Smart Appliances

The cost of a smart home system depends on how "smart" of an environment you want to create at your home. DIY projects related to the Smart Home networks, such as Amazon's Alexa or Google Nest, cost between $100 and $1000. These Smart Home Networks, on their own, are already capable of significantly increasing your everyday convenience. However, more complex installations applicable to brand new homes might bring the cost of a Smart Home system up to $10,000 or even higher, depending on the size of your home. On average, for the more complex, wired systems, the cost of human labor per hour is $85.

Costs of the most common home entertainment and comfort improvements:

• smart home hubs - between $100-$1000.
• smart TV or audio system - starting at around $100 for a basic improvement and can reach up to $2000.
• connected appliances - starting at $100 for a smart thermostat to around $500 with a set of wireless smoke detectors. $1500 for a complete smart energy-saving lighting setup.
• smart outlets and plugs - between $20 - $100 for a smart unit without the cost of installation (it is possible to do it yourself).

Moreover, the cost of a smart home system also depends on the kind of network it uses to operate. A Wi-Fi-based smart home system might also require an upgrade of your wireless Internet network at home to allow all of the integrated devices to have sufficient access to the network. If you do not want to play around with your Wi-Fi at home and change the routers you might be interested in ZigBee based smart home environment.

Smart home technology is a concept that covers several sub-topics related to installation, connectivity, telemetry, remote management and optimization of home devices.

Initially, only selected types of devices were related to this term. However, with IoT becoming increasingly more common, smart home technology can refer to almost any home device. These devices include, for example, smart light bulbs, smart energy meters, smart plugs, smart thermostats, smart fridges, smart heaters and smart window shutters.

So why is this all relevant? The key idea of a modern smart home is to integrate all devices so that they can be controlled by a single application. This modern solution often allows us to do this even with devices from different manufacturers. This is due to the standardized communication protocols, utilizing existing architecture (WiFi and/or global internet), Bluetooth, ZigBee.

Due to the operators of such platforms, one can even access their locally-connected devices through the global internet via their servers, by simply logging onto their account.

The newest top of the line TVs are smart TVs. Smart TVs are TVs that work out-of-the-box and offer smart functionalities, such as applications allowing you to access online services like YouTube, Spotify or Netflix, without requiring any extra action. This is because Smart TVs have an integrated processing unit (which can be thought of as a small-scale computer) that provides the OS, smart applications, integrations, and communication, and handles TV reception, decoding and display.

If you have an older TV, which does not have such a unit, you do not necessarily have to replace it with a newer model. If it still works, you can buy a tiny extension module, which you plug into the TV with an HDMI cable, just like a DVD player. This device has its own remote control, its own OS, applications and potentially, depending on its manufacturer, its own app store. This way, you can turn a 'standard' TV into a smart one.

A ZigBee Smart Home Hub is a device that coordinates the operation of smart home devices compliant with ZigBee communication standards. Customers have a wide choice of ZigBee smart things on the market. These include smart plugs, switches, thermostats, temperature sensors and more. The ZigBee Smart Home Hub integrates smart things within a local smart home network and serves as their gateway to a cloud platform that gathers the data about those devices' performance. In the context of energy-saving, this data can be used to optimize household energy usage during the day and spot the energy inefficiencies at home. This can lead to important conclusions about what household appliances need to be fixed to save money.

Besides ZigBee Smart Home Hubs, there are also multi-mode hubs available on the market. They can build a smart home system that does not only rely on ZigBee communication but can also integrate Bluetooth and Wi-Fi compliant devices in the network.

Smart kitchens are kitchens designed to save energy and time with their functional advantage over the traditional ones. Their main purpose is to become efficient and sustainable. They combine a modern design, with user-friendly electronics while being built from environmentally-friendly elements at the same time. The growing interest in cooking makes them even more useful with finding recipes and completing groceries list. Their home area network connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) and cameras built-in devices like refrigerators and ovens allow the users to keep track of the cooking procedure remotely.

The most important benefits of having a connected kitchen are the efficiency, sustainability and comfort it brings to you. Tedious cooking routines are no longer a thing when kitchen appliances turn smart. Checking the content of the refrigerator, remote setting of the oven or getting recipe inspirations based on the latest list of groceries are just a few of the many features of the systems combining the kitchen appliances.

A smart washer is not a standard appliance used to wash your clothes. Its ability to establish an Internet connection through a home Wi-Fi network allows its users to access various smart features. Once it is set up, it is possible to check the washing status remotely, get notifications when the load is ready for drying, and monitor the amount of detergent in it. In addition, the washer helps the user to schedule the programs during off-peak electricity hours when the rates are lower to save on bills. Smart dryers are also compatible with services like Google Home which help integrate the smart washers in the smart home network. This makes it even easier to operate the washer and other smart appliances when using a single app.

A smart dryer is a dryer with the ability to establish an Internet connection through a home Wi-Fi network. Once it is set up, its user has the possibility to access various functions of the appliance remotely. Checking of the loaded program status can be done remotely from anywhere. It is also possible to start the load from a smartphone app and observe its progress until getting a notification about its finish at the end. Also, such dryers use their smart features to inform their users about the need for its vents cleaning which makes it not necessary again to check on it every now and then. Lastly, the smartphone apps used to operate the dryers usually have a smart feature that gives suggestions to the user to turn them on during times when the electricity rates are lower to save money on the bills.

A smart refrigerator is a refrigerator, which connects to the Internet through a house's local Wi-Fi. With this function, a user can connect their smartphone to the smart refrigerator. A user is able to see what's inside the refrigerator without having to go to it, get an alert if its door was left open, or even set up notes that will appear on the refrigerator's screen. In addition, some smart fridges make it possible to set up a refrigerator's cold water tank and icemaker features remotely to make sure they are prepared for keeping drinks cold during a dinner or a party. Most of the smart refrigerators are also compatible with services like Google Home and are a functional element of a smart home appliances network.

The number of smart appliances that are compatible with the Google Home App is constantly growing and it would be impossible to determine a complete list of household devices, which have the Google Assistant functionality integrated into them. Customers may find smart locks, speakers, light bulbs, thermostats, displays, remotes, and many more among the appliances that are compliant with the Google Home.

In order to make the right choice in setting up a Home Area Network built of devices operating through the Google Home app, it is important to evaluate what kind of smart appliances are needed in the house. You may want to ask yourself what can smart home features improve in your household? Which standard devices need to be improved to make their usage more efficient? These are just some basic questions that come into mind when getting to know the topic of a smart home for the first time. Check out our articles below to learn more about smart appliances.

Why my smart appliances are not working?

Why smart appliances are good for my home? 

What can you do with smart appliances?

A very important step in setting up a smart appliance at home is its initial configuration. This usually requires the user to connect the device to a local Wi-Fi network. An important thing to notice here is that most Wi-Fi routers operate on two different frequency bands being 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The majority of smart appliances available on the market use 2.4GHz. Therefore, it is good to connect all of them to an access point operating on this frequency band.

Furthermore, to successfully operate with smart devices, a smartphone needs to be connected to the same kind of hotspot (2.4GHz band). If your device is unable to properly connect to the router, then the problem may be because of the strength of the Wi-Fi signal around the house. If your home has areas where your smartphone or laptop is unable to establish a wireless Internet connection, your smart appliances will most likely have the same problem. It is important to consider placing your Wi-Fi router in the central location of where you install the smart devices. If this solution still does not provide a reliable connection, you might need to consider adding a range extender, signal repeater, or simply another router to your Wi-Fi network.

The configuration of some smart appliances may also require a Bluetooth connection in the process of their installation. In this case, you need to strictly follow the guidelines in the device's manual so that you do not mix up the two types of wireless communication standards (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). Another thing to bear in mind is that the Bluetooth's range is very limited compared to the Wi-Fi, so it is crucial to stay close to the device while using this kind of connection when it is being configured.

Overall, hardware failures are not a frequent cause of Smart Home system malfunctions. Most Smart Home system potential issues originate from the improper configuration or low local Wi-Fi network quality. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that a lot of low power smart appliances run on a battery as a power supply. This may cause problems in the long run after the initial installation (i.e. in a couple of years).