November 17, 2020
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Smart Home
Did you know a smart home is often called the ‘house of the future’? And its main goal is to make your life easy and comfortable? Great chance you do. But there are plenty of smart home fun facts you might not yet heard of. We’re happy to share 5 with you.
1. The first smart homes have been around for much longer
The concept of smart home is relatively new, right? Kind of. Ten years ago smart home devices were already on the market, but having them at home was quite rare. Nowadays it seems more like a rule than an exception to be the owner of a nice pair of smart bulbs or any other smart home device. However, despite of what you might think, the very first smart home products were already developed between 1966 and 1967. They were called the ECHO IV and the Kitchen Computer. The ECHO IV assisted you in controlling digital clocks and helped to regulate the airconditioning (yes, already back then!). The other one, the Kitchen Computer, was offered for 10.000 dollar, weighed about 45 kg and could be used for storing recipes. We deliberately say ‘could’ because this futuristic gadget wasn’t a great success. According to the stories, not a single Kitchen Computer was sold…
2. It’s possible to turn ‘dumb’ devices into smart ones
Yes, this is actually possible. Which means you don’t necessarily need to buy a pile of smart home devices to turn your house into a smart home. With only a smart plug, like the Hombli Smart Socket DUO, you make your ‘dumb’ devices smart in a quick and easy way. How? Plug the cord of your device into the Smart Socket. After that, you can manage it with your smartphone. For example, set up a timer or time frame for your iron to turn off automatically after 10 minutes. Or give your normal lights the task to turn on as soon as you enter the house. A similar product is the Hombli Smart IR Remote Control. This gadget transforms your smartphone in a universal remote that replaces the old one. In other words, it makes it possible to control even your old-fashioned TV in a smart way.
3. Your smart home devices love to team up
Something many people don’t realize is that your smart home devices are designed to work together. They team up very well. It’s pretty easy for them to do that, as they are all connected to the internet, often to the same wifi platform. So instead of ‘smart home’ you could also call it a ‘connected home’. Do you want to turn on the lights in the living and bedroom at the same time? Or the ones in the hallway, after your Smart Security Camera detects movement? With a little help from a smart home app, like our free Hombli app, setting up your devices and connecting them to each other is done in a split second. Even when they origin from different brands. Good to know, right?
4. A smart home saves you money
Smart lights work with led lights, which are much more energy efficient than classic energy saving bulbs or halogen lighting. When you’re away from home, your lights switch off automatically. You can even make sure that just two of the five light bulbs turn on automatically at half strength when you get home. Not only does this make life more convenient for you, it also makes it cheaper. Your energy bill will be (much) lower. Same thing for using a Smart Socket. Through a built-in energy monitor you always have insight in the energy consumption of your plugged devices. When you consume too much, you easily set a timer or time schedule to correct it. So a smart home doesn’t just have to cost you money. In fact, by saving energy in a smart way you might even win back the purchase price of your devices ?.
5. Your smart home truly gets smart by ‘machine learning’
Your Smart Socket is turned on by nothing more than your smartphone. Your smart doorbell will immediately show you who’s at the door, wherever you are. All by using internet. But smart home appliances don’t automatically become ‘smart’ just because they are plugged into the internet, do they? While opinions may differ, you could say smart home devices only truly become smart when they are capable of thinking, making decisions, and learning. A technique called ‘machine learning’ actually makes this possible. Machine learning is a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and aimed at building systems that can learn from processed data to improve its performance. Based on your user-data your Smart Bulbs will learn they should turn on at 7 am on a weekday, for example. They will perform the act without having to set anything up manually. And they will be so kind to let you sleep in during the weekends ? We’re not there yet, but soon enough we will…
We hope you enjoyed reading this (and of course that your learned new things). In case you know other fun facts about smart homes that are not mentioned here, or have any questions about our products, please let us know! Send us a message using the contact form or call +31 702210077 to get someone on the phone right away.