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Tom and his family, who live in the Southern Highlands, are redefining modern living with their high-tech home, featuring around 260 internet-connected devices. This incredible installation is revolutionizing their daily lives and showcasing the future of smart home technology.
By smart home, Tom means robots that handle repetitive tasks like vacuuming and mowing the lawn, energy usage dashboards that are monitored and adjusted in real time, high-tech security features, and smart systems that notify you when manual tasks need attention.
To traditionalists, a smart home powered by some 260 connected devices might seem like digital overkill. But for software engineer Tom, the hobby project has given him more time for “life” and enjoying spending time with his kids while they're young.
And just when you thought this futuristic way of living was beyond our reach, the rapid development of smart home technology (expected to be worth A$953 billion by 2032) means that Tom and his family are likely running the 'home of the future' (and we're on the brink).
The nbn network upgrade across Australia means businesses and homes can now take advantage of fast, reliable broadband to enjoy the convenience, productivity and creativity benefits of smart technology at home.
In this article, we'll explore some of these possibilities in more detail, focusing on five key benefits of implementing smart technology into your home and sharing some fascinating insights from Tom's personal experience.
safety
According to the ABS, an estimated 8.5% of Australian households (856,800 households) will experience a domestic crime between 2022 and 2023, and 358,500 households will be physically assaulted.
Break-ins and assaults are unpleasant thoughts, but smart security systems are designed to prevent these incidents from happening, or at least mitigate the damage. They do this by monitoring your home, both when you're there and when you're away, and identifying potential threats in real time.
Unlike traditional security systems, these smart systems offer a more comprehensive solution that includes advanced customization options and detection capabilities.
Gone are the days of “waving your arm in the air” as Tom explains, as his security system is intelligent enough to accurately detect people, animals, cars and even your breath.
For Tom, it's not about Orwellian surveillance, but about ensuring the safety and awareness of young children, especially when they're playing in the front garden.
comfortable
Working from home has been steadily increasing since COVID, with 37% of employed Australians working from home regularly in 2023. This includes Tom and his wife Rachel, who work from home full-time.
Working from home means spending more time in your home space, so it's important to make your environment as comfortable and productive as possible.
For Tom, this means living in a house where the lights come on automatically when he walks in and the heating turns on remotely, “enjoying the comfort of coming home to a warm house.”
Comfort for Tom also includes elements such as faster internet speeds across nbn's network, allowing his family to remain fully operational whilst working from home.
Energy efficiency
In theory, more devices should lead to more energy consumption, but much smart home technology is designed to help people monitor, adjust and control their energy usage.
This includes smart thermostats that adjust heating and cooling based on a schedule, and lights that can be programmed to automatically turn off when you're not in the room.
Speaking with Tom, he was really excited about the amount of data that can be extracted from these home systems. With the precise control and automation that smart home systems allow, we can see how beneficial it can be to identify and reduce energy waste based on live data.
Tom also emphasized that the energy usage to run the device is “essentially zero” as it uses solar panels to provide power (and reduce overall expenses).
Another benefit of monitoring energy consumption is that the data allows you to take into account manageable comfort.
For Tom, this also includes luxuries for his kids, like smart blankets that turn on for them before bed and turn off when they get in, allowing them to enjoy a little comfort while saving on energy consumption.
Entertainment
Smart home entertainment systems bring a new level of enjoyment to your living space, with high-quality audio and visual systems, voice control, an easy-to-use interface, and integrated streaming services to seamlessly manage all your entertainment needs.
Features like an immersive home theater setup let you customize your entertainment experience for any occasion.
Before speaking with Tom, I had intended to talk about his home entertainment setup, but instead we talked about how smart technology has led to entertainment being limited for the sake of children's development.
The benefits of smart entertainment clearly go both ways.
Not surprisingly, limiting internet usage has become a common theme for parents raising kids in today's digital age, as they strive to balance their kids' screen time with healthy offline activities.
Tom goes on to explain that they are “a very technology-driven household that values technology… but we also understand the damage that some entertainment can do to kids.” For Tom, this can be mitigated by limiting tablet use.
The tablets in their house automatically turn off at 5pm, mainly because Tom is keen on research that suggests tablet use “keeps people stimulated late into the night and can disrupt sleep”.
Because his children are still young, Tom limits some of the content they can watch unless it is approved educational content.
Convenience
Smart home technology makes everyday life much easier by allowing you to control various household functions remotely using your smartphone or voice commands.
An automation system makes it easy to perform tasks like adjusting the thermostat, managing the lights, and locking the doors.
One of the conveniences Tom could not live without is an automated lawnmower, which means he no longer has to mow the lawn and can get his Saturdays back during the summer.
“I think that's the biggest impact (on my daily life) because I get to go home every weekend and spend time with my kids and do the activities I'm passionate about.”
Whether you think this is an act of genius or laziness is irrelevant: these novel conveniences will save you time and energy.
More than half of smart home users report that these devices automate mundane tasks, saving them about 30 minutes each day and 182.5 hours per year (but who's counting?).
Tom responded to the laziness comment by saying, “Throughout human civilization, we've slowly gotten better at making things more efficient. This (smart homes) is really the next evolution of that.”
In summary
If, like me, you’re hesitant about having a fully integrated home, it may be because you don’t understand how this technology can change us as people, or maybe you just enjoy the old-fashioned way of doing things.
Apocalyptic science fiction movies may also be playing a role.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of a smart home is the ability to customize it to your personal preferences.
I wish I could track where my energy consumption is going in real time. I hope Santa is listening, because a robotic lawnmower or a home theater system would also make a great Christmas gift.
More devices generally mean more energy use, but with solar power and smart features that can monitor and regulate energy consumption, it is possible to live sustainably.
In other words, you can have your cake and keep some too.
Tom's smart home lifestyle has been fully realised thanks to nbn's network, and he believes that without nbn the benefits of a smart home and work from home lifestyle would not have been possible.