Integrating some of the automatic turns on and offs of the boilers and heaters will end up saving on the energy and cost. These rules on automation of appliances would work to ensure there is efficient energy management that helps in saving money. Also, in a smart home, there would be no more standby appliances that would be consuming energy. Standby appliances such as TVs, desktop computers, and laptops are considered to be silent energy consumers that sometimes go unnoticed. Sometimes they are not easily remembered, but through smart plugs, they would help in turning them off without any struggle. Besides, the automated lighting systems help turn off the unnecessary lights to cut on significant energy, particularly during summer, when the days are longer than the nights (Lobaccaro, Carlucci and Löfström 348). Through smart bulbs, automatic regulation of lights and their brightness would be enhanced depending on the natural light availability. It can also be scheduled to turn off and on; hence, energy wastage would be significantly minimized.
Smart homes are designed to be more convenient in the safety and security of homes by alerting the inhabitants of any kind of problem that may be disastrous. One of the critical priorities of most families at home is always to keep their loved ones safe and secure from any looming danger (Wilson, Hargreaves, and Hauxwell-Baldwin 73). Water sensors can alert the people at home of a broken tank, broken pipes in the winter, or some floodwater is seeping in. These alarms can be through sirens, or more advanced smart homes would send emails or text messages for that help in calling the plumbers. Intelligent security systems also enhance safety and security. These include the cameras connected to the WiFi video bells, triggering other actions, and other alarming capabilities. They may be customized in a manner that a smart device is used to make some sounds when someone approaches. Smart locks also enhance security to the homes (Wilson, Hargreaves, and Hauxwell-Baldwin 75). They provide keyless entries; hence, no worries on the loss of keys or stolen keys. Creation of codes to these locks that are discrete to the members-only, the cleaning people, and the contractors would help in securing these smart homes. This would allow the owner to monitor their property remotely in case there is any breach of security; it can be easily traced.
Smart homes would reduce the rate at which the insurance companies would be called to fix claims of property damage, theft, or internal flooding (Wilson, Hargreaves, and Hauxwell-Baldwin 76). In many instances, insurance companies enjoy monthly payments of premiums from their clients. Still, also they have to incur a considerable amount of expenses when it comes to property damage. Some insurance companies have initiated programs where if a particular home turns into a smart home, a 45% discount is given for the installation of smart home technology (Wilson, Hargreaves and Hauxwell-Baldwin 76). Water pipes that break, leaving the homes flooded, are fixed through the smart flood sensors. Fire alarms can also help alert the members on the possible fire outbreak at home to be extinguished before it breaks out. All these mechanisms save on the costs to be used by the insurance companies when it comes to addressing the damages caused by all these calamities. Also, power surges that sometimes may destroy essential appliances in these homes are of great help since they would guard the tools not to be affected by the on and off electricity (Wilson, Hargreaves and Hauxwell-Baldwin 78). These would save on the insurance companies coming for repairs and reconnection.
One major challenge with smart home technology is their lack of learning (Balta-Ozkan et al. 365). Through the definition of a smart home, which is a homemade up of several appliances, air conditioning, computers, TVs, lighting, audio and visual entertainment systems, and many video games, learning would be very hard. If there are students in such a home, doing their assignments or those trying to learn silently would have a hard time trying to balance between all these appliances and learning. All these appliances are all controlled remotely through a schedule from a particular room in a home or through a phone or internet. Learning is significantly hindered through the availability of all these smart appliances since it would be impossible for one to comprehend whatever has been learned with such environment full of many things that can easily distract the learner (Balta-Ozkan et al. 365).
Lack of communication is another challenge that comes with smart homes (Balta-Ozkan et al. 367). Nothing will go on without interaction being involved. All best relationships are always built and developed through communication. Therefore, smart homes should leave room for discussion amongst the members at home without any difficulty. Building a good relationship, especially between a husband and wife, would be very instrumental if communication is enhanced through one on one conversation. However, through the availability of so many appliances that engages the members at home, it would be hard for these people to engage in useful communication through the use of different communication skills (Balta-Ozkan et al. 368). All these various appliances would be nothing if they cannot work together to make work easier for the people involved. It would be horrible if, for example, a husband comes home and spend most of his time on the television or a video game until it is time to sleep without having much time with the wife and children. The children would also fail to learn necessary communication skills to be used outside the smart home or when they meet with people since they are addicted to smart appliances, and their parents have not had time to teach them.
Conclusion
Smart homes have their advantages and disadvantages. A smart home is a home that is full of technological gadgets and appliances that are remotely controlled through a phone or anything that can be easily accessed. Some of the best uses or benefits of a smart home include their abilities to reduce the rate at which insurance company is paid, and also enhances security and safety at home and even in saving energy. On the other hand, lack of communication and learning brought about by the different appliances at home are some of the disadvantages brought by smart homes. All in all, the advantages of smart home are greater than the disadvantages.
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