Making the Internet of _ings work for you is all about connectivity and infrastructure – here’s how to do it

This project by Andrew Lucas London features a smart-controlled layered lighting scheme

Smart home technology is a diverse area and the number of gadgets available is growing day-by-day, whether they’re aimed at enhancing your lifestyle, saving money or securing your property. But the best examples all have one thing in common: they do their job in a way that can be easily integrated into your routine, often without you having to even lift a finger to swipe a screen.

“There are isolated benefits, such as intelligent thermostats that can help cut your bills or clever locks that allow you to open the door to someone from afar,” says Philipp Schuster from Loxone. “But a real smart home makes life easier and gives you more free time. If you have to get out your phone and open several apps every time you want to adjust a setting, you might live in a connected home, but it certainly isn’t smart.”

Andy Moss from Moss Technical agrees: “People are much more aware of smart tech thanks to primetime TV ads for the likes of Hive and Apple HomeKit. When they come to us, they soon realise they can do much more than they’ve seen so far: they can control and automate almost everything in the home.” Wouldn’t it be nice, for instance, if when you locked the front door on leaving the house, all the lights turned off and the underfloor heating dropped down to an energy-saving background temperature? What about if directional lighting were to switch on when the smoke alarm trips? Or perhaps, when you pop into the ensuite at two in the morning, your home was intelligent enough to know the lighting should only come up to 10% brightness to avoid dazzling you, and to suppress the fan so you don’t wake up your partner?