SMART HOME TECHNOLOGY TECHNICAL
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their home and can include voice control technology. This enables them to schedule specific events and adjust home comfort settings to meet their needs and can also provide control and monitoring when away from home to give them peace of mind. Smart homes are often created to enhance audio or visual installations associated with smart TV or home cinema, to enhance the control of heating and/or lighting to reduce energy consumption, to enhance home security or a combination of all of the above.
What are the opportunities? Of course, while promoting smart home technology as a new opportunity, smart homes themselves are not new. What is new is that with the growth in wireless technology, increased use of smart- phones and the ever-increasing range of affordable smart tech products, this type of installation can now be easily and cost effectively installed in all types of home. Early smart homes relied on cabling
installations, using data cables (Cat 5 UTP) and coaxial to connect smart connected equipment. It was therefore not such an easy job to retrofit the technology into existing homes and also the range and costs associated with the smart tech products available at the time were not as they are now. However, this has all changed, opening up a potentially huge market.
It should also be mentioned that in new housing developments, smart home technology appears to be very under- used at the moment. Where properly considered and specified, given the relatively low cost of the technology in comparison to the overall construction costs of a new house, it could be something that would interest potential buyers and could boost sales. Perhaps this is an area worthy of further exploration with those responsible for specification of new housing developments.
What do I need to do to become a smart home electrician? From an electrician’s point of view, smart home tech is relatively simple to install and connect as it makes use of the
Smart lighting means new opportunities for qualified electricians
home Wi-Fi system and a smartphone or tablet computer to control the smart devices either directly or via a hub. The first step to becoming a smart home electrician should therefore be to understand and develop your knowledge of smart tech products and what they can do, particularly those that you intend to install. Once you have obtained this
knowledge, start to engage with potential customers and spread the word on smart tech and let them know what you can do for them. However, as a word of caution it may be best to start small, perhaps by installing a few smart tech products in your own home which will help you to gain valuable experience before undertaking small projects for paying customers! In other words, learn to walk before you try to run. If you feel that you need training or back-up support, check with manufacturers of the products to see if they provide help with this. If you’re using established brands, most will be able to provide free product training either directly through their technical support team or perhaps through a local trade supplier.
Smart lamps and smart lighting Providing smart lighting solutions, such as installation of smart lamps and smart lights or upgrading existing lighting circuits with smart control devices, may
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be the easiest route into becoming a smart home electrician. Replacing existing lamps with smart lamps for instance is particularly easy and features include dimming control, automatic switching and the ability to choose a wide range of lamp colours (which is useful for creating mood settings). Smart lamps are also energy efficient and will help customers to reduce their overall home energy consumption. The tech associated with the products is simple and easy to set up and operate using Bluetooth and an app. Some smart lamps can also be connected to other smart home tech products to take advantage of voice control technology, i.e. Amazon Echo with Alexa voice control, Apple Home Kit with Siri voice control or Google Home with Google Assistant. Where such voice control smart products are to be used, make sure the smart lamps are compatible with the voice control technology. Where installing specific smart lighting products, such as a floor standing lights or table lights, the supply and means of control is simply facilitated by connection to a local BS 1363 socket-outlet using a smart plug or connection unit which comes with the smart light and is again easy to set up and operate. The above options however may offer limited opportunities and can present
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