The central and starting point of any home that wants to consider itself “smart” is a voice assistant like Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple’s Siri. Here you will learn everything you need to know to create a smart home with the invaluable help of Amazon Alexa, since it is one of the most complete and versatile voice assistants that exist today. If you want to learn how to make your home and your life much more functional, below, we give you all the keys to achieve it.
To make a home smart, it is best to have a virtual assistant, which centralizes the rest of the devices that you can connect and incorporate into your connected circuit. More comfort at home, a more productive life and, ultimately, much more comfort and even security, is what you will get by having your smart home working with Alexa.
Why use Alexa for a smart home?
The best thing about Alexa is how easy it is to use and configure. You can turn on the lights, control the temperature or play the music you want, simply with your voice. In addition, it is compatible with many different devices. Currently Amazon has a large number of models with integrated Alexa, such as the Amazon Echo, which are the ones with the best quality-price ratio, since the speaker itself has very good features, even for listening to music. There are some router manufacturers such as ASUS or NETGEAR, which have also launched routers or repeaters with Alexa incorporated as a speaker. This is perfect for extending our wireless network, while providing us with all the advantages of the voice assistant.
For all this, it is a flexible and versatile solution to start designing your Smart Home in the best way. In addition, thanks to all the Skills developers for this voice assistant, we will have at our disposal a large amount of additional software to control different devices in detail. Today, the vast majority of home automation devices are compatible with Amazon Alexa, and it is clearly the most used of all the assistants.
How to create a smart home with Alexa
You don’t have to be a technology expert, just buy the devices, connect them to the Alexa app, and you can start giving voice commands for your home automation devices to perform certain actions.
Choose the right devices
The first step is to have devices compatible with Alexa. Some of the most common are smart light bulbs, plugs, security cameras, and thermostats. If you want to control everything with your voice, I recommend starting with basic products like light bulbs and plugs. The good thing is that most home automation products work with Alexa, so it is perfect for integrating everything into the same ecosystem.
It is very important that you pay attention to whether the different products incorporate the Amazon Alexa logo. If they do, it means that they are perfectly compatible and you will be able to use them without problems. If they do not have this logo on the box, it is possible that they are compatible, but with a firmware update, in these cases, you will have to investigate carefully whether the device in question is really compatible or not.
Set up your voice assistant
Once you have the devices, you have to configure Alexa to control them. If you don’t have an Echo device (like the Echo Dot), it’s time to get one. This smart speaker is the control center for all the devices you want to add to your network. You just need to download the Alexa app on your mobile, follow the installation steps and connect your Echo to your home WiFi network.
It is very important that you have a wireless network at home with good coverage, a high speed is not necessary to make the device work, because it does not consume too much bandwidth, but it is very important that it has good coverage and low connection latency .
Automate tasks with routines
One of the great benefits of Alexa is that it can automate everyday tasks. You can create “routines” that activate several actions at the same time with one command. For example, you can set up a “Good morning” routine so that when you say that phrase, the lights turn on, the blinds go up, and your favorite music plays. This not only improves the convenience of your daily life, but also saves you time and energy.
Although a home automation system like Home Assistant is much more advanced in terms of automation, Alexa is also very useful, but above all, very easy to configure certain routines. In the event that the available options are not enough, you can always set up a system with Home Assistant and later connect Alexa to this home automation system, to integrate it perfectly into the home ecosystem.
Safety at home
If you are worried about the security of your home, Alexa can help you too. With surveillance cameras and connected sensors, you can monitor your home from anywhere. Alexa will notify you if there’s suspicious activity, and if you have smart locks, you can even lock or unlock your doors with a simple voice command. Depending on the models you buy, we will have more or less options, for this reason, it is essential to first see a product analysis where the integration with Alexa is tested.
If you have an Amazon device with a screen, there are IP cameras that are perfectly compatible and we can see everything they are recording in real time. This is perfect for setting up a home surveillance system, with everything integrated into the voice assistant.
Energy control and savings
Another advantage of using Alexa is energy savings. By connecting your devices to smart plugs, you can turn any appliance on or off remotely, or even create routines so that certain appliances turn off automatically when you don’t need them. This not only improves the efficiency of your home, but also helps reduce your electric bill.
The same thing happens with smart thermostats for heating, you can turn these devices on and off at any time, and all of this in an automated way.
Additional Tips
There are other very important tips that we are going to give you, in case you are going to make the leap to the smart home:
- Use quality devices: although you can find very cheap gadgets, it is better to choose products from well-known brands that offer good integration with Alexa.
- Keep everything up to date: Make sure both the Alexa app and your devices have updated software so you don’t run into compatibility issues.
- Prioritize security: If you are integrating security devices, such as cameras or locks, set up two-step authentication and make sure you have a good password.
As you can see, making your home smart with Alexa is a worthwhile investment, not only for the convenience, but also for the time and energy savings it gives you. With these tips, you can start enjoying an automated home that perfectly suits your needs, even if you are not a technology expert.
