By admin@handinhandadventures.com 
The whole point of building a smart home is to bring convenience and upgrade your lifestyle, right? But my friend, it is easier said than done.
Creating a smart home and living in one are two very different things. And, while it’s convenient to live in a smart home, it’s equally difficult to create one that serves this purpose.
Being a smart home owner, my journey wasn’t a smooth one. In fact, living among gadgets that frequently glitched almost made my wife believe that our five-year-old daughter was smarter than those smart devices.
However, with time, I realized that my smart home devices weren’t at fault. In fact, it was I who made some serious mistakes in this journey. And here, I’ll share my experience so you can avoid those mistakes and create a smart home that truly makes your life more convenient.
So, let’s start:
1. Identify Your Needs
When I first started, I was carried away with the thought of a smart home. Living among smart devices that acted on my instructions seemed so fascinating that I completely neglected my actual needs.
Identifying your smart home needs is the fundamental step in this journey. There are hundreds of smart home gadgets available today, and surely, you don’t need to buy every one of them. In fact, even a dozen smart devices might feel overwhelming at some point.
The point being, do comprehensive research before you buy a smart gadget. Analyze the functionality of gadgets and determine how they fulfill your needs and make your life convenient.
Additionally, start slow! Don’t buy all the gadgets you need in one go. Smart home gadgets are not extravagantly expensive, but they’re not cheap either. So, invest in one or two gadgets at the start, get familiarized with how they work, and at the same time, save to buy more.
2. Analyze Your Internet Connection
I knew that smart home gadgets required an active connection to work. And, because we didn’t face any issues with our connection, the thought of upgrading the internet plan never crossed my mind.
However, I realized a blunder the day I added my fourth smart home gadget. Not only did my online activities get affected, but my existing smart gadgets also started to malfunction.
Anyway, I resolved this issue by switching to a more affordable and faster internet service provider, Spectrum. I called the Spectrum customer service and explained my bandwidth needs. After asking a couple of questions, the rep suggested a high-speed plan within my budget.
So, when you decide to create a smart home, ensure that your internet connection is up for the task. Otherwise, your smart home devices may glitch or become unresponsive on a spotty connection.
3. Pick and Stick to Your Ecosystem
One of the fundamental mistakes that most smart-home newbies make is overlooking the smart home ecosystem. Being inexperienced in setting up smart homes, I bought devices from different brands. Technically, buying gadgets of different brands isn’t a problem at all.
What you have to keep in mind while buying gadgets of different brands is their compatibility. Unfortunately, I bought a few smart devices that weren’t compatible. And that’s why I could only control them via their dedicated app and not via voice.
For example, an Amazon Alexa voice assistant cannot control an Apple Home device (and vice versa). Instead, it’s only compatible with Amazon devices (or other compatible ones).
So, when you shop for smart home gadgets, read their compatibility list. You might likely find a detailed list of compatible devices on the smart gadgets you want to buy.
4. Go with Professional Installation
Unless you’re an electrician or know your way around technical wiring in the house, don’t try to install all the smart home gadgets yourself.
I made this mistake. Installing a simple plug-and-play smart home speaker made me believe that I was a jack of all trades. And that’s why I decided to install a smart thermostat and sensors myself.
It didn’t take me long to realize that this do-it-yourself (DIY) approach wasn’t going to work with smart devices that involved complex installations. Eventually, I had to call for a professional’s help to install those smart gadgets.
So, as I said, unless you don’t have the required expertise, do not try to install a smart home gadget yourself. Simply because self-installed smart gadgets can malfunction, and you might end up calling for a professional’s help.
5. Consider After-Sales Services
It doesn’t matter how expensive your smart gadget is; it’s still an electronic device that can malfunction without a warning. And if that happens, you’ll need a reliable after-sales support and services for those devices.
Speaking from experience, my smart speaker glitched a lot after installation. It was installed properly, and I had also switched to Spectrum to rule out the factor of connectivity. However, the issue persisted, and that is when I decided to call the after-sales support team.
Not only did they help troubleshoot the problem, but they also gifted me a voucher for my troubles. So, do watch out for the after-sales support, as it can be quite handy.