The Smart Home Manual by Marlon Buchanan

Val Penny ♦ January 28, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

What a treat it is to be included in the tour for the The Smart Home Manual: How to Automate Your Home to Keep Your Family Entertained, Comfortable, and Safe by Marlon Buchanan @HomeTechHacker run by the fine team at @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours Follow the tour across their social media channels.

The Blurb

When you are done reading The Smart Home Manual you’ll know:

• What a smart home is and what it can do for you
• How much smart homes cost
• How to start building your smart home from scratch
• How to pick the right smart home devices
• How to plan for the future of the smart home
• How to secure your smart home

After reading this book, you’ll be equipped with all the tools and information you need to plan, design, and implement the smart home you’ve always wanted.

The Extract

Know Your Budget and Time Availability

Building a smart home can take a little time or a lot of time, depending on what you want to accomplish. It can also cost a little money or a lot of money. You should know how much time and money you plan to spend on your smart home. These commitments will help determine what you can reasonably expect from your smart home–building efforts.

I wrote earlier about the costs of a smart home. To summarize,

• bare-bones smart home costs from $80 to $260;
• cost of expanding your smart home adds between $370 and $950;
• full smart home build adds costs from $520 to $2,100; and
• adding luxury smart home items depends on how much you want to spend.

All in, a full buildout of a smart home from scratch will probably cost you from around $1,000 to $3,500. You can get by with spending less, and you can certainly spend more. Most people will be very happy with anything built in the $1,000–$3,500 price range. Remember, you don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) buy it all at once. That’s the cost over time as you accumulate devices. You should decide how much you have to spend before you get started.

It’s important to consider the costs before diving in and to remember the cost of your personal time. Luckily, you don’t have to break the bank to get started, and you can gradually add items over time (which is a good thing, since it takes time to configure each device). A smart home will be a labor of love. Deciding whether it’s worth the cost of equipment is easy. Deciding whether it’s worth your time and effort takes more thought.

The Author

Marlon Buchanan has worked in the IT field for over twenty-five years as a software developer, a college instructor, and an IT Director. In his free time, he can be found researching new smart home projects, playing sports with his children, and writing articles for his blog, HomeTechHacker.com. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and master’s degrees in software engineering and business administration.

Buy Link – https://amzn.to/3n2KBy7