The Smart Home Will Happen

The question is, will it have smart occupants?

- Colin Cullis

The last thing you want when on holiday is a call from a security company about an incident at home. Even with no call, there’s still the nagging feeling that something could go wrong.

Could technology take care of that or might it have the opposite effect? Let’s consider the pros and cons of the smart home. There are two reasons you might need it, and you could be surprised – despite what you initially think, keeping your home secure is a secondary requirement.

For all the times you have had to contend with a real home-security situation, count the number of times it was a false alarm or a mistake. In their alarm stats for South Africa, Fidelity, the South African home-security organisation that took over ADT in November last year, said 94 to 99 per cent of alarm activations were false alarms.

If you were to count your ten most recent alarm activations, would they also feature as many false alarms? So what then is the main reason for having an alarm? Peace of mind, but that only works if the false alarms don’t irritate you and your alarm company. To do that your security needs to be easy to use and to offer you good coverage and convenience.

Convenience in the past was hard. Alarms used to be wired systems that required doors and windows to be closed for the system to be active. The next step offered passive beams to monitor areas and be active outside while you were inside, and activated in parts of the home when you went to bed.

You also probably forgot to set it or deactivate it sometimes, and woke with concern at it being on, or have crept out for a midnight snack, only to wake the household with an ear-splitting alarm. Once children are old enough you also need to consider their movements and how often they could trigger it, or forget to re-arm it when back home.