Our free Smart Home survey service is continuing to be really popular with homeowners in East Anglia and London. The projects we’re invited to discuss range from new construction homes to homes being extended or remodelled. The only objective I have going into these surveys is to convince the homeowner or builder that they need to future ready wire the home.
Failure to give the home a fighting chance to handle technology demands today and in the future is fast becoming the single biggest mistake home builders and renovators can make.
Here’s a quick look in to the home that doesn't have the essential technology infrastructure.
An impulse purchase of a smart doorbell during the Black Friday sales was a smart move. It’s wireless and is really quick to install. The delivery arrives and the drill is out quicker than Usain Bolt out of the blocks. 20 minutes later you are ready for the setup via the app. You head to the kitchen to make a cuppa and download the doorbell app. You go outside to the front of the house where you've mounted the doorbell and begin the setup process. Your phone is now on 3G and has disconnected from your wi-fi. Step back inside into the hallway and the wi-fi connection returns. Set it up standing here. Press and hold the button on the doorbell and your phone scans for the doorbell. It sees it and asks you to connect your doorbell to your homes wi-fi. The doorbell app doesn't see the homes wi-fi but eventually it picks up one bar of signal. You finish the set up process but at the end a message pops up saying the wireless signal is weak, please move the doorbell closer to your wireless router. Your router is in the living room, two rooms away and inside the TV cabinet. The doorbell connects but when you test it the picture is pixellated and the audio quality is poor. It also takes 5 or 6 seconds for your smartphone to get the doorbell notification. Frustrated, you see how it goes for a few days but end up removing it from the front door wall and buy a dumb doorbell during another online shopping session. Don’t you hate missing deliveries when you’re at work?
A home armed with a whole house covering wi-fi system wouldn't have this issue and even better, a home with a CAT6 cable to the doorbell location would have meant that the doorbell would have a constant power supply and internet on the single CAT6 cable. Smarter. Now you’re always home.
This was another 30 minute Smart Home Blog with Speed by Customised director Kris Gamble.