You might be looking at smart products in the following season and wishing to get into it, but how much do you need to budget ? In this post I’ll breakdown the costs for two typical homes, I’ll also point you to some products that you can buy for your own smart home.
A starter smart home can be built for $897.87 US dollars with no technical knowledge with off the shelf products. This package includes a Philips Hue starter kit and motion sensor, Nest thermostat, Nest IP Camera, Google Mini and a smart plug. For a family home expect to spend $ 3000 US dollars in addition with extra light bulbs, a UniFI Dream Machine, robot vacuums, IP cameras, Nest Doorbell and a Sonos 5.1 audio system.
Table of Contents
Starter home $897.87
For a starter home, this might be a 1 bed flat/apartment, you might be renting or your first home on the property ladder. This is where I would start:
| Category | Number of Devices | Cost $ |
|---|---|---|
| Lighting | 6 | $218.94 |
| Temperature | 1 | $230 |
| Camera | 1 | $130 |
| Voice Assistant | $39.99 | |
| Smart Plugs | 2 | $60 |
Lighting
The Philips Hue starter kit for around $179.99
This package will give you the hue hub that allows you to control your bulbs, three light bulbs with colour and a smart button.
Adding a motion sensor to the mix always from Philips Hue for $38.95:
The motion sensor picks up light and you can set your lights in night mode during night time, and full brightness during the day when the room gets dark during a gloomy day.
Temperature Control
The Nest thermostat can control your heating for $230, to find out more about smart heating and other options checkout my blog post
Camera
An easy way to check what is going on inside your property, there are many options on the market to give you an idea the Google Nest cam indoor is around $130
Voice assistant
You can control your smart devices with a voice assistant main players are Google home and Amazon Alexa, many of your smart products will be compatible with both $39.99
For a starter home I think this will be sufficient audio quality to keep the costs down at the start.
Smart Plugs
A smart outlet can help you to turn on and off devices from the socket. Really good for Christmas decorations, a lamp, or a kettle for $30
This smart plug from Eve Energy has a smart meter in it to monitor the electricity consumption of the device.
Family home
In this type of home we assume we have a garden and four members around 2000 square feet.
Everything listed in the starter home will be part of this calculation in addition you should be budgeting for the following
More bulbs $396.84
A pack of four bulbs for $50, I’d budget for two packs, so including the starter pack from the starter home section we are looking at $318.94
You are going to need a couple extra motion sensors so that brings the total to $396.84
Better WiFi
To support the additional gadgets in the home I think it is a good idea to look into a new router / wifi setup.
I personally have UniFI products and they have an excellent price / quality ratio.
If I was starting out now I’d buy the Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine for $318.88
It is an all in one device with a secure gateway and 4 port switch with a high-performance dual band 802.11ac 4×4 access point.
Voice Assistant $ 80
A couple of voice assistants around the house are quite cheap to add and can serve as an additional speaker too.
Doorbell $ 200
A smart doorbell will allow you to answer you door when you are not at home via an app. You can use this to ensure that you don’t miss a delivery package.
Main options are Ring from Amazon and Google Nest
Vacuum Robot $ 260
A vacuum robot can help you out when you want to keep your house clean, but just hate cleaning. It is a fun gadgets for little kids and pets too!
I have a Eufy by Anker they have various models I use a 30c these go on sale during the holidays so watch out!
Audio System $1195 (5.1 Surround + Stereo in Kitchen)
Many brands are out there and this is going to be a personal preference however I use Sonos and it is one of the best quality speakers.
Many Sonos devices have a voice assistant integrated within them.
For you TV you can buy a soundar the “sonos playbar” or the “sonos playbase”
To create a 5.1 audio system, pair a couple of sonos one for $199 each
In your other living area either a play five for a couple of sonos one in stereo.
Camera $ 450
At this stage a couple of IP cameras and one external camera should give you a good balance between being too intrusive and keeping safe.
You can either stay with nest for cloud storage, or look at Unifi Protect for local storage on an NVR (network video recorder), the NVR and cloud key you can find at around $174
Cheapest camera in the Unifi line is Ubiquiti Flex $78 (affiliate link to Amazon US)
Front door lock
A smart lock can give you some added benefits, the ability to leave the house with just your phone and leaving those bulky keys at home. Automating closing the door at night so that you never forget it unlocked. Closing your door automatically when you leave the house thanks to geofencing on your mobile phone add extra security.
The killer feature for people that give out copy of house keys to either babysitters or dog walkers can now generate codes that can later be revoked and you will be able to know who entered the house and when.
Main brands are August, Yale and Schlage (affiliate Amazon US links)
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