'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
5 things I learned while building my smart home
Dr. Frankenstein would be proud of my smart home. Like the not-so-good doctor, I built this surprisingly capable, if occasionally awkward creature myself, using parts I collected from here and there.
Our smart home has a bunch of lighting hardware as well as a connector to our smart thermostat and our smart TVs (one Samsung, one Roku).
Also: Smart home starter pack: 5 devices that will make your life easier
I didn't have a plan when I started this project. Instead, I've made everything up along the way. And during that adventure, I learned a few lessons.
1. Lighting is the killer app
With conventional lighting fixtures, it's nearly impossible to set a mood properly. Lamps with a single bulb at a single fixed wattage offer one level of illumination, take it or leave it. Three-way bulbs and dimmers allow slightly better control over the lighting in a space, but it's still challenging to get things just right.
This is where smart lighting, uh, shines. Add smart bulbs to any fixture and you have nearly infinite control over the intensity of that light, and even (with the right bulbs) over its color and warmth. For fixtures where smart bulbs aren't appropriate, a smart switch capable of connecting to the network via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth adds the same capabilities.
Our mishmash of smart lighting hardware includes a dozen Philips Hue bulbs and two Hue lightstrips, smart Wi-Fi switches from Kasa and Lutron, a custom illuminated mirror in the main bathroom, and one oddball Govee lamp in a corner of my office.
It took four separate apps to set up and configure that motley crew, but once the initial configuration was out of the way, we were able to control everything with the Google Home app or by using voice commands to talk to the Google Assistant. With the help of Google Home automations, we've even created custom lighting schemes for dining, watching TV, and bedtime. Thanks to presence detection, the lights are smart enough to turn off when everyone has left the house and turn back on automatically when someone returns.
2. Physical switches are still a must
It's absolutely delightful to be able to turn a light off or set a precise dimming level with a simple voice command or a tap on a smartphone app. But what happens when your internet connection is interrupted? That's when physical switches that work over local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections are essential. The Google Assistant (or Alexa or Siri) might be unreachable, but as long as there's power, you can still get up and hit the switches just like in the old days.
Also: How I made my home smart on a budget (and how you can, too)
Our Kasa and Lutron switches still work even when the only network is local, as does any bulb or lightstrip connected to the Hue hub. Thankfully, internet outages are rare in our neighborhood, but you'll still want to make sure you have a backup plan for lighting when the network is down.
3. Smart locks and security systems are an expensive luxury
After we signed the papers to buy our current home, I briefly considered replacing the electronic front door lock with a smart version that could open with the help of a smartphone app. And then I asked myself, "Why do you want to do this?"
Also: The best smart locks for a secure home
I didn't have a good answer to that question, which is why we still have that same not-smart Kwikset lock on the front door. You can open the door by using a key or by entering one of three numeric codes I've programmed in (I can easily change any of those codes if I think it's been compromised). It locks itself automatically after 30 seconds, so I never have to get up in the middle of the night because I'm afraid I left it unlocked. I change the batteries and the "random visitor" code every year, and I honestly can't see a reason to replace that middlebrow tech with something that's controlled by an app. One smart security-related addition I will probably incorporate soon is a smart doorbell with camera.
4. Smart hubs are still an emerging standard
If I were building a custom home from the foundation up, I would totally spec it out so that everything was controlled by a single smart hub running a modern protocol.
Our electrician waxed rhapsodic about his Lutron-based system, but it would have cost thousands of dollars to emulate that environment in our apartment, and I still would have had to integrate Hue bulbs into the system for use in table lamps. I also looked at Samsung's SmartThings, but at the time it didn't support the hardware we had already invested in.
Also: The 4 best smart hubs: Get smart about home control
Matter? This emerging industry standard sounds great and is supported by every smart home heavyweight (including Apple, Google, and Amazon), but devices that work with the standard are just beginning to hit the market.
Maybe in a few years, I'll be able to migrate our existing infrastructure to a Matter-compatible system (Samsung's new SmartThings Station, which is ZDNET's pick for best smart home device overall, looks promising), but for now, I'm content to watch and wait.
5. Choosing a smart assistant is crucial
"Welcome to your smart home. Will you be using Apple, Google, or Amazon?"
That should be in the welcome packet when you move to a new home. If you already have a significant investment in Apple HomeKit devices or Alexa-enabled hardware from Amazon, then your path forward is already set. For us, the choice was easy. We have Google Nest hubs in every room, and every smart home app is able to tie into that infrastructure.
Also: The best home automation systems
Smart home technology still requires a fair amount of tinkering and manual setup, but once you get past those steps, it's relatively easy to use and expand. Maybe, just maybe, the widespread adoption of new standards like Matter will mean you don't have to be a mad scientist to make all this stuff work.