Impact of Smart Homes in Buildings

According to Dave Pedigo: “Homes and commercial buildings alike are typically not smart yet – they’re connected and programmed by smart people. What I mean by this is that most buildings that have some aspect of automation are built using conditional logic; for example, press this button and this will happen – or if this door opens, turn on the lights ... I honestly don’t see a huge difference between commercial and residential other than scale and how they are managed,” he continues. “There are many nuances between residential and commercial, but it is more regarding the client and the magnitude of the job. The technologies on the back end share many more similarities than differences.”

Read more: http://www.installation-international.com/smart-buildings-industry-impact/

Contractor: Most homes retrofitted with Smart Home locks, lights

Times are changing with smartphones now able to combine the power of interoperability, connectivity and machine intelligence for smart home technology. By connecting devices and appliances to everyday tasks, from opening the garage door to detecting break-ins to providing security for our property, to switching on and off lights our smart technology solutions are creating connectivity solutions that offer remote monitoring and more. How cool it is there is smart technology on the market that lets users check the contents of the refrigerator while at the market, turn on the air conditioning on the way home from the office and even lower the oven temperature so the main dish won’t burn when meetings run late. Securing the smart home starts with connectivity from the DIY easy-install automation products and/or building your new home with automation products installed at the onset.

Read more: https://www.dcourier.com/news/2017/apr/21/ask-contractor-most-homes-retrofitted-smart-home-t/

Home Automation and Virtual Assistants

Until the release of these virtual helpers, home automation consisted of professionally installed systems that controlled everything, or managed services that provided monthly monitoring of things like alarm systems. Both are still available, but the revolution in the smart-home market is playing out in the individual components and smart devices that homeowners can control with these ubiquitous virtual assistants. Siri is the backbone for Apple's HomeKit, the smartphone app that can be used to control a variety of smart-home products. This platform provides a variety of helpful features to simplify the process of adding devices and labeling "Favorites." You can also organize the various components by "Rooms" and create "Scenes" that will control multiple devices with one command.

Read more: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/19/sierra-wireless-latest-buy-puts-it-into-a-multibil.aspx

Smart Home may make it easier to sell real estate

Smart home technology may make it easier to sell homes and real estate, especially to younger audiences. A recent survey revealed that 86 percent of millennials are willing to spend more money to rent a place with smart home technology already implemented. If they’re willing to spend more on rent, it stands to reason they’re willing to spend more for a home purchase. That same survey found 65 percent of baby boomers are willing to spend more to rent a place with smart home technology. Although that number is significantly less, it’s still pretty substantial. If anything, it shows that smart home technology is quite popular these days. In fact, that 80 million smart home devices were delivered globally in 2016, which is a 64 percent increase from the prior year.

Read more: https://www.inman.com/2017/04/19/5-smart-home-trends-homebuyers-want-in-2017/

Buying and Selling properties with smart home technologies

People who are selling smart homes are beginning to realize they need to hit the reset button on gadgets that might contain passwords and other sensitive personal information. And smart-home buyers often find that they need professional help to set the systems to their specifications. Coldwell Banker has set up a special training course to teach its agents how to prepare smart homes for sale and how to boost a home’s curb appeal by adding smart features.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/real-estate/2016/12/09/tips-for-protecting-your-privacy-your-new-smart-home/U0TrWPDuzKDIB25itzRIdM/story.html

Connect your smart lights to Google Home

So your home now has a Google Home. You’re about to enter the wonderful world of digital personal assistants. For all the Philips Hue or Samsung SmartThings owners out there, you have full control when the lighting systems are connected with Assistant. “Okay Google, change the color of light in the living room.” This is perfect when you are stuck cooking and your date is coming over in ten minutes.

Read more: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/set-new-google-home/

What to expect from Smart Homes in 2017

Amazon offers the Echo and Echo Dot, voice-activated speakers of varying size that employ the company’s Alexa technology to answer your questions, engage your digital media libraries and control your smart home products. Google’s recently released Home is a similarly capable speaker solution, but the brand’s rich history in search may serve to separate the device, which is linked to Google’s expansive information database, in an increasingly crowded hub space. Or that’s Google’s hope, at least.

Read more: http://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/48880-what-the-future-holds-for-smart-homes-in-2017