The smartphone as a remote control for your home

The concept smart home is on the rise worldwide, and therefore also in the Netherlands. Houses are being made 'smart' everywhere in the world at record speed: devices are connected to the internet and can communicate with each other. Sound like music to the future? With your smartphone you can now own one smart home to create.

The basic principles

The concept of smart home is still a bit vague for many Dutch people. Many people still expect that major (building-technical) adjustments are needed in your house. But today, every house can be made smart. And that means: turning on the heating on the way home, making the atmosphere romantic at the touch of a button or securing your home when you're not there. For that you do not have to buy a wide range of new devices or lamps, contrary to what many people think. Every house can be transformed into a smart home that you can operate from the comfort of your home, as long as you have a smartphone with internet and an NFC chip.

NFC? Near Field Communication, something like Bluetooth, which allows you to communicate securely with your smart home. Most phones can communicate with NFC chips, whether that's one Samsung smartphone with Android or an iPhone with iOS.

Turn on NFC in no time

Does your phone have NFC? Just check it immediately. Go to your settings, choose Wireless and networks, select NFC and check. Smart home devices communicate with NFC and there are also so-called NFC tags. That is a super small chip in a plastic disc, which costs € 0.25 on average. You can do very nice things with that, but first: how exactly does a smart home work?

From trigger to automatic

A smart home works according to certain logic. A programmer would say: if this, then that. If it is eight o'clock in the morning, then the coffee will run. If someone walks in the garden, the light comes on. Are you not at home and is there movement in the house? Then the alarm goes off. You set these rules yourself. You start with a 'trigger', such as a movement, a certain temperature or a time. You create these triggers with a motion sensor, a smart thermostat or a security camera. Then you set what needs to be done and what the conditions are. For example, you want the alarm to go off when there is movement and you are not at home yourself.

How do you want to live?

You can already hear it, there are many possibilities for a smart home. For example, you can set an NFC tag to turn off your alarm clock. So you really have to get out of bed to turn off your alarm. Or turn on your smartphone's hotspot with a click, or share your WiFi with guests. Or turn on your PC when you return home. Or let the stew that you had already prepared simmer gently. We give you these examples to show what is possible soon, and that is a lot. That way you can enter exactly how you want to live.

There are two approaches to your smart home:

1. Fully automatic: from trigger to action. The challenge is to automate small things step by step. For example, you do not want your alarm to go on because the cleaning lady is coming.
2. Set it yourself: from click to action. Do you suddenly feel like dancing? Click: disco light and disco music. Children in bed and time for relaxation? Click: mood lighting and TV on. Want to watch a movie during the day? Click: all windows darken. With one click you can switch a certain atmosphere, device or setting on or off.

And of course we have all seen the super smart AIs in the movies that you can talk to and that you fully understand. It is not nearly that far yet. But we are going there. Because you set things up yourself, smart programs can get to know your ways and customs and then anticipate them. That you turn on the heating every Wednesday during the day, for example. Or that you like to play that one play list when you return on Friday. This makes self-setting fully automatic in the long run.

Start with your smart home?

Start small, expand slowly. And you don't have to reinvent the wheel yourself. There are countless providers of smart home solutions that work well together, such as Fibaro (actors and sensors), Somfy (window eclipse), Homies (alarm system), Next (security), Philips Hue (lighting), Sonos (speakers) and Woox (smart plugs) ). A practical umbrella solution is offered by KPN: SmartLife, a KPN product that you can easily combine with an internet subscription. You get an extra box for your modem and a SmartLife app (for iOS and Android). KPN itself offers a starter package (€ 99) with sensors and smart plugs to start, but SmartLife also works with various commonly used brands. In this way you can connect the many other devices available in the smart home market, let them work together and operate from one app. This way your smartphone really becomes the remote control of your house.

This article is a collaboration between Bloeise and KPN