The Ultimate Smart Home Guide

Smart homes are soon to be a norm in the Singapore residential market. Despite small floor plans and space constraints, many still enjoy smart home integration given its list of benefits. From instant home improvement and bespoke design to increased security of your home, the smart home market in Singapore will only grow with time – and so will the number of new smart devices available. If you want to upgrade your home with smart gadgets and are not sure where to begin, this is the smart home guide for you!  

According to research, the smart home market in Singapore back in 2018 was worth over US$125 million! With many of us living in apartments, where light switches can be accessed in a few steps, why is there an increased interest in home automation among homeowners in Singapore? The answer is relatively simple – to the tech-savvy generation, smart home automation is an efficient solution to residential and domestic problems such as safety, security, and convenience.

In support of this, even the Singapore government had rolled out the Smart Nation initiative back in 2014. Aiming to transform Singapore through technology, several strategic national projects, and innovative solutions to improve our living environment have been launched.

Building a Smart Home for You

With the government seeing the appeal of smart tech, HomeAuto aims to support this movement towards building a smart and safe city – most importantly we aim to support you. Understanding the appeal of smart home automation systems and how daunting it might be weaving through the many smart devices, we have come up with a step-by-step beginner’s guide to build a smart home in Singapore. We’ve also put together a list of user-friendly smart solutions that will digitally transform your home in an instant.

Step 1: Laying the Foundations

Whether you are looking for smart home devices catered to the elderly or other home automation solutions, you’ll first have to decide if you want to go all-in and create an intricate network in your home with a central hub or install a few devices and control them using multiple apps. If a single user interface to control everything sounds appealing, then you should build a smart home system with a hub! But smart hubs aside, the very first step is to ensure your home has a stable internet connection.

Step 2: Key Smart Devices for Your Home

Do you like the idea of switching your bedroom lights while out having dinner with friends, or perhaps you would like to monitor movement in your home while on a trip? Setting up an entry-level system will suffice in keeping your home safe and secure. Before going on a shopping spree, ensure that your choice gadgets are compatible with each other. The best way to go about doing this is to look at the devices’ wireless communication protocols.

1. Zigbee Wi-Fi Hub

Able to create a comprehensive domestic Zigbee network, theZigbee wireless hub acts as the central node of communication with other Zigbee devices. Manufactured with a cybersecurity label, security risks are mitigated. Even when there is a network outage, which is now extremely common, the hub will ensure that your Zigbee local network always remains in operation – making Zigbee better than Wi-Fi protocols.

2. Range of Home Automation Solutions 

Depending on your needs and preference, there are many devices you can integrate into your home – from smart lights, temperature and humidity sensors, leak sensors, door and window sensors, push-pull smart locks, smoke detectors, the list is endless.

Step 3: Control

Now, you’ve got all the different smart gadgets, how then do you integrate all of them and create a single system? After setting up your Zigbee Wi-Fi Hub, the gateway on the HomeAuto app will automatically search for Zigbee devices for easy pairing. Now you can schedule routines, control devices in different rooms, monitor activities, and automate your home on your smartphone!