"Smart Home"? - Patio Villa
 

Just moved into a Patio Villa. When we bought it a year ago it was listed as being a "smart home". I'm not very tech savvy, but I can recognize remotely operated switches, etc, and I don't see anything that looks Smart. What should I look for?

Thanks!

Fans
Shades
Thermostats
Lights
Sprinklers
Doorbell
Door locks
Refrig
TV
Cameras
Garage door

All on a network to control/monitor remotely.

Villages Marketing gimick. Nothing "smart" included.

They add a ceiling box in the living area with a network wire.

Now days you can do most anything via WiFi.

There typicaly is power and a network port above the kitchen cabinets which is a good place to put a wifi Router.

Maybe ask your realtor but that will probably be a dead end

I am certain you can find a neighbor that " looks smart.". Most are willing to help and share their experience in their homes.

If I could control all of those things remotely, why would I ever need to go home?

to sleep?

Same questions - especially thermostat
 

Have been wondering whether the Ecobee thermostat installed by builder in our new (Feb 2023) house is accessible via internet? We got a very quick verbal “tour” of its features, most of which I can’t remember, but no manual to refer to. Would be nice to check on it remotely. Thanks!

Most products today do not come with a user manual. But, you can almost always find and download the manual by Googling the product and model number.

Yes, you can connect the Ecobee to your home Wi-Fi and access it remotely. You can also use your laptop (smart phone or tablet) to program it to change the settings to meet your schedule. It has a motion sensor which allows it to know when you’re home or away (you could program it accordingly). It has an Alexa skill, so you can tell your Alexa device to set the temperature by your voice. It can send alerts to your smart phones when events occur (humidity too high, etc…) I’ve been a fan of Ecobee since their initial release.

Homes from a back few years old have cat5 ethernet wires from wall plates to the irrigation control panel box. Typically blue color wires. In many homes, these are terminated on a thing called a punch block. All lines are connected in parallel. The intention was for wired telephones. To use that for internet, need to rip out the punch block and replace it with properly terminated wires, and (depending on your needs) an internet switch.
Smart? Nope.
Wires where you need them? Not likely.

Not sure if TV building dept ever updated to modern times with that stuff. Should be a flex conduit run to every wall box. Routed all the way to an interface box inside the air conditioned interior. A box on most walls in every room. Then we can pull any wire type needed. Ethernet, coax for CATV, coax for satellite, coax for tv antenna.
Several more in lanai, garage, attic, roof eaves, and exterior walls of house. Above kitchen cabinets too, with an unswitched power outlet nearby.
Speaker wires in living room ceiling for surround sound would be nice.

All of this would be a couple hundred dollars when building the house. Once the walls are up, it costs a lot more.

There’s room for arguing over this, but to my mind, unless you are really friendly and like to interact with neighbors, a Patio Villa with a “kissing lanai” is NOT a “smart” home. I need privacy, and I have it in my Courtyard Villa.

I automate much more than just these things, you can add to the list:
Outdoor Grill, indoor range/stove, refrigerator, streaming audio/video to every room, bathroom fans, motion lights, art lighting, over cabinet lighting, etc..
On top of this, I programmed functions like geofencing, when arriving home, turn on these lights, play music on these speakers in certain rooms for X amount of mins/hours before turning off. The latest thing I have implemented is streaming music to my cars from my home server, no need for Sirius/xm.

As for the “smart home” designation, it’s pretty much a joke. This will give you a few wired connections in a couple of rooms, a WAP port in the living room, no big deal. Home automation comes from how you design your network (wired and wireless), the products you buy, and how you implement them.

When we bought our home we got info from the sale that a company called Galaxy will come into the home and complete the "smart home" offer. Give Galaxy in Wildwood a call for further info. We figured out how to access Ecobee via our phone and that's about as smart as we are.

I control the Ecobee thermostat with an app on my iPhone. Works great!