16 Aug
Uncategorized

How Do Motion Sensors Work | Where To Place Them

Most people know that motion sensors are used in things like automatic lights, but few people know how they actually work. In this blog post, we're going to take a look at how motion sensors work and where the best places to put them are.

 

What Is a Smart Motion Sensor? 

Smart motion sensors are ways of detecting movement in and around your property, which then has an impact on your home's functionality. For example, a smart motion sensor might turn the lights on automatically when you enter a room. They may also send you an alert if an intruder is attempting to break into your house. The objective of motion sensors is to offer security and help your home operate more smoothly and efficiently, in the end.

 

How Do Smart Motion Sensor Work? 

The most popular smart motion sensors utilise passive infrared (PIR) technology. PIR detectors detect infrared radiation emitted by humans and other animals as body heat. As a result, when the temperature rises suddenly, your gadget will notice the change and notify your control panel.

It is worth noting that PIR sensors can be set to ignore small fluctuations in temperature; therefore you don't have to worry about your pets setting off alarms inadvertently.

There are also microwave motion sensors. These emit radio waves in aspecific range and return them back to the sensor after they have bounced off the moving thing (or person).

There are also motion sensors that employ both of these technologies, but they are not as prevalent.

 

The Many Types of Smart Sensors  

  • Temperature sensors - which have smart thermostats tomonitor temperature throughout your house
  • Lightsensors - it reads the amount ofsunlight in your home, and allows you to automate certain lighting features
  • Smokedetectors - to detect fire outbreaks in your home
  • Waterleak sensors - to detect leaks in your home
  • Airquality sensors - todetect contaminants in your home

 

Ways To Use Motion Sensors In Your Home 

(1) Protect Your Entryways 

One of the most obvious ways to use a motion sensor is to protect your home’s entryways. By placing a sensor near your front door, you can be alerted whenever someone approaches, whether it’s a family member coming home or an intruder. You can also set up your system so that the lights turn on automatically when the sensor is triggered, making it easier to see who’s there and deterring burglars.

(2) Detect Leaks 

Sensors may be used to detect a variety of water leaks and rapid changes in water temperature. This aids in the prevention of flooding and other forms of water damage in your property. To get the most out of your sensors, position thembeneath dishwashers, sinks, and any other devices that are susceptible to leak. Then connect your smart device to the sensors to receive alerts about leaks or other water concerns as soon as they are detected.

(3) Light Control 

Ina ddition to turning lights on and off, some home automation systems allow you to dim and brighten them as well. This can help you save energy and create the perfect ambiance for any occasion. You can also set your lights to turn on and off at specific times or when certain conditions are met, such as when someone enters the room.

(4) Monitor Areas In Your Home 

In addition to monitoring activity at your home’s entrances, you can also use motion sensors to keep an eye on activity in other rooms. If you have valuable items in a room, you can place a sensor there to alert you if anyone goes near it. These sensors can also be helpful in keeping an eye on children or elderly family members who may need assistance.

 

Where Can You Place Your Motion Sensors 

(1) Near Your Valuables 

If an intruder moves or tries to steal your valuable things, a motion detector near or behind them will trigger the alarm.

(2) Above Doorways - Entry Points 

Motion sensors placed above doorways hide them from view while making it nearly impossible for intruders to enter without setting off the alarm.

(3) Corners 

Installing a motion sensor in the corner of your room will provide your device with the most comprehensive view of the area beneath. Just make sure the sensor is pointed at the door and there are no obstacles in its path.

(4) "Blind Spots" 

Installing a motion sensor in a "blind spot" - an area where the view is obstructed by your security camera, or in areas in the home where view is limited can be wise.

 

In conclusion, proper placement of your home security devices is critical to ensuring the safety of your home. By following these simple tips, you can be sure that your home is as secure as possible.

16 Aug
Uncategorized

5 Questions To Ask Before You Get a Smart Home Security System

Even if you live in a relatively safe neighbourhood, it's important to consider getting a home security system. A home security system can give you peace of mind and deter burglars from breaking into your home. But with so many different types of home security systems on the market, it can be hard to know which one is right for you.

 

What Is A Smart Home Security System? 

A smart home security system is a security system that uses smart connected devices to monitor your home for intruders. Smart home security systems can include door and window sensors, cameras, motion detectors, and more. It allows the user to do all of that remotely with their smartphone. 

 

Benefits of a Smart Home Security System 

There are many benefits of a smart home security system. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it can help to deter burglars from breaking into your home. A smart home security system can also make it easier to keep an eye on your home, evenwhen you are not there.

Key benefits include:

  • Peace of mind through remote monitoring
  • Giving the user real-time alerts
  • They eliminate false alarms
  • They are more difficult to disable compared to more traditional systems
  • They make financial sense - by deterring crime and damages
  • Allows sharing of footage with law enforcement or insurance companies easily

 

  1. What Are You Protecting

The first question you need to ask yourself is what you want your home security system to protect. Do you want it to protect your home from burglars? Or do you want it to protect your home from fires? Maybe you want it to do both. Knowing what you want your home security system to protect will help you narrow down your choices.

Determining what you want to protect will help you to determine the type of security that your premise needs.

There are several different types of security systems available, including burglar alarms, CCTV systems and wireless security cameras.

 

  1. How Big Is Your Home

The size of your home or business will also play a role in determining the type of security system you need. If you have a large home, you may want to consider a CCTV system. A CCTV system will allow you to monitor all areas of your property.

If you have a small premise to monitor, a wireless security camera system may be all you need. Wireless security cameras are easy to install and can be placed almost anywhere in your home or business.

 

  1. Does Your Smart Home Security System Meet Certain Basic Requirements

When choosing a home security system, it is important to make sure that the system meets certain basic requirements.

The smart security system should have these basic functions:

  • Remote monitoring
  • Options for customisation
  • Allows for integration of other smart home automation systems (e.g. Google Home)
  • Easy to use interface
  • Alerts and notifications - smart phone integration

 

  1. How Secured Is Your SmartHome System

When it comes to home security, it is important to choose a system that is reliable and secure.

There area few things to consider when determining how secure your smart home security system is:

  • The type of encryption used
  • How the data is transmitted and stored
  • Who has access to the data
  • The level of customer support

It is important to choose a system that uses strong encryption, as this will help to protect your data from being intercepted by hackers. The data should also be transmitted and stored securely, so that only authorized personnel can access it.

The CyberSecurity Agency of Singapore (CSA) has launched the Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme (CLS) for consumer smart devices, as part of efforts to improve Internet of Things (IoT) security, raise overall cyber hygiene levels and better secure Singapore's cyberspace.

One should check for any CLS and product ISO certifications. The ISO standards demonstrate that the devices have successfully completed the code of practice for establishing and running information security, in areas such as cloud computing and the protection of personal data.

 

  1. What Is Your Service Provider Support Like?

The next thing to consider is what kind of support your service provider offers. How quickly do they respond to queries?

Do they have a delegated support team to service you? It is common to find that providers have different levels of support, depending on the package you have signed up for. You should check with your provider what kind of support is included in your package.

Your service provider should be able to offer you the support you need to ensure that your devices are always up and running. They should also be able to help you troubleshoot any issues you may have.

Lastly, your service provider should also have a plan in place to help you recover from a breach. This may include providing you with access to their incident response team, as well as assisting you with identifying and remediating the root cause of the security incident.

 

The Home-A-Genius Difference 

At Home-A-Genius, we offer one of the most secured smart home systems in Singapore, helping you to protectyour home against potential threats.

Home-A-Genius works within a local network rather than the internet; thus it may be utilized without the need for an internet connection. This implies you won't have to worry if our servers go down, which means that your data is at risk, or that your smart devices will suddenly cease to function.

In addition, you do not have to worry about compatibility issues, either, since we give a single App that may connect to a number of diverse appliances and electrical repairs all in one system.

Consult us today for your home security needs.

13 Aug
Uncategorized

Are your smart lights truly smart?

Light controls are one of the most basic smart home features. However, with the influx of smart devices being sold online, we get very confused clients mixing up concepts of smart lights vs smart switches. Let us debunk the difference between smart lights and smart switches in this blog!

 

Smart Light vs Smart Switch

 

Smart lights are connected via software to automate itself, on/off, color tuning and even color changing. To a certain extent, switches can be excluded from the equation. Smart switches on the other hand, eliminates the need for a smart light. Both smart lights and smart switches has to be mutually exclusive from each other.

 

When should you use smart light and when smart switch?

 

Smart lights is more complex; allowing users to on/off and change colors via software application. However, smart lights will require connection to individual light/driver. i.e. more connections to the hub as compared to smart switches. Smart switches control a single point, creating contact points to the circuits wihtin the switch. Allowing for multiple lights to be controlled by a single switch point.

 

Smart switches are more concise and efficient in my point of view, if you have a huge home, doing smart switches will be way more efficient than having multiple smart lights.

 

Different protocols for smart light

 

Wi-Fi Smart Lights:

 

Wi-Fi smart lights require a connection to the router, which in turn will be constantly connected to the cloud server. Wi-Fi is suspectible to interferences and is often limited to a single Wi-Fi channel, chances of the ligths being disconnect is relatively high. Hardware issues are also a concern as connecting the Wi-Fi lights to a weak rotuer will mean higher chances of connection drop-outs. One reason why Wi-Fi smart lights are sold vastly in light shops is its ease of use. i.e. you need not have an additional gateway to connect to these lights, making set up easy with less steep learning curve. Also note that Wi-Fi usually requires higher energy consumption.

 

System using Wi-Fi Lights: Most Tuya Smart lights, Xiaomi Desk Lamps, Yeelight Smart Ceiling Lights

 

Zigbee Smart Lights:

 

Zigbee Smart lights was pioneered by Philips HUE. While Smart lights connected via Zigbee drivers are often overlooked, we feel that this is a lesser evil amogst all smart light protocol. While Zigbee drivers require a Zigbee gateway to function, there is no need for it to be constantly connected to the router or even the internet to function. Advancement of Zigbee also allows for Zigbee mesh, allowing for long range signalling. With a new standard Zigbee 3.0, Zigbee devices will be recognized by a single Zigbee hub, unifying all Zigbee devices.

 

Also note that Zigbee is a low-energy protocol, meaning to say you will spend more efficiently on your LED brightness than the smart connection.

 

Systems using Zigbee: Philips HUE, Home-A-Genius Smarter Light

 

Thread:

 

Thread, unlike Wi-Fi is known for its low energy consumption. Known for its lightning fast communication, Thread does not requires a hub and allows for meshing effect.

 

Unlike Wi-Fi & Zigbee Protocol, Thread is very new and is not widely used. With the support from Apple, Thread is one of the protocol for Matter and is readily available if you have an Apple Homepod.s

 

System using Thread: Nanoleaf

 

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE):

 

BLE is often used in the lighting industry as it eliminates the use of an additional gateway, while allowing users to control their lights with low energy protocol. BLE leverages on the fact that every smart devices (our mobile phones and tablets) is equipped with bluetooth, hence allowing users to control smart lights efficiently. However, we noticed that multiple devices cannot connect to the lights at once, meaning to say this system is only applicable for small households. Also for BLE lights to function remotely, a BLE hub is needed. Else, BLE lights cannot be controlled remotely.

 

Systems that uses BLE: Casambi, Yeelight Bluetooth Mesh

 

Smart light protocols are important

 

While smart lights are here to assist you within your household, having an ecosystem with an overworked router, restricting bandwidth of the other devices is not the ideal solution for any smart home systems. On top of that, variables such as the size of the house, number of lights, load of the lights, all matters to which protocol best suits the solution. Leave this to the experts!

29 Jul
Uncategorized

Tips on Naming Your Smart Devices For Better Voice Control

Having a smart home system in Singapore is becoming increasingly popular. With a simple voice command, we can now operate smart devices in our home with ease thanks to Google, Alexa, and Siri. However, many find it difficult to come up with good names for their smart devices. In this
blog post, we will provide some tips on how you can name your smart devices for better voice control. 

  1. Name Groups After Rooms or Purpose

E.g. security, lighting, heating. 

For example, you might name your groups after the rooms they're in. Living Room is a good name for a group of gadgets in your living room, as is Study for one in your study. In general, this method works quite well; however, there are some exceptions. 

If you have several devices in oneroom that perform different functions, you might want to give them more specific names. 

For Home-A-Genius, we are able to zone the rooms according to its function. This way, users can segment the room accordingly.  

 

  1. Be More Specific

When choosing a name for your device,make sure that it is something simple and easy to remember, but also unique enough that it won't be confused with other devices. For example, you might want to name your light "Living Room Light" instead of just "Light". This way, you can easily tell Google or Siri which light you want to turn on or off. 

Google has the ability to do room awareness, which allows you to tag a Google device to a certain room. This way, you can simply let Google know to “turn on lights” and Google will know which
lights you want to turn off.  

 

  1. Use Descriptive Names

This is similar to the previous tip. A good name for a device should be descriptive enough that you can easily tell what it is without having to look at it. 

For example, if you have a lamp inyour living room, you might want to name it Living Room Lamp. If you have a second lamp in the same room, you might want to name it Desk Lamp or Floor
Lamp. 

You should also name your scenes according to your intent. i.e. lights at 100% is meant for cleaning mode. Your scene should be “Turn on Cleaning Mode” instead of the need to adjust brightness via the LCD switch. Should you feel the need to manually adjust the brightness too often, you might not be using your smart home to its fullest.  

 

  1. Use Different Names

E.g. lamp, light 

If you have multiple devices that performthe same or similar functions, be careful when naming them. For example, you might have a lamp and a light in your living room. Calling them both "light" would probably lead to confusion. In this case, you might want to give them more specific names.  

 

  1. Be Careful of Similarities

"Similar names can cause command confusion" 

If you are not careful in yournaming, it might cause some confusion as well - see example below: 

 

Naming convention 1:

Group name: Study Room 

Device name: Study Room Light 

Problem: “Turn on the Study room light” is what you tell your smart home. However, because your group and device names are identical, it may switch on all of the devices in the group named ‘Study room' that are labeled as "Lights," rather than just the device named "Lounge Room Light." 

 

Naming convention 2 (a better alternative):

Group name: Study 

Device name: Study Room Light 

Solution: You instruct yoursmart home to "turn on the study Room Light." However, because the names of your group (study) and device name (study Room Light), they are not identical, the device name "study room light" will just be turned on. 

The reason we choose to name thegroup ‘Lounge’ and not ‘Lounge Room’ is because we tend to control the main light with our voice more frequently than the entire room. And “Turn on the Lounge Room Light” rolls off the tongue nicer than ‘Lounge light’. 

On the rare occasion you may actually want to turn on all the lights in the room, you would simply say “Turn on Lounge Lights”. 

 

Make Sure Your Naming Conventions Are Meaningful 

When you start adding a lot of devices and groups to your home, it becomes more important to have consistent and meaningful naming conventions. This will help you keep track of what’s what, and make it easier to find devices when you need them. 

In conclusion, when setting up your home automation system, be sure to give some thought to how you would name your devices and groups. Taking time to plan will save you a lot of headaches down the road! 

29 Jul
Uncategorized

The Downsides of Cloud Based Smart Home System

Not everyone is a fan of the cloud, and there are some potential downsides to consider before you commit to a cloud based smart home system. One of the biggest complaints about the cloud is that it can be unreliable. If your internet goes down, or if the servers hosting your data is overcrowded, you may not be able to access your smart home devices or control them. This can be a major inconvenience, especially if you rely on your smart devices to perform daily tasks like scene control or temperature control.

Today, we will discuss the potential downsides of cloud based smart home systems and why some people prefer to avoid them.

What Is a Cloud Based SmartHome System?

A cloud based smart home system is a system in which the device information, room allocation, scene settings and system controls for your devices are stored on remote servers, rather than within the home network itself.

This means that you require an internet connection (to send signals from the cloud to the various devices via WIFI in the home) to access and control your devices.

What Is a Local Based Smart Home System?

A local based smart home system is a system in which the device information, room allocation, scene settings and system controls for your devices are stored within the home network. This means that you do not need an internet connection to access or control your devices.

Downsides of Cloud Based SmartHome Systems

CloudBased - Reliant on Internet 

There's a downside to going with a cloud based smart home setup. That is, your smart home is entirely reliant on the quality of your Wi-Fi signal.

So if your internet connection goes down, or the company's servers do, you could lose control of some, or all, of your smart home devices.

For a cloud based system, the smart device would need to pull and send signals of the rules and logic from the cloud via Wi-Fi.

Smart devices are only as smart as the internet connections they have. If the internet goes down, so do your smart devices.

Whereasfor a smart home system running on local server, the rules and logic are all stored in a Hub (within the home), and the system is independent from internet disruptions or infrastructural limitations on the remote server.

Some smart hubs are capable of sending signals to certain smart home devices via API encryption, with no need for internet connection, or even intercom stations via LAN cables.

CloudBased – Reliant on Company’s Cloud Based Services

Another downside of going with a cloud based smart home system is that you’re reliant on the company’s servers.

If the company goes out of business, or decides to shut down its servers, you could lose control of your smart home devices.

Cloudbased systems at times face security issues.

CloudBased - Security

Most homecloud connections are relatively easy for hackers to gain access to. In the event of an attack, your home can be brought under their control.

With a local setup, all of your data stays on your home network. So even if a company’s servers are hacked, your data will still be safe at home. A hacker would need to physically be on your property to gain access to your local network - which is a lot harder than hacking into a remote server.

CloudBased - Privacy

When youuse a cloud-based system, you are essentially giving a company permission to access and store all of the data from your home. This includes everything from the passwords you use to unlock your doors to the schedule of when your kids come home from school.

With alocal setup, all of this data stays on your own network. The hub is a computer with its own web browser, which you can use to access your personal data. Sensitive data (schedules, automation rules) are retained locally on the device.

CloudBased - Reliability

Cloud-based systems are more likely to experience downtime than local systems. This is because they rely on the internet, as well as the speed of the provider's cloud servers.

For local based smart home systems, the equipment and software are the only sources of failure, and internet access is only required for remote access.

If your internet connection goes down, you will still be able to control your devices using the local hub. Of course, if the power goes out, or the hub itself breaks, you will lose control of your devices.

The Home-A-Genius Difference

Home-A-Geniusis different than other smart home Singapore systems on the market because it was designed withsecurity and privacy in mind - with no reliance on a cloud platform.

Home-A-Genius uses a proprietary mesh network that does not rely on the internet or Bluetooth to function. This means that your system will continue to work even if the power goes out or your internet connection.

Rules and logic are all stored in the Home-A-Genius hub, and the system is independent
from internet disruptions.

Our systems do not adopt a full Zigbee protocol to avoid reliance on a signal point
- where there can be a single point of failure.

12 Jul
Uncategorized

When building a Smart Home – Part 1

Recently we've gotten a flood of customer requests, asking for help on their pre-existing smart home. Most of these clients did up their homes on their own, purchased the devices and attempted to do up their own smart homes.

However, they still came to us, citing a few problems and if we could help them out.

 

We will cite a few customers who've came to us and let's analyse the situation together. I have split this blog into several parts as it has become really lengthy.

 

 

Customer 1: DIY smart home 2 months ago. House is a 4 Bedroom Condo, with 2 Balconies.

 

Setup consists of 15x self-installed switches without neutral wire, 40 over Wi-Fi smart lights and 1x RF Blaster.

 

Concerns from customer:

 

  1. Smart Switches do not respond to apps once in a while. Need to constantly restart Zigbee Gateway for it to function with mobile app again.
  2. Smart Lights get disconnected once in a while.
  3. Unable to get RF blaster to learn signal from Ceiling fans and Ziptracks
  4. Need to get lights to turn on when door opens

 

Request from Customer: Would like to have everything on a single app as he has too many apps on hand now.

 

Red Flags and why this system will not work:

 

1. Weak Zigbee Signal: Looking at the layout of the house, a 4 bedroom condo would be quite big with relatively many walls. Note a few things here. (a) Zigbee Signals weakens after every wall and (b) Non-Neutral switches do not help out with the Zigbee Mesh.

 

Tip: How do you know if your house is plagued with weak Zigbee signal? If your Zigbee device disconnects from the ecosystem once in a while and connects to the Zigbee gateway after it is rebooted, this is a sign that your Zigbee signal is weak. The device(s) that drop out are located in weak signal zones.

 

2. Overworking the router: The smart home has 40+ Wi-Fi lights, causing the router to be continuously connected to a device which is not necessarily pinging the router for data. What does this mean? This only means that the router will deprioritize the lights for something that needs the bandwidth more. i.e. your laptop, your Netflix streaming etc. Routers load balance to ensure every device gets the bandwidth they need. In this scenario, devices on standby such as Wi-Fi lights, are the first to dropout of the network.

 

3. IoT App Fatigue: When the solution was built, the user probably only looked at how easy it was to implement it individually. Which is something most e-commerce platforms sellers will promise. However, one thing not mentioned - how will the devices be integrated into a single application. The promise of being on cloud platform Google Home does not help as the router is already taxed with standby IP connections.

 

4. Lack of helpline/support from e-commerce platforms: For a device that is less than SGD50, you might want to pin hopes that there is a supportive community to assist. Getting the RF blaster to learn the signals is possible, however there are several steps required.

 

Solution for Customer 1:

 

For starters, we will not encourage anyone to purchase 40+ Wi-Fi enabled smart lights. For clients with Home-A-Genius, you will know that we disallow anything more than 5 Wi-Fi enabled lights wihtin a single network. Take a look at our smarter light solution, it runs by Zigbee protocol. This not only helps strengthen the Zigbee mesh, it also reduces workload on the router. Next, for anyone who steps into our showroom, we will always say "Neutral solution is surely better than Non-Neutral if you are doing renovations". If still unsure, scroll to point 1 under potential red flags.

 

Lastly, IoT is a complex ecosystem. We see a lot of IoT suppliers saying that it is easy, but from our many years of experience in the industry, IoT is not as simple as it seems. The influx of smart home devices complicate matters even more. Unless you are ready to pour in hours of research and even more hours to work on integrating the device into the system, creating the rules & logic, and even more hours administrating your household members on how to use the system, be prepared that this amount spent and time spent will be a sunk cost if you've picked the wrong devices.

 

So what happened to this client in the end?

 

We provided a baseline quote for the client, I have to admit the amount is hefty. Reason for it, we have to unlink the smart devices from his existing hub/gateway to link it to ours. In short, whatever he spent working on is nullified and we have to double work it to unlink it. It is only after that we need to have his switches on our ecosystem and create rules and logic on it. Eventually, the deal did not go through as both sides felt it was:

 

  1. Too costly to proceed. Owner did not want to change out the smart switches as it was purchased not too long ago.
  2. On our side, we felt that with the various constraints, even with our intervention, the chance of failure is still too high as the house was not planned for a smart home during renovation.

 

Note that the solution requires changing out of smart lights or to disable the Wi-Fi option (sunk cost), addition of a neutral wire (too late, renovation over), or add-on a new gateway (Too much re-work), addition of a smart home hub that allows for a single app application (cost on top of the already sunk costs).

 

While the cost of renovation is high, incorporating a system within a home is crucial especially is the system is not implemented right from the start. Sounds familar? Long, long time ago, there was an influx of IT systems in the corporate world, companies went ahead to implement systems built to work independently, resulting in a whole build of independent IT systems which didnt speak with each other. The same may happen to your smart home if the smart home devices are not built to work for each other.

 

Speak with us if you need help for your smart home system. While we did not manage to solve this client's smart home system, we hope to resolve as many smart home issues as best as we can!

04 Jul
Uncategorized

5 things Smart Home Vendors won’t tell you

The market is saturated, saturated with many Smart Home vendors coming up with various solutions. We speak with an average of 7-25 clients on a weekend and we get various feedback about what the industry is offering. Here are 5 things your smart home vendor is not telling you, while you sign on the really affordable contract they're dangling in front of you. Do note that once the contract is signed, you only have 7 days in Singapore to request for a refund. This will not help any of us as renovation takes more than 1 month to complete.

1. Linking up to Google Home as an alternative

Q: "Are you able to link up to S**** Soundbar & also the D***** Air Con?"

Most vendors will say "YES".

Before you believe that, you might want to ask a few more questions, such as "You mean you can link it up in your mobile application?" or "Are you linking it up by Google Home or Amazon Alexa?"

Why this happens? The truth is "yes" they can integrate 3rd party devices into the smart home, however, it is not into their application; this is especially so if the SI is running their application on the Tuya Platform. What does this mean? This means that the home owner will be leveraging on Google Home as a secondary application, i.e. the smart home ecosystem will be on cloud. This will result in longer latency period and also multiple applications running in your smart home.

Note that this is not the only issue. Imagine the rule maintainence you need to do once your SI leaves your home. In programming this is similar to what we call "Spaghetti Code". There is no way for you to debug your smart home if you want to do regular maintainence i.e. add a new device or change a standby timing.

 

At Home-A-Genius we integrate 3rd party devices into our rule engine allowing for all the rules & logic to be in a single application. This allows for the rules to sync to downstream User Interfaces (UI), eliminating any confusion due to spaghetti codes.

 
broken image

2. Lifespan of smart home devices

Their warranty may be X number of years, but how many years were they in Singapore? How many times have they gone on site to change the smart switches out? These are questions only a mature smart home vendor can reply you.

At Home-A-Genius, we started our business since 2017 and have since worked with various smart switches. Some we've decided not to continue with various suppliers due to various valid reasons: no response from technical support team, poor switch quality, high influx of similar switches on e-commerce websites and many more.

While the sense switch and smarter switch are designed and built by us, you can see that the quality of the switches, especially on the hardware, is different from those readily available from OEM vendors. The button on the sense switch is reinforced with an additional frame to ensure sturdiness and integrity of the switch's hardware. For those who've come to our showroom, our friendly consultants would have showed you the sturdiness of the switches we've designed!

 
broken image

3. How much resources catered for your warranty period

When smart systems go down, the ones taking the hit is not the SI, but the family living within the household. The questions here is how fast will the turnaround be should there be a device downtime? Next question will be how many headcounts have they catered for for such scenarios?

For such situations, the warranty period does not matter. What matters would be how fast the turnaround be. You might want to ask the SI questions on "How many headcounts are there in the team?", "If my switch malfunction, how fast will the on-site support team be able to assist?"

 

At Home-A-Genius, we are a team of 12 headcounts, more than half belongs to the Operations and Support team. Depending on the severity of the situation, we will arrange for on-site maintainence on a daily basis.

4. How much can they integrate to a device/appliance?

It's quite a difficult question to catch, but it is something deeper than just "can you link up with device 1 , and device 2?". You might want to ask if the system is able to have more than just an on/off feature. Technically, on/off can be controlled by a smart switch/smart plug isn't it? Duh.

We've came across clients coming to us saying that ceiling fans are controlled by IR blasters. Do note that most ceiling fans in Singapore are powered by RF remote control. You may want to take another quick read on our ceiling fan blog here.

Whenver the smart home vendor says "yes" to any integration, you might want to ask for a demo or even see how the integration is made. This is to ensure that you experience the true lag time and also be able to understand how the system(s) work together.

 

At Home-A-Genius we talk about depth, which is why our demo sessions are at least 1h. We not only can on/off aircon, we can adjust fan speed and air con temperature. We can also eliminate ceiling fans with no last state memory. How do we do that? We take in feedback by clients over the years and reiterate the system's functions such that evey feature is as seamless as possible for our clients. Home-A-Genius is even able to label the switch to be a fan switch so features unique to fans will be incorporated into that switch.

5. Why are their solution priced at this price point

There must be a reason why smart home companies are priced in a certain way. Here is the price point of some of the smart home systems we see in Singapore.

OEM switch: $85/switch for 3 gang or $20/switch when purchased from e-commerce website

Sense Switch: $120/switch for 2 gang or $170/switch for 4 gang

Switch from Control4: $450/switch for 2 gang

Instead of focusing on the price point, you might want to find out why switches are priced this way. Reasons like hardware quality of each device: switch quality has an impact on the cost. How the system functions, if the system runs on cloud server, there is no need for a hardware for a local server. Sustainence of the maintainence workforce etc. these factors attribute to the cost that company has to cater for.

Before signing up with a company solely due to pricing, you might want to evaluate if the system is sustainable if it is managed by a lean team; or even check in on the quality of the switches if possible.

Bonus comment: "You only need a simple system"

Does this sound familar to you? The exact same thing happened in 1886 when motor cars were invented. The world of smart home will only become more complex and the issue here is, you only renovate once in a 5 to 10 years. Once you've invested in a smart home system that does not meet your requirements, you can only wait till the next cycle before you can change out the system.

While most clients mention to us that there is budget limitations, our advise is to invest small in a good system, that allows for stability and consistenty while you can slowly add on the additional features once your budget allows. The key concern here is not being able to freely add on appliances that are proven to be connected to an ecosystem.

 
 

While Home-A-Genius works on a rather wide range of brands, brands that cater to at least 80% of the requirements from our clients, there are brands out there that does not link up with us. These "linking" does not come easy and some of them also ensures stability and support from the parent brands that work with us. While there are brands that links up with other open source appliances, you might want to take a look at their app reviews to see how often the device disconnects from the smart home hub.

29 Jun
Uncategorized

Woes of a Smart Home?

I recently read an article on Wired by Simon Hill (dated 11 June 2022, really recent). The article mentioned about how Simon and his family lived in a smart home and the experience turned out differently. For all you smart home owners wannabe, these will be issues you will face in reality. Sadly most home owners will only face these issues after purchasing the devices/System Integrator's beautiful dream. Let's review some of the rants by the smart home gatekeeper of the Hill family and see if there are any solutions to these inherent issues.

1. IoT App Fatigue - Multiple apps

But the reality falls woefully short of that vision. “Dad! The light isn’t turning on!” “Simon! Google won’t open the curtains again!” “How do I get YouTube on your TV?” “Which app is it for the garden lights again?” Invite smart bulbs, robot vacuums, smart speakers, and other wondrous devices into your house, and you will soon see the cracks.

Then there are the apps. So many apps. Every device has its own app. The more smart home gadgets you add, the more cluttered your phone becomes. Keeping track of which app controls which device is tricky enough. But you must also install them for everyone else and train them, or accept your role as the gatekeeper of settings for the household.

 

You will need to leverage on all-in-one rule engine solution. Note that this is not about an all-in-one application as having a single rule engine will assist you in having all your devices in a single rule-engine hence in a single application.

Home-A-Genius is able to do so as we link to various smart devices directly to our application, allowing for rules to be setup in the admin page. There is no need to set up secondary rules in Google Home. Once the rules are set up in the admin page, all the rules/rooms/scenes will be synced downstream allowing for the user interfaces to be updated.

 
Single Application, Single Rule Engine, Single Home Automation

2. Change Wi-Fi system means to re-setup the smart home all over?!

When things are running perfectly, you can catch a glimpse of comfort and convenience. But when issues crop up—which they frequently do—problem-solving falls on us. If you've ever lost a morning trying to set up a security camera; sacrificed an afternoon connecting your light panels to your new Wi-Fi mesh system.

 

This is the hard truth for everyone. If there is a need to change the router, the best you can do is to change the SSID to be the same as your previous one. Change of router is often the most tedious steps for all smart home as most smart home devices require a static IP to be assigned to them to ensure stability during connection.

While the solutions are limited, Home-A-Genius has a few strong men to assist in the change in router. Usually a change in router will result in smart home system downtime, but we are able to assist with a small fee. So Home-A-Genius users, fret not! Team Home-A-Genius is all ready to assist when the day comes!

3. Smart Lights that aren't really that smart

Take smart lighting, for example. For it to work, you have to remind everyone in your family to leave the old switches alone. Fail, and your meticulously arranged remote control, voice commands, and scheduling are gone.

 

Smart Lights had been problematic since the beginning of time. When Team Home-A-Genius implemented smart lights solution, we faced a few concerns from clients. The main one being the smart light won't function if the switch is powered off - as described by Simon. Another being the smart lights are too dim. Home owners would prefer to have brighter lights, prefabaly 13W and above for each bulb.

That was when Home-A-Genius came up with our Smarter light solution. The Smarter Light solution aimed to solve the number 1 issue faced by everyone including Simon. The Smarter Light comes with a toggle button, allowing for less-savvy users to continue pressing the switch, but that will not cut off the power supply to the smart lights. While the savvy users enjoy the automation/routines painstakingly set up by them.

 

4. Serious Lag time

Even when things do work, it can take a few seconds for your chosen assistant to turn the light off. I feel faintly ridiculous telling my wife not to touch the switch or close the curtains by hand as I repeat a voice command or tap away at my phone screen. “Is this more convenient?” she asks with a bemused look.

 

When we first did up Home-A-Genius, that was one of the pain points we had to endure when testing the system. That was when we hooked up with Google and embarked on our Local SDK journey with Google Assistant. With Local SDK within the eco-system, we saw voice commands dropped from 3-5s to a mere 1s (sometimes on good days even less than 1s).

 
Look ma, that's us on the bottom right corner.

5. Google not being able to translate what you mean

I can barely keep this stuff straight. Little wonder the rest of my family struggles. Sometimes I feel like I’m asking Hal to open the pod bay doors. As Google Assistant keeps telling me, “Something has gone wrong.”

 

I have to admit, we get this quite often from Google too. However the best workaround to this is to use simple voice command. Pod Bay Doors sound too chim in my opinion. Cutting it short to Bay Doors might have easily resolved it.

6. The Matter Dream

Matter, the new smart-home standard, is due any minute now and will tackle some of these problems. ....... But don’t get too excited. As Michele Turner, director of Google's Smart Home Ecosystem, told me recently, it will provide a robust and reliable foundation to build on, but the individual devices themselves still need a lot of work.

 

Yes, don't get too excited! I have yet seen any framework on Matter as of now much less to say how long it will take for all other device to develop itself on the framework. The same goes for Zigbee 3.0. As much as I'd love to believe the beautiful lie of a fully integrated solution, the current IoT situation is a far cry from a standardised protocol. I'm sorry, but Home-A-Genius has no solution to this yet.

24 Jun
Uncategorized

How much does it cost to have a smart home in Singapore?

It’s no longer a fantasy to have a smart home in Singapore. If you told someone that you could talk to your house and have it control the lights, temperature, locks, or even boil water for you several years ago, they would think you were either super rich or simply out of your mind.

Now, with the ubiquity of home automation systems and the ever-decreasing cost of smart
home technology, more and more people in Singapore are turning their homes into automated abodes.

So, how much does it cost to have a smart home in Singapore? The answer, as with most things in life, is that it depends.

The average cost of a 5 room HDB unit can range from $2,000 all the way to $7,000+. It mostly depends on the size of your home, and scope of work.

Smart Home Hub

It ranges from below $100 all the way to $900+.

Here are some of the popular brands out there in the market and their pricing:

  • Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen): $139
  • Amazon echo hub: $78-$153+
  • Aeotec Smart Home Hub: $170+
  • Anasonic Smart Home KX-HNB600EW Hub: $250+
  • MOES Tuya ZigBee 3.0 Smart Gateway Hub: <$50
  • Frontpoint Hub and Keypad: $99
  • Savant’s Slick $500 Smart-Home Hub: $500+
  • Homey Pro: $749

A Smart Home Hub is a smart home device that stores information such as the smart home logic, room names, scene setup and connected devices.

The smart home hub is used to control other connected devices through a screen or through a phone application. Connect your smart bulbs, smart plugs, smart doorbells, and smart thermostats utilising voice commands or via the screen to manage everything.

While thesmart home hub contains all the information about the home, it is best to purchase a hub has cybersecurity label to ensure privacy is taken care of. While the Singapore government has a team to run through the cybersecurity checks for all the IoT devices, not every IoT device are awarded the CSA CLS certification. 

 

Smart Light Switch

It ranges from $60 to $200+.

DIY ones can go as low as $12, and they do at times share the same functionality.

Just that, they do not cover things like:

Online/back-end support
Stronger warranty coverages
And they do end up bringing in undesirable baggage, such as unwanted connection to a router, cloud communication or even data tracking.

Here are some common brands used in the market (per switch):

  • Tuya Zigbee Smart Switch: $10-$30+
  • Kyla Gen2 Smart Light Switch: $39.90
  • SONOFF T3 Series Wifi Smart Wall Switch: $26.99
  • OUTSMART Wifi Smart Switch: $21.90
  • Xiaomi Aqara D1 Wall Switch: $30-$48+
  • Aztech Kyla Gen 1 Smart 3 Gang Light Switch:
  • $55-$70+
  • Home-A-Genius Smart Switch: $99+

Smart light switches are intended to be used in place of traditional built-in switches. Yes, you still have the ability to turn your lights on and off as you always have, but these smart switches give you much more control over your home's lighting and other appliances.

Smart light switches also come in various forms, e.g. dimmable switches, scene control switches, Wi-Fi connection, Zigbee connection etc. All of these switches will cater to different needs, and their costs will vary.

Wi-Fi switches are most common in the market, as they do not require additional hubs to be connected to. This creates a very affordable price point, which attracts many users to purchase them.

However, Wi-Fi switches are not recommended, as Wi-Fi connection consumes more electricity, which in turn may lead to higher running costs overtime.

Zigbee switches are widely sold for its fast response time and lower electrical consumption. The only con for Zigbee switches is the need for an additional Zigbee Gateway.

Motion Sensor

It ranges from $9 to $100+.

  • Tuya Smart Motion Sensor ZigBee: $13.90-$27.80
  • Xiaomi Mi Home Motion Sensor: $21.90
  • IKEA TRÅDFRI Motion Sensor: $19.90
  • SONOFF SNZB-03 - ZigBee Motion Sensor: $8.95
  • Kyla by Aztech - ZigBee Motion Sensor: $39.90
  • Aqara Smart Human Motion Sensor Security Device: $18.89-$39+
  • Unicun Smart Home Motion Sensor: $197.57
  • Telekom Magenta Smart Home Wireless Motion Sensor Indoor: $260+

A motion sensor (sometimes known as a motion detector) is a piece of equipment that is designed to detect and measure movement. Motion sensors are most often utilized in home and business security systems.

IR Blaster

It ranges from $9 to $140+.

  • Kaforto Smart IR Remote Controller: $9+
  • Kyla Gen 2 Smart Station (IR Blaster All-In-1 Remote: $45.90
  • Tuya WIFI Universal Smart IR Remote Control: $19+
  • MoesGo Universal Blaster Infrared Repeater Hub: $120+
  • Broadlink RM4 Mini: $25.99

An infrared blaster (IR blaster) is a device that transmits instructions from a remote control to one or more devices that require infra-red remote control.

The most frequent use of an IR blaster is to allow a device to control the channel and options on an external gadget such as a cable box, set-top box, blu-ray player, or DVD. IR Blaster even allows one to control connected external devices using the smart touch control on the TV.

Door Camera

It ranges from $70 to $500+. OEM ones can go as low as $70 per door camera.

  • Xiaomi Youpin Video Doorbell: $70+
  • Anytek B50 Smart WiFi Video Intercom: $50+
  • Hikvision DS-HD1 3MP Outdoor Wi-Fi Smart Doorbell Camera: $180+
  • rlo Essential Spotlight Wire-Free Camera: $500+
  • Xiaomi Youpin Video Doorbell 2022: $80+
  • Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) CCTV Door Bell: $260+
  • Tuya Smart Video Doorbell Camera: $80+
    Smartdoor cameras provide audio and one-way (occasionally two-way) video communication with visitors seeking access to a home unit.

One will need to find out if the Door Camera connects to Wi-Fi or if it requires a data cable for connection.

Usually the Wi-Fi connected door cameras require frequent battery changes, in addition, Wi-Fi connected Door cameras are affected by the Wi-Fi signal strength i.e. if the door camera is not connected to the Wi-Fi, CCTV footages cannot be sent to cloud storage for recording, which will result in the Wi-Fi camera being just an artefact.

CCTV Camera

It ranges from $35 to $350 per unit. A CCTV (closed-circuit television) system may be used to monitor the interior and exterior of a property using video cameras that transmit their signals to a monitor or group of monitors.

Smart Plug

It ranges from $50 to $200+.

    • IKEA TRÅDFRI wireless control outlet: $12.90
    • SMATRUL 20A/16A smart wifi smart plug: $8 to $11+
    • Xiaomi MiJia Mi Power Socket Plug: $12-18+
    • Hive 3PKSMARTPLUG Active Smart Plug (3 Packs): $260+
    • Aoycocr Mini WIFI Smart Socket Switch: $49+
    • Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini (2 Packs): $20+
    • LifeSmart Smart Plug: $30

These gadgets convert almost any wired appliance with an on/off switch into an automated one that can be controlled by a simple voice command or phone tap.

IP Camera (Alternative To CCTV Cameras)

It ranges from $25 (OEM ones) to $200+.

  • Xiaomi Dafang Smart IP Camera: $36+
  • Ubiquiti Uvc-g3-dome UniFi IP Dome Camera: $200+
  • Reolink - 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160p) Outdoor/Indoor PoE IP Camera: $120+
  • Vstarcam C29S 1080P HD WIFI IP Camera: $55+
  • NightChromaTM NC400 P67: $79+
  • Bosch IP Camera: $1000+
  • Panasonic i-Pro Extreme: $400-$1000+
  • Mobotix IP Cameras: $300++

An IP camera is a type of digital security camera that transmits and receives video footage through an IP network. They're commonly used for surveillance. Unlike analog closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV), IP cameras do not need a local recording device; they only require a local network.

Smart Lock

It ranges from $200 all the way to even $1000+.

Though a decent one should cost at least $350+.

  • GENESIS X360 TTLOCK 5-Way Smart Mortise Digital Door Lock: $400+
  • Suleve Smart Door Lock: $120+
  • Kaadas K9 Digital Door Lock: $849+
  • Celtech D7 Aluminium Smart Lock: $430+
  • Aqara N100 Smart Lock: $429+
  • Hido - Tuya Smart Lock: $379++
  • Nest x Yale - Smart Lock with Nest Connect: $480+
  • Philips EasyKey 6100 Digital Door Lock: $699+
  • Samsung SHS-P717 Digital Door Lock Mortise: $699+
  • Yale Security YRD256-CBA-0BP Smart Lock: $400+
  • August 3rd Generation Smart Lock Pro: $500+
  • Schlage Encode Smart Wi-Fi Deadbolt: $400+

Smart locks allow a homeowner to enter their house or allow others access without requiring a traditional key. Instead, the user uses their smartphone or a key fob to electronically authenticate and physically unlock the door remotely. Smart locks are one step closer to providing on-demand home security.

Consultation and Engineering Cost

When building a smart home, the cost of consultation and system integration plays a key role in your budget. Using an in-house system can help cut upfront expenses compared to hiring external specialists. Initial consultation fees with an in-house team can range from $500 to $2,000, depending on the scope of the project and the number of smart technologies you plan to include. 

This does not include necessary rewiring works that may be required to integrate the smart technologies into your home, which will cost an average of $3000.

Apart from consultation fees, there is also the cost of engineering and customisation services.

However, integrating various smart devices isn't always straightforward. Each system — whether it’s lighting, security, or HVAC — may use different communication protocols or require unique configurations. This complexity can add to the cost, as you may need to purchase additional equipment, such as hubs or adapters, to ensure compatibility.

Why The Difference In Prices For Certain Brands?

1. Quality of product & design:

OEM products are usually limited in capabilities and quality, and are easily found on
e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Shopee, etc.

2. Closed ecosystem:

Most solutions can only link to apps within their own ecosystem. i.e. they are unable to link up to brands that are well-loved by Singaporeans Sonos, Roborock/Ecovacs or Sony Smart TV.

3. Technology:

Most of the time, the cloud connected smart home systems have to process smart home logic
via a cloud server.

This poses severe security implications that many consumers are unaware of.

4. Service Level:

While companies turn to price war to retain customers, their service level is compromised, as they need to keep the team small and lean to accommodate the low pricing.

Some companies might choose to have an extremely lean team to maintain everything: the operational, logistics, sales, marketing, technical support and on-site support of the products.

After sales support for the clients is not just important, but has become a necessity, as a smart home is a new thing, and not everyone has the knowledge to troubleshoot them when needed.

5. Off the shelf items from OEM companies:

This limits innovation and does not allow products to be built around the needs of their consumers. It only takes USD5000 to white label an app to have their own branding, and this also includes the architecture of the smart home system, i.e. cloud server.

The Home-A-Genius Difference

Home-A-Genius smart home system offers 1 unified application that can connect to various applications simultaneously. 

The difficulty is to sync all of them together. Usually, consumers would have 1 application for their security cameras, another application for their doorbell, another application for their lights, etc.

The confusion always starts when users do not know which application to use. i.e. the app provided by the system integrator or the Google Home app. The back story is that once you hop onto Google Home, which is the application that allows full integration, the promises on the application on the system integrator (Local Area Connection, single app control) would be nullified.

Multiple applications will also contribute to confusion, leading to a bad user experience.

With tons of smart home technologies already supported, you can add virtually any device or sensor to Home-A-Genius directly, with the help of team Home-A-Genius online, and also their installation manual prepared by their friendly engineers.

You can begin your smart home automation journey by adding smart devices and smart sensors in a matter of minutes.

Updating your smart home logic is also easy, as the team would have set up most of the smart home logic on your behalf. You would just need to fine tune the system to your specifics!

Best of all, there is no need for a secondary app like Google Home to work!

In addition, we offer a smart home floor plan that allows you to view the status of your smart lights, smart switches and smart devices all within a single page, without the need for additional scrolling/tapping to check on your home!

Consult us today to know more about smart home Singapore and how you can benefit from having the best smart home automation package!

24 Jun
Uncategorized

What Are The Pros And Cons Of A Smart Home?

The advent of smart technology has revolutionised the way we work, so it only makes sense that we would embrace it in our personal lives as well! More homeowners are adopting smart home systems and technology as home automation has become more affordable, with lower barriers to entry.

There are many advantages to having a smart home. You can save money on your energy bills, you can keep an eye on your property even when you’re not there, and you can increase your home’s security. However, there are also some disadvantages to consider. Today we will present the pros and cons of a smart home. 

 

Pro: Ease of mind & Higher Quality of Life

One of the main advantages of a smart home is having the flexibility and the ability to take your mind off tedious, mentally taxing stresses. Imagine the need to rush to work on a Monday morning, with both kids in your arms and running around the house to ensure that all aircons, fans and lights are powered off.

With a smart home, you can program your devices to power off with a single “Goodbye” command or at a specific timing when everyone is surely out of the house. Instead of focusing on the nitty gritty details like flicking the switches, users now can focus on the safety of their child or ponder about how to solve their issue at work.

While this may seem costly when bundled with the renovation budget, the cost of technology will eventually be neutralized when the system is used on a daily basis during system uptime.

Other benefits would include: time saving, energy efficiency, and safety. 

 

Con: Compatibility Issues

 
pros and cons of a smart home - compatibility issue

Not combining technology that works together is one of the first flaws in adopting smart home technology. The smart technology industry is competitive, and there are a lot of alternatives on the market. This also means that a lot of the time, devices in the IoT industry don’t work together.

IoT devices also comes in many different forms; runs on various IoT protocol. As such, the in-depth details of using each device also comes with its own pros & cos. i.e. Wi-Fi switches may use higher electricity than Zigbee switches.

Such complexity will not be flagged out during the sales process and it is only up to the customer’s knowledge to understand the device they are purchasing. These are often so if the item is purchased off e-commerce platforms.

Therefore it is important to do thorough research on the items you are purchasing and it is also critical to get a superior smart home solution that is able to integrate with all of your smart electronics and appliances into a single application. 

 

Pro: Support For Older Generation

A common misconception is that smart homes are for the young ones, but believe it or not, smart homes actually help to serve the older folks.

With features like medical alert systems, automatic lightings and temperature control, the elderly can live with more independence in their own homes.

Smart home solutions are also incorporated to minimise movements by the elderly. i.e. smart doorbell camera allows video/voice footage to be sent to the user without the need to walk to the door.

Features such as the smart floor plan (a visual representation of the house) also helps older generation get used to the smart home with a single tap on the smart floor plan, which provides a visual representation for the users. 

 

Con: Dependence on Technology

Just like anything else that is technology-driven, a smart home is also dependent on gadgets and devices to function properly.

If the smart home system is reliant on your local network, or reliant on an unsecured local server, then you risk being helpless if the server crashes. 

 

Pro: Energy Efficiency

The benefit of smart home technology is the energy efficiency it will bring to your house.

There are a variety of simple ways to cut your carbon footprint and lower your utility bill. You may use energy management solutions such as lighting controls, smart power tracks, and smart plugs to help you decrease both your environmental effect and your monthly utility bill! You may also connect smart sprinkler systems and sensors to detect possible water leaks and reduce wasteful water usage.

While owning a smart home will also mean that many of your devices will be on standby mode, using the rules and logic to reduce usage appliances/devices with high energy consumption is proven to be more effective than conserving electrical consumption of devices on standby. 

 

Con: Might Be Susceptible To Outages

One disadvantage of a smart home is the risk of an internet outage. While rare, losing electricity or access to the internet for even a short time, especially when your whole house is dependent on it to function can be a huge frustration.

Therefore it is important to find a smart home provider that offers reliable service and has a solid backup plan in place. The smart home systems should also be self-reliant in case the outage happens past office hours. i.e. if the system goes down, there should be an alternative for the users to still be able to power on/off the lights via a physical switch.

Having a strong support team in place will ensure that you receive the necessary help when troubleshooting or adjustments are needed, or even when things don’t go according to plan.

Consultants who understand your daily activities and needs are more likely to offer you insights as well as recommendations to help you to achieve your smart home goals. They are also the ones that you can lean on for setup help and maintenance. 

 

Pro: Accessibility and Security

The times of only relying on our dogs to keep our homes secure are long gone: now, thanks to smart home automation and technology, our home security systems are always in touch with us.

A home automation system can be a great way to automate and keep track of your home security, without having to constantly worry about it.

If you are searching for a basic security monitoring system with door and window sensors, as well as a doorbell camera, there are plenty of internal and external security solutions out there in the market. 

 

Con: Vulnerable To Cybersecurity Breaches (At Times)

Although a home automation system can bring plenty of convenience and peace of mind to your life, it also might be vulnerable to hackers and other cybersecurity breaches.

According to a study done by HP, 70% of all IoT devices are vulnerable to medium or high severity security flaws.

So, before you invest in a smart home solution, make sure to do your research on the company and their security protocol to avoid any headaches down the road. 

 

Pro: Increased Home Value

Did you know that smart home technology is now being taken into account during property appraisals? Smart thermostats, smoke alarms with sensors, and home security systems all seem to improve a house's value. 

 

Con: Startup Costs

Even the best investments come with a cost. Even though smart devices and technology have gotten a lot more affordable over time, fitting your house with smart devices and technology may still be expensive. Make sure you conduct thorough research to figure out what would work best for your unique requirements!

In certain situations, depending on the smart home solution, it may require you to do electrical rewiring of your home, and this would increase your overall cost. 

 

The Home-A-Genius Difference

At Home-A-Genius, we offer a one Stop Wi-Fi & Smart home solution - 99% deadspot free solution.

Home-A-Genius operates within the local network; i.e. it works independently without the internet, while connecting the devices within the same network. This means that you do not have to worry if our servers shut down, and that means that your data is compromised, or that your smart devices will suddenly stop functioning.

You won't have to worry about compatibility problems, either, since we provide a single App that can connect to a variety of appliances and electrical fixes all within a single system. With numerous smart home technologies already supported, you would be able to add practically any device or sensor to your system with ease.

 
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