A Beginner’s Guide to Smart House Interior Design
After several years of brewing and iteration, smart house interior design has become a piece from a spark. We gradually said goodbye to the stage of “turning on the air conditioner with the cell phone after work” and took great pride in it, and entered an era where thousands of people and even “masters” could enjoy their own homes.
I’ve been tossing around smart homes for a few years now. After trying several platforms, I finally settled on the Tuya-based Homekit ecosystem for my new house renovation.
How to choose a smart home platform?
The smart home is not like a smartphone; it can be replaced at will and involves a series of hard furnishings, design, purchase, installation, commissioning, and so on. Choosing the right platform to do it once and for all is essential.
Aside from the price factor, I think there are two things to consider when choosing a smart home platform:
- Intelligent convenience. Intelligence here is mainly through sensors and voice. The former has a wide variety, and it’s pretty much the same on all platforms, while the latter depends on what smartphone you’re using. iPhone, HomePod, and other devices pick up the sound and have the best recognition rate of any device, bar none. The Apple Watch’s experience of lifting my wrist and calling out to Siri allows me to do so without having to arm the stereo, allowing me to voice-control it all the time.
- The richness of the platform ecology in smart house interior design. Currently, the Tuya system is the smart home platform with the most SKUs and lower barriers to entry, but Matter, the smart home platform initiated by the three giants Apple, Google, and Amazon, has greater possibilities.
Light control the heart of the smart home
In the realm of smart house interior design, take my house as an example; there are more than fifteen lights in the house, so just turn off the lights and air-conditioning before leaving. It is necessary to wander through the three rooms and two halls, not to mention the pain of getting up in the middle of the night and touching the dark.
So, controlling light is at the heart of a smart home. Devices such as voice assistants, sensors, smart switches, smart curtain motors, etc., enable the lights and natural light throughout the house to be adjusted at will.
If you want to create a whole-house smart, you shouldn’t let any lights stray from the intelligent system, or it will be like a short board on a barrel.
As for many other small appliances labeled as intelligent but just adding Wi-Fi and a screen to the body, the improvement in quality of life is minimal. Including but not limited to: Control your rice cooker with your cell phone, and your smart toothbrush praises you for being great. Check the shelf life of your food with your refrigerator.
Are you Changing lights or switches?
▲ Ordinary lamps with smart bulbs for color temperature and brightness adjustment
There are two ways to control the lights: one is to replace the smart switch. Through the network control circuit opening and closing to manipulate the light, it is stable and less costly. You can choose from various shapes and colors of lamps and lanterns, and it does not affect the manual button.
The second is to replace the smart lamps and lanterns. The advantage of smart lamps and lanterns is that they come with the function of dimming (illumination and color temperature), and Homekit comes with the function of adaptive lighting. The disadvantage is that the range of choices is too small, and the smart lamps on the market are composed of light strips, light bulbs, and ceiling lamps, and the overall replacement cost is also higher. The original mechanical switches may fail without being combined with smart ones.
In smart house interior design, my advice: go for smart switches. At least for now, a smart home should be the icing on the cake, and you shouldn’t have to give up your traditional button-operating habits in pursuit of intelligence.
However, if you have a higher pursuit, you can deploy smart switches and smart lamps and lanterns at the same time. For example, dual-color temperature light strips and smart light bulbs are good choices in the space where you need to regulate the atmosphere. As for downlights used for corridors, choosing ordinary lamps is sufficient.
For a remodeling party, an owner-occupier, and a renter, what should they choose in terms of smart house interior design?
The choice of equipment varies significantly for different groups of users.
Renovation parties, please prepare for the following during the hardscaping phase, once and for all:
- Reserve the zero wire at the switch and install a zero-fire version of the smart switch
- Reserve outlets for smart curtain motors next to the curtains.
- Reserve a USB socket where the camera needs to be deployed.
- Install smart wall sockets: Install smart wall sockets where appliances (e.g., electric mosquito coils) are connected to “power-on” appliances.
Explain the first item briefly. There are two types of smart switches: ‘Single Wire’ and ‘Neutral Wire’.
Ordinary wall switches rely on manual opening and closing, but smart switches are smart because they have integrated control chips. But the problem is: once the switch is disconnected, the light bulb goes out simultaneously, and the control chip also loses power supply, so how can it be done remotely?
So, a neutral wire switch pulls out a separate “neutral wire” in addition to the firewire to supply power to the control chip to ensure standard opening and closing.
However, as far as I know, most commercial homes today do not have a neutral wire pre-wired at the switch and need to be modified before hardwiring. Simply put, this means cutting a slot in the wall to lead a neutral wire from the circuit of a nearby light. In smart house interior design, this modification ensures that the smart switch can function properly and maintain connectivity even when the light is turned off.
▲ SLS Smart Push Button Switch (Neutral Wire Version)
In the realm of smart house interior design, for owner-occupant parties who are not comfortable doing circuit modifications, the following is recommended:
- Replacing the whole house switch with a single wire version of the smart switch. The principle of the single wire smart switch is that the light bulb is switched on and off through a variable resistor, and since there is no actual switch, the line is always on. The disadvantage is that the single wire version of the smart switch has a limitation on the power of the access device, and flickering may also occur when encountering some poor-quality light bulbs.
- The curtain motors opt for the wiring-free lithium battery version, which makes little difference in the experience of using them, except for the need for regular charging.
- The sockets are replaced with smart wall sockets. Replacement of sockets connected to “power-on” appliances (e.g., electric mosquito coils, floor lamps) with smart wall sockets.
There are no dismantling conditions for the rental party. The idea is to make it wireless without affecting the original layout and, simultaneously, easy to dismantle.
- Choose the wireless switch, eliminating the need to disassemble the original switch. Not only can you stick it in any position, but you can also set it freely. For example, add a wireless switch at the head of the bed for dual control. The disadvantage is that the response speed may be a little slower.
- Replacement smart bulbs.
- Curtain motors can choose smart curtain companions. This is a curved line of thought, through a small device hanging on the track to achieve curtain opening and closing, without the need to reserve an outlet without customizing the rail. Cost-effective, the disadvantage is that it needs to be removed every half year to recharge.
- Appliances that “turn on when you turn on the power” can be smartened with smart sockets. In smart house interior design, these solutions provide a balance between convenience and functionality, especially for those who prefer a non-invasive approach to smart home upgrades.
What are some recommended devices? What effects can be achieved?
In the context of smart house interior design, Here, we only recommend Tuya system ecological products. Other platforms usually have similar products, which can also refer to.
Sub-devices such as switches, lights, sensors, and other essential smart home devices use the Zigbee 3.0 protocol to communicate with the gateway to achieve lower power consumption, faster response time, and more reliable and stable control.
The gateway’s stability is essential. Otherwise, the device will be paralyzed en masse, and the gateway can access the network cable to ensure stability. In the future, the Matter protocol can also be supported directly through the upgrade.
Also, if there are too many sub-devices, it is recommended that multiple gateways be accessed close to each other to ensure signal strength and not to put all the devices in one basket.
HomePod mini/Apple TV
Tuya Eco is compatible with voice assistants such as Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa and can also be controlled remotely via Tuya Smart Tuya. But if you want to control it remotely from your iPhone Home, you’ll also need a HomePod mini or Apple TV as a home hub.
Most purchased sensors, by sensing the movement of people, realize the effect of people coming to light up and people leaving to light out. The difference is that the former can monitor the degree of light and object movement, but if you keep still, the sensor can not monitor, so it is more suitable to be placed in the entrance hall, corridors, and other short-lighting places.
And the Human Presence Sensor, as the name suggests, can sense your presence even if you remain motionless. It’s a radar device that requires a separate power supply (for decorating parties). It can even precisely monitor your exact position in space for small spaces with extended stays and light source needs, such as studies and restrooms.
As mentioned above, these three are suitable for renovation parties, owner-occupiers, and renters. The smart curtain motor can still be triggered on and off by dragging and dropping. With the Smart Camera G3, I can even open and close the curtains by gesture, which is very convenient.
With the timer-open feature, the shades can also wake you up from sleep, so you can say goodbye to iPhone alarms that wake you in the middle of a dying dream.
I installed the tubular motor in the den, customized blinds with adjustable blades for dimming, and support for roller shades such as Shangri-La shades.
Smart Door Lock
With smart house interior design, there’s no going back to life after getting rid of the key, and in addition to opening and closing the door, it’s also an essential device for linking up smart scenarios.
When you come home from work, your fingerprint activates the “Home Mode” at the same time: the lights in the living room light up sequentially, the curtains on the balcony open, the TV turns on automatically, and the Home Theater starts to play music, so a sense of coziness comes over you. Smart home interior design improves well-being when you return home.
When you leave your home, click the button on the door lock to activate “Home Away Mode”: turn off all lights, switches, and curtains.
I chose this lock because it supports the iPhone home essential function and can be unlocked with the Apple Watch, making it perfect for sending friends.
The only inconvenience is that it does not support automatic locking when the door is closed, and you must lift the handle.
Great use for a small thing. Very versatile to play with, I mounted it on a sliding kitchen door to enable the kitchen lights to be switched on and off.
I even mounted it on the toilet to enable the lid to open and automatically turn on the restroom ventilation fan.
A highly recommended product that combines a smart socket and universal infrared remote control + gateway, which allows you to learn other infrared-controlled appliances in addition to controlling your air conditioner.
With its own temperature and humidity sensor, it can realize the effect of automatically turning on the air conditioner when the temperature rises to how many degrees.
Smart Control Panel
Suitable for the renovation and owner-occupier parties, I chose the Collective Wisdom panel that doubles as a gateway.
In smart house interior design, what I thought was going to be a chickenshit product happened to become my most frequently used switch. I installed it in the hallway between my living room and bedroom so I could return to my bedroom from the living room before going to bed and turn off the lights with a single click. When I get up in the middle of the night to get something, I can turn the light on again with one click, equivalent to a highly customizable dual-control switch.
Dual color temperature light strip
Light strip creates an atmosphere, but invisible is a very convenient dimming tool in the design of the leading light. SLS dual color temperature light strip, with intelligent light strip driver module, can achieve brightness adjustment step-less color temperature adjustment, in addition to the living room ceiling outlining the whole house to regulate the atmosphere, but also can be used for closet, under the lighting bed.
There are two common scenarios I use:
When watching a movie, raise your wrist and say, “Turn on movie viewing mode.”: the curtains close, the lights dim, and the ribbon color temperature warms.
The under-bed light strip lights up automatically when you get up at night.
You don’t need too many intelligent scenarios
When considering the smart house interior design, I harbored an ideal hope: people come to light up, people go to light out, as you wish, in control.
But after a month, I’ve realized that manual control is more reliable than intelligent control in some scenarios. For example, turning off the lights before going to bed is far easier to press a switch within reach than to shout at Siri.
It would be counterproductive to force a change in your habits to pursue ultimate intelligence.
We recommend starting with your biographical activity lines and habits before designing your smart home.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to intelligence. You can explore the logic of n combinations of sensors to find an optimal innovative solution, and that’s the most fun part of the whole smart home experience.