What should you pay attention to when making your home smarter and what do you achieve with it? We will put it together for you and take a budget of 200 euros into account.
Smart Home 101: choose what your home should be able to do
You want to start building your own smart home, but don’t want to spend the top prize right away? Then you’ve come to the right place. First of all, it is important to know what you want to achieve with your smart home. Do you want a home full of entertainment, maximum energy savings or better security? Do you want everything? Then you will probably exceed your budget. We have therefore listed around 200 euros worth of options for you per category.
NB: as a beginner, we recommend installing the Google Home app on your smartphone. In many cases, smart equipment can be linked to that app, so that you do not have to use too many apps unnecessarily. You can of course also choose another hub app of your choice.
200 euro smart home categories
See: this tech fits in your smart home
Curious about what you can do with a smart home? Then watch our video below.
Smart home 1: entertainment and convenience
Starting with entertainment. Your living room is central and we start with your television. If you have a smart television, it may run on Google TV. In that case, it can probably be linked to the Google Home app, after which you can control other smart devices on your television.
Don’t have a smart TV? Then we recommend the Chromecast with Google TV (HD). This compact dongle streams all your favorite services and connects easily to the internet. And also nice: it only costs you about € 47.98. Thanks to the Google Assistant button in the remote control, you can even use voice commands.
You can also opt for the Google TV Streamer, Google’s latest media player, but it is on the pricey side with a suggested retail price of 119 euros.
Speaking of voice commands: with the Google Nest Mini you can do this without a telephone or remote control. The small smart speaker costs €52.95 and listens when you say ‘Hey Google’. Of course you can also play music on it. Do you buy multiple Nest Minis and place them in multiple rooms? Then you can easily connect them to hear music throughout your house.
Relief
When you think of a smart home, you think of lights. There is a huge range of smart lamps, from cheap LSC lamps from Action to expensive fixtures from Philips Hue.
In the long term, the Hue lamps often work better, especially in combination with a Bridge 60 euro. This communicates with all lamps and then sends one signal to your smartphone. Without the bridge, the lamps all connect with their own Bluetooth or WiFi signal, which can cause poor connections.
Are you serious about your smart home and do you want to expand in the future? Then we recommend Philips Hue. Do you want to save a little money? Then consider the lamps from Ikea. They also work with a bridge (50 euro) and can save you tens of euros, depending on how big your house is of course.
→ View the Philips Hue Starter Package
→ View smart lighting from IKEA
Do you want to illuminate your entire house smartly? Then we recommend the more expensive options. In practice, they maintain a better connection. However, do you only want mood lighting or a colored LED strip? Then cheaper lights are also worth considering.
Once set up, you simply add the smart lights to your Google Home app via the associated apps, allowing them to be controlled with the Google Assistant.
Smart house 2: save energy
Another reason to make your home smarter is to gain insight into your consumption. If you know how to manage your heating, electricity and water consumption better, you can save nice amounts every month. Therefore, be sure to check out the products below to save energy.
Heating
Many homes without smart heating have radiators in every room. You can easily turn them on when you want extra heat, but you can also easily leave them on accidentally. Smart radiator valves are a relatively affordable way to tackle this.
There are starter kits in different price ranges. You pay for three radiator knobs and an Evanell bridge 109 euro. This set works with its own app, but can also be connected to Google Home, so that you can also ask the Assistant to adjust the temperature remotely.
→ View Evanell’s radiator knobs
Hombli is also a reliable brand that works with Google Home. There you can buy a starter kit with three radiator knobs and a bridge to connect the system to the internet. These are normally priced above 200 euros, but are often for around 130 euro available.
→ View the radiator knobs from Hombli
Insight into your consumption
Do you want more insight into your consumption? Then the Homewizard Wi-Fi P1 meter is for you 30 euro An must-have. It is a dongle that you connect to the P1 port in your meter cupboard. This then sends your water level and gas consumption to your smartphone via WiFi.
→ View the Homewizard Wi-Fi P1 Meter
In the Homewizard app you can directly see how much you consume or view the trends in your consumption. This way you can save money and energy smartly.
Smart home 3: secure
We choose security as the third goal for your smart home, because that category is larger than it seems at first. Because in addition to outdoor security cameras, you can also consider indoor cameras, a smart doorbell, and window or door sensors.
Starting with cameras: to stay within our budget, we recommend EZVIZ. These affordable cameras come with useful features, such as gesture recognition, the ability to move the camera. From such 30 euro you get an indoor camera at home and from 60 euro Do you have one outside too?
→ Check out the EZVIZ C6N indoor camera
In addition, a smart doorbell is actually a security camera with a button. This allows you to see who is at the door, even when you are not at home. The Eufy S330 is for 133 euro relatively affordable and equipped with two cameras. One looks forward and recognizes people, the other faces downwards. This means he sees packages on the ground and doesn’t miss anything.
→ Check out the Eufy S330 video doorbell
Window and door sensors are perhaps our favorite simple addition to a smart home. They often cost less than ten euros per set (10 euro at IKEA or 6 euro at Aqara). If you connect such a sensor to your smart home via a bridge, you always know whether your windows and doors are closed at home. This way, your phone will sound the alarm if someone comes in unwantedly.
→ View the window sensor at IKEA
We also do not recommend that you save big when it comes to security. Cheap security cameras and video doorbells from unknown manufacturers ironically do not always offer the right security, as research by, among others, shows Consumer Report. Such affordable options don’t always encrypt the connection to your network, which makes them relatively easy to hack.
Now it’s your turn to get started with your smart home yourself. And the best part is: you can put it together so that it works for your needs. Have smart home fun!
More Smart Home on Android Planet
Source: www.androidplanet.nl
