When you first start thinking about home automation, it can be a little overwhelming. Where to start, what to buy, what will make sense for your lifestyle and living arrangements.

Smart home automation is one of those things that you know is going to be life changing – the whole concept is to make your life easier. And to make it easier for you to work out where to start, we’ve put together a little starter guide.

The five categories of Home Automation

When you first start to plan your home automation system, you should think about which areas of your home are of more importance to you e.g. are you looking to save energy costs or are you looking for a better movie watching experience?

To start, think of home automation in five basic categories:

• * Energy – help optimise energy usage and minimise waste, therefore reducing your home’s running costs.

• * Entertainment – anything that enriches and enhances your home entertainment experience like a home cinema, internet streaming services or multi-room music.

• * Environment – gives the freedom to control everything in your home such as, lighting, security, temperature.

• * Enrichment – the systems that enrich your life. Whether from the convenience of automation or knowing the kids are home safe from school, when you’re still at work.

• * Efficiency – the simple controls and automation take care of everyday tasks, so you can focus more time on what matters.

So, once you’ve worked out where you’d like to start adding home automation, where do you go from there?

Start simple

It can be quite overwhelming when you first start looking. There are so many things which can be added and managed through a home automation system, from a light bulb to a doggy door, it’s easy to lose sight of where to start.

The best thing to do is to start simple. Think what you’ll be comfortable using straight away and what your family will easily get the hang of. Many people start with lights as they find this the easiest thing to get comfortable with. Then, once everyone has the hang of that, look around to find the next thing to add to the home automation system.

See and scope for the bigger picture

Choose a system based on your budget right now and your plans for the future. You need to make sure it’s affordable now but will also allow you to add everything you want to it the further down the track you go. You don’t want to have to start all over again every time you need to add something.

Ensure compatibility

As with anything, the home automation industry is constantly evolving. This can make it difficult if you are slowly building your home automation system over time. As long as you know a few simple basics about each device you buy, you can work out whether they are compatible. Whenever you look at a new product, check for backwards compatibility with anything that that vendor has produced before.