How Much Does a Smart Home Cost? And Save?

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Gained early experience with automation technology in the private and industrial sector, can turn his living room into a movie theater with one voice command and is the owner of this website. He is happy to share his accumulated experience with every new article.

Detailed Costs for a Smart Home

It is easy to quickly spend a lot of money on Smart Home gadgets. I’m constantly finding new Smart Home devices that I want to try out and I have to constantly pull myself together and think about whether it makes sense.

To avoid spending too much money at once, you should first limit yourself to a specific area of your Smart Home and set a budget.

And to make this easier, the actual costs in a Smart Home are listed here in detail.

I limit myself in every area to our favorites among all devices. Of course, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of products for the individual Smart Home areas, but the ones presented here have proven themselves, perform excellently in all tests and are among the most popular Smart Home products ever.

Smart Home Voice Assistants

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AMAZON*

With a voice assistant, you can control your entire Smart Home with voice commands. Of course you can also use your smartphone.

Due to the high compatibility to all other Smart Home products, our favorite is clearly Amazon Alexa.

Since the first Alexa device was launched in November 2014, Amazon has made big steps and changes to its voice assistant. With Alexa you can not only control your Smart Home products by voice command, you can also shop at Amazon, ask about the weather or have your favorite recipe dictated to you.

The big competitor to Amazon Alexa is of course Google Home. Since Google Home has only existed since the end of 2017, however, compatibility is far from as advanced as with Alexa.

However, this will probably only be a matter of time and we can expect many new Smart Home products in the future that are also compatible with Google Home. At the moment I can only advise you to use an Alexa system, because you are more free in your product selection.

Smart Lighting

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AMAZON*

I don’t think there is any other Smart Home sector where there are so many possibilities and so many products as there are lighting systems.

Before you replace your lamps with smart lamps at home, be sure to know where you need smart bulbs and what functions they should have.

In addition, there are basically two different ways in which you can make your lamps smart:

With smart light bulbs: With smart light bulbs you can control each individual bulb. With our favourite, the Philips Hue System, you can give individual bulbs names and thus operate several lamps connected to the same socket in different ways. This can make a lot of sense, especially with reading lamps or television lighting.
With smart light switches: For the light on the ceiling, which is usually controlled by a light switch, you can also replace the light switch with a smart light switch. This essentially gives you two big advantages. First, you don’t have to replace your existing lamp with an expensive new one and you will be more flexible in the future if you want to get a new one. The light switch remains in place one way or the other.

Smart Security Cameras

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AMAZON*

There are a lot of smart security cameras on the market. Before buying a camera, many questions have to be answered to find the right camera for your situation.

It should definitely be compatible with your existing Smart Home system, have no monthly data storage costs, produce as little false alarms as possible, and be expandable in the long run.

You also need to know whether it will be placed outside or inside the house.

This article tells you what to look out for when buying a smart security camera. If you are looking for a camera for very cold weather, look here.

In general I can advise against too cheap devices. They either do not deliver good HD images or only produce false alarms. A smart motion sensor that can distinguish between falling leaves and a stranger is already a significant difference in quality.

When I get a push message on my smartphone from my security camera, I want it to be an interesting event.

Smart Home Thermostat

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AMAZON*

With a smart thermostat, you don’t have to constantly adjust and monitor your heating. You can also control it from your smartphone or voice command, see if the heater is on from anywhere, and operate it remotely.

My choice fell on one of the most popular Smart Home thermostats, the Nest self-learning thermostat*.

With the Nest thermostat you get a self-learning device, which analyzes your heating behavior over 1 to 2 weeks and learns from it. After this short time you won’t have to adjust it anymore and the thermostat will always set the heating exactly as you want it to be.

Of course you can also change the temperature manually. Through this smart behaviour you can save a lot of heating costs.

The display also shows you directly whether a change leads to an energy saving or not. In this way, you can optimize its behavior and that of the thermostat for energy efficiency.

Smart Door Locks

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A smart door lock can be unlocked and locked by smartphone. You can also create schedules and lock the door automatically, e.g. in the evening.

Such a door lock must of course be absolutely secure. If it was hackable, you couldn’t sell it.

Our favourite, the Schlage Smart Lock* works with Alexa.

With this door lock for the front door you can also create individual access profiles. For example, you can only grant access to your housemaid at certain times.

Smart Home Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

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AMAZON*

Our favourite, the Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm*, is not an urgent item for most households. Only when you want to replace a defective smoke detector can you think about a smart sensor.

Such devices send the smoke or carbon monoxide alarm directly to your smartphone.

Of course, it also gives an audio signal in the room. Apart from the carbon monoxide warning system, however, I find the all-clear function most practical from a distance.

A smart smoke detector can be deactivated by voice command or smartphone and you don’t have to climb up a ladder to press a button in the event of a nerve-racking alarm. Plus, a smart smoke detector doesn’t start beeping when its battery runs low, it just sends a reminder to your smartphone.

Garage Door Opener

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Of course, remote controls have been available for garage doors for a long time. But there are now also Smart Home devices that take this feature a little further.

With a smart garage door opener, you can open and close your garage from anywhere with your smartphone.

For example, if your gardener needs access to the garden but you are at work, you can open the garage from a distance so he can get working.

The most ingenious thing about a smart garage opener, however, is that it supports geofencing. Geofencing allows the garage door opener to access the location of your smartphone and open the garage as soon as you’re within range.

That way I don’t have to get out of the car and just wait until the gate is open to drive into my garage when I get home. I then close the gate via my smartphone on the way into the house.

Our favorite is the MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener Chamberlain*.

Smart Robot Vacuum

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Smart robot vacuums can greatly simplify your everyday life. They clean your home when you’re not home.

Here the word “home automation” comes to life.

The only thing you have to do with such a robot is to give it a schedule and empty its dust container after a certain time. That’s all.

There are now many robot vacuums on the market and their quality is very different. The two most important quality features of a good robot vacuum are the suction power and the navigation.

If the suction power is too low, too much dirt remains at the end of the cleaning process. If his programming, i.e. his navigation, is less good, he takes far too long for the cleaning process and is constantly lost or stuck.

Especially in the navigation you can see big differences between the models and especially in the price.

Cheaper models usually rely on the random principle. They orient themselves only with their sensors and hit each time they meet an obstacle a random, different direction.

This means that the cleaning process takes considerably longer than with a smart navigation protocol. There are also robots with a navigation system that create systematically structured plans of the room.

The robot travels through the room once completely and generates a map from it, which it then systematically travels through the following cleaning cycles. Naturally, this is much faster and more effective than random movements.

Entertainment Automation

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Just recently I integrated my whole entertainment system including my home theater system into my Smart Home. After a long research I decided for the Logitech Harmony Hub*.

A detailed review can be found here.

With the Harmony Hub, you can control all your devices that belong to your entertainment system with just one device. This means that you only need a remote control or your smartphone to operate everything.

Since I have this ingenious device, I no longer use any remote control!

You can also save certain activities and connect them to Alexa. I have programmed my own cinema command that automatically dims the lights in my living room and turns on my TV including all peripherals.

Before that I needed three to four remote controls and some time. This is a prime example of how you can increase your comfort with the right Smart Home product.

Why Invest in a Smart Home?

The biggest argument for investing in a Smart Home is the money it saves you.

First of all you save a lot of money if you do it yourself and don’t hire a company. Nowadays this is also quite simple, there is a lot of information about the topic Smart Home on the internet (e.g. this website!).

Secondly, you save a lot of running costs with the energy efficiency of your Smart Home. The individual Smart Home products pay for themselves very quickly.

Here are many more reasons why a Smart Home makes sense for you.

Heating & Cooling

An example of Smart Home products that save a lot of money is smart heating with smart thermostats.

You have the feeling that it is always nice and warm and that it should cost more money than before, but it doesn’t. The smart heating only heats when you need it and when you are at home or in the room. You save heating costs without losing comfort.

A smart thermostat, is also useful for a second house or a holiday home, so that you do not have to constantly check whether the heating is still running so that the pipes do not freeze and mould does not form.

Smart Home Security

Another reason for a modern Smart Home is the easy surveillance with smart camera systems that alert you when they see something suspicious or recognize a stranger (there are now cameras with face and person recognition!).

So if you want to go on holiday with a clear conscience, or want to be notified when your children come home, such security cameras are very useful.

In addition to such smart security cameras, there are also doorbells with a built-in camera with which you can see directly on your smartphone who is standing in front of your door. Most smart doorbells can also be used as an intercom so you can speak directly to the person in front of the door. And not just when you’re home, but from all over the world.

So if you’re at work and can’t accept a delivery, you can personally tell the carrier where to put the package.

There are also smart locks for the door, which open automatically when they notice you’re coming.

Another safety aspect is an automatic lighting system. You can automate smart lamps to fake your presence even when you’re not at home. That’s how burglars don’t get stupid ideas in the first place.

Smart Lighting Systems

The first thing I did after getting my first Amazon Echo with Alexa was to buy a smart lighting system.

I chose Philips Hue back then and am still very happy with it.

I can now not only turn my lamps on and off by voice command, I also have a schedule so the lamps don’t burn all night long.

Everyone who has children will recognize this advantage immediately…

I have also set some lamps so that they automatically go out after a certain time after they have been switched on. By such measures you can save a lot of money and have at the same time a modern LED lamp which is not only energy efficient but also extremely long lasting.

Increased Comfort

In addition to energy efficiency, increasing comfort is the greatest benefit of a Smart Home. So you can not only save money but also a lot of time and nerves.

The number of Smart Home products and their functionalities and features is constantly increasing. A smart, networked home is the future.

For me it still borders a bit on science fiction when I interact with my Smart Home.

Just recently I integrated my complete home theater system with the Harmony Hub into my Smart Home. I can now start my favorite series with a single voice command or a push of a button on my smartphone, automatically turning on the sound system and dimming the lights to cinematic atmosphere.

Previously this took a few minutes and required the use of several remote controls.

Another ingenious gadget to increase your comfort at home is a smart garage door opener. Such a device can control the garage door via your smartphone or by geofencing.

Geofencing allows the automatic garage door opener to access the location of your smartphone. The garage will open automatically when you get home.

Where do I start? What is most important at the beginning?

This question cannot be answered in general, as it depends on what you want to get from your Smart Home.

If you’re just looking for cool gadgets and you’re interested in the topic in general, it doesn’t matter where you start. But if you have certain functionalities in mind, you should think about what you need and what a bonus would be. Start there what makes the most sense and gives you the most of what you are looking for (saving money, comfort, security, etc.).

My motivation at that time was to save time in my household and thus gain more comfort.

It annoyed me to have to operate every single light switch and the heating always by hand. That’s why I started with my lighting and then automated my heating.

The use of voice commands was also important to me, so I had to choose between Alexa and Google Home. Since I was already quite early in the topic Smart Home on the way, I decided for Alexa, because there were at that time much more compatible products to it.

If you’re fresh, it’s no longer a problem, as most modern Smart Home devices are compatible with all major voice assistants.

How Much Money Can a Smart Home Save?

What if your home was programmed to save money at every opportunity it can get?

This isn’t science fiction anymore. The Smart Home niche combines two very popular themes: Home automation and energy efficiency.

Protecting the environment is now considered an important virtue, even at home. From smart light bulbs that turn off automatically to sockets that completely turn off unused appliances, there is a whole range of Smart Home products that protect the environment through energy efficiency and save you a lot of money at the same time.

There are many Smart Home products that can save you money. We have analysed the data from several manufacturers on the various products and identified the savings potential for each area of home automation.

This makes it easy to calculate when the Smart Home product has paid for itself.

Smart thermostats

Cost: $250

Paid for itself after: 1-1.5 years

A smart thermostat has a very high savings potential. With a saving of 15 to 20% per year on heating and air conditioning costs, a nest thermostat, for example, pays for itself after 1 to 1.5 years.

Since you can not only save money with such a device, but also gain a lot of time and comfort, this is not only an interesting technical gadget, but a real plus for your home.

Smart Motion Detectors

Cost: $40

Paid for itself after: 3-5 months

Smart motion detectors have several advantages over normal motion detectors. They also switch off automatically when they no longer detect movement and also have a light sensor, which means they do only switch the lights on when they are needed.

With such a motion detector you don’t have to switch on every lamp manually anymore and secondly you save a lot of energy costs, because the light is only switched on when you really need it.

Especially those who have children will recognize the great savings potential, as children often tend to leave the light on.

Smart Light Bulbs

Cost: $15

Paid for itself after: 1-2 years

If you replace an old light bulb with a new, smart LED light bulb, the savings potential is likely to be much higher than indicated above. The above figures apply to the replacement of an existing LED light bulb with a smart LED light bulb.

Smart light bulbs can be programmed. You can set them to go out on their own after a certain time or create schedules in which they should light up.

In addition to this savings potential, there are of course other features. For example, there are light bulbs that can change their color*.

Smart Power Strips

Costs: $80

Paid for itself after: 2-3 months

A smart power strip can switch each of its individual sockets on and off independently of each other. This bypasses the power-hungry standby mode of many electronic devices.

It is also possible to create schedules according to which the power strip automatically switches off the connected devices.

For example, you can make sure that the TV and its peripherals do not waste power at night in standby mode.

Many smart power strips also offer the feature of power consumption analysis. This makes it possible to see for certain time intervals which electronic devices consume how much power.

In this way, the largest power guzzlers can be identified and their use optimized. Due to the rather manageable price and the high savings potential, a smart power strip pays for itself very quickly.

Popular Smart Home Devices

Amazon Echo – Voice Assistant

Smart speakers have become an indispensable part of a Smart Home. I can’t imagine my Smart Home without Alexa.

A lot has happened since the first version of the Echo was released in 2014. In addition to the classic Echo, there are now other products such as the Echo Dot and the Echo Show.

With an Echo, you can use the Alexa voice assistant not only to control your Smart Home products with a voice command, but also to play music, check the news or ask about the weather.

A smart speaker is not only a good loudspeaker with which you can also listen to music, but also a smart voice assistant with an artificial intelligence is getting better by the day.

In contrast to the Echo Dot, the normal Echo has a much better sound quality due to its double loudspeaker system. But he can’t keep up with Echo Plus either. The Echo Plus is far superior to other Echo devices when it comes to general sound quality and especially in playing music.

As long as you don’t have extremely high music playback requirements, the Echo Plus will fully satisfy your sound quality needs. But if you’re looking for the perfect smart speaker that gives you superior sound quality and connectivity to Alexa, take a look at Sonos smart speakers. It almost borders on magic how such a small device can fill an entire room with fantastic sounding music.

Philips Hue – Smart lighting

The first thing I have installed in my Smart Home is smart lighting. Paired with an Amazon echo, I can address every single light bulb from Philips Hue via voice command.

And not only that, you can also program schedules or automatic shutdown times to save a lot of energy costs.

Philips Hue stands out among the smart light bulbs. The complete system, which now consists of an abundance of light bulbs and lamps, is very polished and user-friendly.

It is also compatible with most Smart Home systems such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and IFTTT. If you are just beginning to equip your Smart Home, you should take a look at the Philips Hue Starter Kit. It’s a must-have for anyone who wants to build a smart lighting system.

The LED bulbs that are included in the set are already very good LED bulbs on their own. They emit 800 lumens of light at full brightness (dimmable), making them comparable to a standard 60 watt light bulb.

And they only draw about 9.5 watts. So they are not only much more economical than old light bulbs, they are also smart. The LED bulb can be dimmed very continuously. A spectrum from 7 to 800 lumens can be continuously controlled.

And because it is a smart light bulb, you don’t dim it with a switch, but either with the corresponding app or with a voice assistant like Alexa.

There is also an extra remote control from Philips Hue if you want to control your lamps with your own remote control.

Because the Philips Hue system is compatible with IFTTT, you can also turn on, turn off, or dim individual bulbs at specific events. For example, I have a “cinema” voice command that turns on my entertainment system and the light bulbs automatically dim to a cozy cinema atmosphere.

Nest Self-Learning Thermostat

The Nest self-learning thermostat analyzes your heating behavior and takes over the controls of your heating after a short training phase.

With its built-in sensors, it tracks your location and then calculates the optimal setting for your heating to increase your comfort and then reduce energy costs. This is a process that is constantly being optimized, as the thermostat is learning constantly.

The design of the thermostat is very elegant and simple. In the middle there is a big display with high resolution on which you can see the current temperature and further information.

The housing has a wheel on the outside with which the temperature can be adjusted manually. If you change the temperature manually in this way, the thermostat will notice and remember it.

The older models of this thermostat had only a built-in near field sensor. The latest generation also has a sensor that can look further into the room.

The sensor can also detect your presence in a large room from a distance. It also shows the display as soon as it detects your presence. In addition to the temperature, the time is also indicated and can be easily read from a greater distance thanks to the large display.

The Learning Thermostat can now also be extended with Nest temperature sensors. They measure the ambient temperature in other rooms. Up to 6 of these sensors can be connected to a thermostat.

This considerably expands the functions of the thermostat. The thermostat can thus control all rooms individually and save even more than before. It is also possible to program individual schedules for individual rooms.

For example, you could warm up the bathroom for the half hour you need in the morning before work and then automatically lower it again. This gives you more comfort and saves time and money at the same time.

Logitech Harmony Hub – Smart Home Entertainment

I had been planning to integrate my entertainment system into my Smart Home for quite some time. After a lot of research, I chose the Logitech Harmony Hub. A detailed review can be found here.

With the Harmony Hub you can control all your electrical devices that are part of your entertainment system, TV, sound system, amplifier, etc. with one remote control or only with your smartphone or with a voice assistant like Alexa.

Where you used to need three to five remotes, now you only need one voice command or your smartphone.

The integration of your devices is quite simple. WLAN-enabled devices in particular are integrated into the system at the touch of a button. Once all your devices, including your TV, are connected, you can control everything from your smartphone or the harmony remote.

You can also program individual activities so that you can start your favourite series at the touch of a button, even though you haven’t switched anything on before.

It’s a great feeling when you come into your living room and just have to say “Alexa, start Game of Thrones”.

The other advantage of the Harmony Hub is that you can leave all devices hidden in the cabinet. With the separately available infrared sensor, your smartphone or remote only needs visible contact with this sensor to control all other devices. So you can keep your entertainment systems and your living room slim and elegant and hide big cable mountains in the background.

Netgear Arlo Q – Smart Security Camera

The Arlo Q indoor security camera can be set up almost anywhere. It has excellent night vision, is very easy to use through its app, has a very unobtrusive yet elegant design, can be used as an intercom and makes excellent HD videos.

One of the best features, however, is its person recognition. This way it avoids false alarms and only notifies you when she detects a person.

The security camera also has the geofencing feature, which allows the security camera to access the location of your smartphone and automatically turns itself on and off when you come home or leave.

Many other security cameras require a high degree of time to operate them and check all alarms. By the person recognition and the Geofencing, you save a lot of time, because it switches itself on and off independently and gives only alarms, if actually a stranger is in your house.

So the security camera is a real Smart Home camera that automatically monitors your home without you having to invest a lot of time.

Of course, you can also run the security camera with an individual schedule and only turn it on at certain times.

With the app you can of course look into your home from anywhere in the world at any time. So you can go on holiday every time with a clear conscience and either rely on the smart notifications or take a look and see for yourself if everything is ok from time to time.

This security camera is also very practical for pet owners who leave their pets at home during work. You can watch and even correct the behaviour of your pets with the intercom if they are doing something forbidden 😉

Bottom Line

Home automation is picking up speed more and more. There are a lot of Smart Home products on the market, which are not only a technical gimmick, but can also save a lot of time and money.

Even if a Smart Home is sometimes a rather high investment, most products pay for themselves after a while. Many products pay for themselves after only a few months!

As you have seen in this article, a Smart Home does not necessarily have to be expensive. As long as you limit yourself at the beginning to what you really need and where you can also save money, your investment will be worthwhile.

Always make sure that the products are compatible with each other.

Through this article you should now have a rough idea of what a Smart Home costs and which products make it easier for you to get started.

If you haven’t found what you’re looking for in this article, have a look at the appropriate category on this page where you can find articles about the best Smart Home products currently available on the market.

Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
Disclosure: This website is the property of Martin Lütkemeyer and is operated by Martin Lütkemeyer. Martin Lütkemeyer is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to enable Web sites to earn advertising revenue through advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Links marked with * are affiliate links.