3 Home Automation Trends to Look Out for in 2020
What Will Smart Technology Look Like in the New Decade?
It’s hard to believe that soon, the 2010s will be over, and we’ll be entering a new age of the 2020s. In the past ten years, we’ve seen the rapid expansion of smart home technology from the likes of Control4 with smart lighting, security, thermostats, and more. Just because the year will be 2020 doesn’t mean we’ll suddenly travel in electric flying cars. But there are new trends on the horizon that will be here before we know it.
If you own or are thinking of purchasing a home automation system for your Dallas, TX house, continue reading to see where the technology is heading. We always build our systems to be future proof, meaning it’s easy to add new devices and upgrade.
SEE ALSO: Advance Your Home’s Security with Smart Lighting Control
Trend #1: Smart Kitchens & Bathrooms
We talk lots about smart features in home theaters, living rooms, and even outdoors. But the kitchen and bathroom often get left out of conversations about smart homes. However, more smart kitchen appliances are arriving on the market, including scales connected to recipe apps, smart fridges, and crockpots. More voice-enabled kitchen appliances will make cooking easier for those already with their hands full or learning to cook.
In the bathroom, we may start to see things like heated toilets, smart showers, and voice-activated mirrors. Soon will we use perfect fill tubs? At the very least, it makes sense to bring whole home audio into the bathroom with waterproof speakers, making shower singing sessions even better.
Trend #2: Edge Computing
Internet of Things (IoT) devices have long stored their data on the cloud. However, developers and manufacturers have started to realize the advantage of storing, calculating, and analyzing data closer to where it’s created, rather than sending it far distances to data centers or clouds. With edging computing, data will first transfer to a local device closer to your smart home technology or at the edge of the network. The local storage device can sort, filter, and calculate data and then send all or only a part to the cloud, minimizing traffic to the network. This is known as ‘edge computing’ and helps applications perform faster with less latency. IoT devices will consume less bandwidth and work even when cloud connectivity is affected. We expect more of this technology will spread in the year to come.
Trend #3: Energy Use Management
We predict that soon, it will be easier to oversee and manage your home’s energy use through a smart system. With devices that monitor energy consumption integrated into your network, you’ll receive push-notifications on your smartphone when energy thresholds exceed. You’ll be able to instantly monitor how much electricity has been used and manage indoor temperatures, control sprinklers, etc. Reducing energy costs will go beyond the current ability to schedule lights and thermostats; you’ll have data (hopefully soon) at your fingertips.
Will we be right about our predictions? I guess we’ll have to check in next year and see! In the meantime, if you’re interested in a home automation system in Dallas, TX, contact The Integrated Lifestyles, Inc. here.
