I’m just about starting to believe that I may be heading into the final stages of an extremely lengthy attempt to sell one apartment and buy another, so I’m currently giving some thought to the smart home technology I’ll want in my new home.
This will be some 13 years after I first adopted smart home tech, so I’m expecting to make a few changes – some small, one potentially much larger …
I’ve been through this once before. As last time, I found that the smart home tech in my existing apartment was a very appealing selling point, and I’ve therefore again agreed to leave most of it all in place. With the exception of some wall and floor lamps I’m taking with me, then, I will need to start again in my new home.
It’s been almost a decade since I last had to go through this process, and at that time I mostly opted to replicate all of the tech I already had. That remains the broad plan this time around, but I will be making a few changes.
This will include taking advantage of the more sophisticated smart home technology now available, and opting for a slightly more restrained smart lighting setup. By far the biggest decision I will need to make, however, is whether to stick to the Apple Home app or to switch instead to Home Assistant.
Lighting
Color lighting seems to be one of the most polarizing elements in smart home setups. Some people like their entire home to be filled with color-capable lighting, while others dismiss it as a gimmick.
Sometimes you only really discover what you most appreciate when you are without it for a time. That was very much the case after my last move while I was waiting to set up the smart home tech. I found that mood lighting was among the things I most missed, and most appreciated once everything was up and running again.
I do very much remain a fan, although I’m not going to get quite as carried away as I have in the past. My plan this time is to have color-capable lighting for floor and table lamps as well as strip lighting in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom. All overhead lighting, however, will be white. There is talk of fairy lights rather than strip lights in the bedroom; we shall see!
My existing setup extended to color lighting in the bathroom, imagining that a soft pink might make for a relaxing or romantic mood while taking a bath, but I think it’s been used in this way about twice in eight years!
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