Retrofitting your current home with smart technology may feel like a mountain to climb, but integrating new eco-friendly tech isn't nearly as difficult as it first appears. From smart heating to security, smart controls to eco-power, there are many different ways to transform your property into a smart home, and a plethora of products that will enable you to start your journey.
If you're just starting out, you'll discover that upgrading to a smart home will make your life easier, more eco-friendly and help save you money in the long run.
According to research carried out by the Smart Home Buyers Index, "a third of individuals surveyed would move into a home without smart tech but would retrofit it later" and "more than four in five would consider a smart home when choosing their next property." This data indicates that smart tech is not only a direct focus for many forward-looking homeowners, it also suggests that a fully-equipped smart home has the potential to add value to your property when the time comes to sell up in the future.
In our latest blog, Eco Wizard will guide you through a few smart home touchstones that can instantly make a huge impact in any smart home retrofit project. Your smart home can always be expanded, enhanced and improved by integrating additional smart products into your existing ecosystem and therefore broadening your connectivity. But right now, we'll shed some light on the smart essentials that will provide the perfect springboard to creating a truly seamless, lifestyle-enriching smart home.
Start Out With Smart Indoor Lighting
Illuminating your home with smart lighting can make a huge impact in your current property. Smart bulbs, spotlights, dimmable light fixtures and multicoloured strip lights allow for smart switch or app-controlled convenience so you can turn your lighting on or off via your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or similar network connection, all at the tap of a smartphone.
Smart indoor lighting options such as these TP-Link Tapo E27 L530E Smart Colour WiFi Light Bulbs enable you to set the right mood in any room of your home with 16 million colours to choose from. You can create individual scenes and schedules from the app and use your smart bulbs with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant as well as your iOS and Android smartphones for smooth compatibility.
Not everything should be purely app-controlled. In fact, having tactile smart switches within a finger's reach around your home will offer a great deal of convenience and some attractive additional benefits as well. The brilliant thing about smart switches is that they come with an array of switch positions, functions and modes to control multiple smart devices, smart scenes and other conditions.
Depending on the type of switch you choose, you may have multiple commands at your disposal, including single click, double click, long press and 2 buttons simultaneous press if you opt for Aqara or “OneTouch” and “My Status” rules if you choose the Salus SB600 Smart Home Dual Switch Button.
Connectivity Matters: Take Control With Smart Hubs & Gateways
Our hubs and gateways act as the beating heart of your smart home ecosystem: centralising the control of all smart home devices, simplifying interactions, connectivity and automations. Great for any smart home ecosystem that uses multiple devices from the same brand or products that overlap in compatibility; using smart home hubs can be as simple as connecting to your existing Wi-Fi router and then using a corresponding smartphone app to gain full control of your connected and compatible devices.
The Aqara M2 Smart Home Hub is a smart home control centre that allows you to manage a range of devices that we offer at Eco Wizard, all at once. These include radiator security cameras, smart wall switches, thermostats, motion sensors and more.
Security and home safety is a particularly attractive feature of any smart home system. By integrating smart security devices into your retrofit smart home, you'll be able to keep a watchful eye on your property while you're at home, out for the day, or even on holiday. From smart door bells, to window and door sensors that will sound an alarm upon unauthorised entry - and even carbon monoxide sensors to protect your family - we have a whole host of reliable security devices from Netatmo, Eve, Heatmiser and TP-Link.
The Eve Outdoor Secure 1080p Floodlight Camera comes with smart motion detection technology, capturing live video in pin-sharp 1080p quality to keep your home safe while you're away. You can choose how and when you want to be notified thanks to the selective motion detection that either records everything or only if people, pets, vehicles or packages are detected. You'll also experience two-way communication with the built-in microphone and speaker, and your recordings will be saved securely for ten days in iCloud and then deleted automatically.
Portable Battery Power Anytime, Anywhere
Every smart home needs a portable power source for power cuts, outages and grid failure. Our portable power stations work like a supercharged powerbank, keeping your household appliances and personal devices running when you need them most. We offer a range of portable power stations, handpicked to meet all your charging requirements, both big and small. Browse our range of trusted brands including Bluetti, EcoFlow and Energizer.
The Bluetti EB3A Portable Power Station is an easy to carry, safe and reliable power source with a cutting-edge LiFePO4 battery that provides 2,500+ Life Cycles to 80% to keep an array of familiar devices safely and fully charged such as smartphones, laptops, lights, cameras, mini fridges, fans, drones and more.
