Almost everyone has a smartphone, but how many of us have a smart home? Just as those little gadgets we carry around with us everywhere, and that have become indispensable and revolutionised the way we live, so smart technology for the home promises to make our lives all the easier.

But what exactly is a “smart home”, how does it operate, and what are the essential devices, gadgets and other smart home systems you need to live a truly modern and far more comfortable life in your home?

Smart homes are all about control and letting technology do the running around for you. All that time spent fiddling around with heating, lighting and electronic devices so that you can get them all just the way you want them? Now, with cutting-edge smart home systems, you can forget about that and leave the work to computers and their programs.

Evolution of the Home

Smart home systems are certainly the way the homes of the future are headed: they’re all about letting you do less and relax in your cocoon, shielded from the world, while tech takes over the old chores of yesterday.

Most of us are not old enough to remember a time when we had to get up to change the channels on the television — and there were only a couple of channels back then anyway. But the introduction of the humble remote control allowed us to luxuriate on the sofa and channel-hop at will. This handy device, the technology of which dates all the way back to the 1800s and began to appear in mass formation in the 1950s, can be considered a forerunner of smart-home devices. We’ve come a long way since then and, today, we’re being bombarded by all manner of smart home wizardry that promises to greatly enhance our downtime.

All the big tech companies have developed their own versions of smart home systems in recent times and we now have an array of devices to choose from. These include Google Home, Amazon Echo, Nest Learning Thermostat and a growing number of others that aim to take the hassles out of home life and let you relax in style. They can seamlessly connect to your home systems and appliances, and perfectly set and monitor them so you’re put fully at ease.

The Smart Way to Live

With smart home systems in control, there’s no more coming home to a freezing house in the winter because you forgot to set the timer on the heating system. Now, it can be activated by your smartphone while you’re on the way back, or timed to rise to a certain temperature by the time you walk through the door. The lights will be on, your home will be toasty-warm and all you really need is for someone to make the dinner for you.

Smart home systems also enable higher levels of security and let you see in real-time what’s happening in any room of your house, or outside, via streaming from devices set in and around the home to your smartphone — many even come with motion notifications that will alert you to potential intruders. And home entertainment has never been so good with smart home systems: with breathtaking, heart-pounding home cinema set-ups, you’ll never want to go out to the movies again.

These and more innovations in home living are already firmly making their way into houses and apartments all over the world. In the coming years, more homes than ever will be more efficient with their use of energy, resulting in big savings to personal finances and the environment and we will enjoy a greater level of flexibility and comfort in our own homes than ever before.