Turning your tiny home into a smart home
As we explained in ‘7 Benefits of Living in a Tiny House’, many people are shifting to smaller homes to save money and simplify their lives. Tiny house living at its core is about maximizing your life.
Identify Your Needs
Don’t fall for needless automation. Yes, lights that automatically turn on at set hours and blinds that go up and down at specific times are impressive, but do you really need these features? Canary co-founder Jon Troutman told Curbed that a truly smart home is one that solves real needs. The products you will install and use should add something of value to your home and make your day-to-day life easier, safer, and more convenient. In the same article, IFTTT’s Linden Tibbets shares the same sentiment and suggests that people start off by thinking of a problem they want to solve. He mentions as an example the door of his house, which is down three flights of stairs. Naturally, he wants to see who’s down there, so a connected doorbell or connected camera will certainly be useful in this instance.
Think of problems that you think the technology will be able to solve, particularly as a tiny home has a unique set of challenges. Determine locations in your home that could use a boost of innovation. Find areas for improvement that will make your life better, easier, and safer. Some common needs include a thermostat for temperature control, security devices for safety, and smart TVs for entertainment.
Get the Right Products
Once you’ve identified what you need, it’s time to get the right products that will either add value to your home or solve an existing problem. Take, for example, Tibbets’s aforementioned door problem. He could install the smart tech Nest Outdoor which consists of connected security cameras capable of sending custom alerts once they spot people in the vicinity. Business Insider’s list of the best smart home gadgets has a wide variety of smart home technologies that can be applied to different uses.
Invest in a Brain
A smart home brain is an online platform that links all smart devices in your humble abode so you can control them via a single app using either a smartphone or tablet. Intel created a smart tiny home that demonstrates the benefits of implementing the technology into your own home. It has an Internet of Things platform which serves as the brain of the company’s own smart tiny house. The biggest advantage of smart technology in a tiny home is that you can use it to move furniture electronically, allowing you change the setup of your room with the click of a button.
The Future is Smart
Now, no one can blame you if you are having second thoughts on turning your tiny home into a smart yet still humble abode. There will be expenses, and not everyone is tech savvy. But going smart is clearly the way to go now, as smart technologies are fast becoming commonplace in the U.S.
General Electric is using IoT-enabled sensors in one of their plants to collect, in real time, data that can be used by plant operators and managers to improve their factories and products. In the future, smart homes will also be able to make use of these same sensors to detect potential problem areas, like minute cracks in walls and busted wires. This type of technology could also be used to plan out space- and energy-saving layouts.
Another key development of smart technology is being seen on the road. GPS technology is now very much commonplace in the automotive industry, and the technology is constantly evolving with the IoT. Where once GPS was used primarily for directions, it can now be used to monitor a wide variety of features, including tracking the journeys of vehicles and measuring fuel consumption to improve efficiency. The commercial trucking industry was able to fully utilize this data when the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Mandate was introduced last year. Verizon Connect reveals that the ELD automatically records and logs a vehicle’s journey which in turn allows the fleet companies and drivers to evaluate and improve the routes of the trucks. Through reducing time on the road and saving on fuel consumption, this has allowed companies to become more environmentally friendly and reduce their carbon footprint. For tiny homeowners, this type of GPS technology can be used to minimize their own carbon footprint when they move their home. Sustainability is a key ethos of tiny home living, and installing smart technology means that every aspect of living in a tiny home can be monitored to become more eco-friendly.
The ongoing smart revolution is certainly upon us, and a tiny home is the perfect space in which to take advantage of this movement. Turning your tiny home into a smart home will make your living space more comfortable and convenient.
Article By: DreamHigh_RJ