Why DIY Projects Won’t Work When It Comes To Home Automation

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) is apparently everywhere – from home improvement to healthcare. There are entire television channels devoted to projects you can do all by yourself. With a simple search, you will find pages full of projects, especially on Pinterest, for every room in your house, and any day of the year. Therefore the fascination and expansion of DIY projects are growing.

As DIY-concept has been entering almost every industry, we can notice the development of smart devices and connected homes. According to a study, 16% of U.S. households own at least a connected home device, and almost 40% intend to purchase one soon. According to Gartner, by 2022 the average household could encompass more than 500 smart devices.

Regular home appliance and gadget manufacturers promote their products as ‘DIY,’ convincing many consumers to adopt the idealized concept of a DIY smart home, self-installing one device at a time.

Sadly for most homeowners, a 100% self-installed smart home is not a suitable project. In this article, we’ll address the issue of why DIY projects don’t work when it comes to home automation. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why you cannot DIY your smart home.

Set-Up Doesn’t Get Easier

Every electronic device either already is or soon will be online, all ensuring that one is greater than the older versions. Just because these products claim to be “smarter” doesn’t mean they are easier to connect or configure. 

Consumer technology researcher Michael Wolf stated that physical installation is the reason why DIY-concept is the smart home industry’s myth.

The components, devices, and accessories required for projects like interior and exterior painting, sprinkler systems, plumbing, electrical outlets and switches, A/C units, water heaters, and security systems have been accessible to the public for decades. However, the majority of homeowners will contact professionals to set up and service these system-like products.

The vast majority get discouraged even by setting up an IKEA furniture item. Do you think they are ready to allot time and energy, without considering the potential frustration, to a DIY home automation project that involves physical installation, electronics, and then home networking?

For most setups of networking devices and home systems, homeowners will require professional support. 

Uncoordinated House

With each “smart” device that you include in your household, the more complex it will become. Most devices – even though they are connected to the Internet, they don’t immediately “connect”. That’s because each device includes its own app, communication protocol, and software, causing all of your devices to operate independently from one another.

As homeowners combine more and more smart devices around their houses, it’s only logical that many will need a more single device or control to perform in harmony, like musicians in an orchestra. The difficulty is there’s no conductor to coordinate the clashing notes, sounding more like a band warming up than a harmonized concerto.

At the moment, there are numerous efforts started to improve smart devices to become more harmonized.

But it may take some time until these initiatives produce commercially-functional chipset components embedded in products, installed and utilized by consumers in the same homes. However, it can be established as an industry standard that allows all devices to interconnect. And these efforts still can’t overcome the differences between apps and schedules from each manufacturer.

However, the time has come for consumers to control multiple devices from one device. But can a unified service be built so that when you watch TV or stream a movie the lights automatically dim and the window shades immediately close?

Will large companies agree to collaborate and assign master coordination to just one of them? Or maybe smaller product manufacturers will choose a single larger player to be the conductor. Or each of them will develop for various platforms, even try to build their orchestra.

What Can a Connected Smart Home Do

Considering these challenges, some consumers wonder if choosing a smart home is worth the trouble. However, imagine all the possibilities of a smart home with devices that interconnect:

• In the morning, your window shades open, while the thermostat adjusts, and you can listen to daily news or music.

• On your way out, the simple press of the “Goodbye” button turns off all the lights, TVs, and audio systems, sets the temperature, locks the doors, and arm the security system.

• While you are away, you can receive mobile notifications when your child arrives home, or if they haven’t arrived at a certain time. If there is a chance of water leakage in your house, you could be warned to take measures. If it is connected to the water source, it can notify you the water was turned off before the house was flooded. 

• Your window shades could automatically adapt to the time and position of the sun, saving energy and making your home more comfortable.

• For more peace of mind, you can receive a mobile notification and automatically start a security camera recording when someone reaches your driveway.

• All of these situations, and many more, are already feasible today, but they do not come pre-installed or from an e-commerce site.

Professional providers of home automation systems bring these smart solutions professionally designed, set up, and customized to any household needs.

The first thing homeowners want when organizing their smart home is individual product choice and the capability to customize them as a collective. They want to start small and expand over time, choosing from all of the smart devices on the market.

Meeting those demands needs an open platform capable of delivering almost everything from intelligent lighting, multi-room audio and video, family-room entertainment automation, and efficient systems for home heating and cooling. All these must be available and manageable via in-home devices and within one app on a smartphone.

Final Thoughts

The capabilities and advantages of a smart home are evolving every day. When all the devices are professionally installed, home automation can be extremely beneficial to daily life. It makes your smart home practical, efficient, and valuable.

Our environment and lives are more connected, and our houses will inevitably be smarter.

Just like installing electricals, plumbing, and HVAC systems, the set up of a smart home is not a DIY project. 

If you realized that when it comes to home automation and your DYI project won’t work, we are here to help. Contact us today and let’s find out together the best home automation solutions for your household.