There's no denying the benefits of planning a smart home from scratch, with each part of your home tailored to your preferences. But even if you don't plan it out while building, there are plenty of opportunities to get "smart" with retrofit solutions!
With retrofit smart home automation, you have several options to upgrade your home, including ones that don't require opening up your walls. That said, if you're thinking of remodeling, renovating, or adding to your home, you have a prime chance to add integrated smart home tech!
What does this look like? We'll show you!
Lighting
A massive benefit of any smart home is automating your lights! While you could always add only smart bulbs, you'd miss out on the full benefits of what smart lighting can do, like setting scenes or adding motion sensors. With retrofit lighting, especially during a remodel, you can add intelligence to your existing lighting system.
This means working with occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, dimming controls, and splitting your lighting network. Ultimately, you'll have a sleek panel to control your lights and additional control through a centralized app! Once we set everything up for you, you can create seasonal schedules, create morning or evening "scenes" to adjust your lights and use voice commands automatically!
Pro Tip: If you want the full benefits of smart lighting control, contact our team as soon as you start planning your remodel to review your options!
Smart Blinds
Automating your window treatments is a must for any home, but it's beneficial for homes with several windows. Thankfully, there are several retrofit options, including battery-powered, DC power adaptor, and solar-powered!
- Battery-Powered Smart Blinds feature easily concealed battery packs and are the simplest to install, but the batteries require replacing.
- DC Power Adaptor Smart Blinds need an electrical outlet close to the window to operate, so there are more wires to contend with (but our experts will conceal them to the best of our ability!).
- Solar-Powered Smart Blinds need lots of sun exposure to work properly (ideal for sunny climates!). We'll assess your windows to see if this option is viable!
If you're doing a remodel anyway, you'll have the chance to hardwire your smart blinds, which lets you customize the light and privacy levels without worrying about batteries or concealing more wires. Hardwired smart blinds will bring you more scheduling and scene options, so if you need to help get your teen up for school, you can set it so that the blinds open and the lights come on during their "wake-up" time!
Pro Tip: The sooner you involve our team, the more options you'll have!
Thermostat
One of the best smart home technologies to benefit your home is including a smart thermostat. These use predictive algorithms, occupancy sensors, weather data, and other information, so you save on your monthly utility bill and always stay comfortable! And with the centralized app, you can set up "Away" and "Vacation Settings" so you never waste more energy!
To retrofit smart thermostats, these can be installed using existing common wires, an adaptor for older homes, or with batter-operated options. However, your home must be already set up for central heating and air; otherwise, you won't get the most out of your smart thermostat.
Pro Tip: Don't forget to talk to our team about adding smart smoke and CO2 detectors to keep your home environment safe!
Smart Locks
Locking your front door should be simple, but dealing with many keys can be stressful, especially when you lose them. But adding smart door locks streamlines it so you can lock and unlock using a code, an app, or geofence triggers!
Some retrofit smart locks let you keep the deadbolt you have, where it clamps in place over the existing hardware, which is all good. And how the smart lock connects to your system will depend on if the smart lock is Bluetooth-enabled, Z-wave enabled or has built-in Wi-Fi. Regardless, our team will assess available options and connect everything for you!
Smart Security System
If you already have a wired security system, you might think you don't need to upgrade to a smart security system — but you'd be wrong! A smart security system works with video surveillance, window, and door sensors, glass break sensors, leak sensors, smart video doorbells, smart locks, and more to help monitor and secure your home! This means checking in on things at home from wherever you are, seeing when the kiddos come home, and setting up a geofence perimeter!
Retrofitting your smart security system will require removing your current wired system, which you should always leave to the provider. But once your smart security system is in place, adding more security equipment down the line (like more cameras) is easy!
Pro Tip: Most smart security systems come with a 24/7 monitoring service that will directly contact authorities in an emergency, so you'll have similar protection to your old alarm system!
Smart Remodeling!
There are plenty of ways to achieve the powerful home automation you want - you just need to know who to talk to! *Hint* It’s us! If you’re thinking of planning a remodel, then contact us at Good Sounds as soon as you can. We'll work with your contractor and architect to install the wiring and integrate each smart device into a connected system.
We'll assemble everything under one easy-to-manage app, so you'll be the master of your home! So don't delay — your consultation appointment awaits you!